Perfection vs. Excellence (Business, Career, Life Coaching Series)



Learn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Perfection vs. Excellence (Business, Career, Life Coaching Series) article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

'(Howard) Hughes never learned how to convert his knowledge to practical application. Instead he sought a perfection that assured failure.'
- From Empire: The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes
by Donald L. Bartlett & James B. Steel

How many times have you heard someone (it may have been you) proclaim or complain that he/she is a perfectionist? You may have noticed that going for perfection is a fool's game. You simply cannot win when you set perfection as your standard.

There may be rare and unusual situations where perfection is assumed to be an appropriate standard. Frankly, I can't think of one - no, not even life and death situations such as heart surgery demand perfection in the process. Each stitch does not have to be sewn perfectly in order to affect the outcome. Perfection is present in the ultimate result, as evident in the patient's survival or death, not in the process.

When 'perfection' is the goal it is usually out of an exaggerated desire to be right, to avoid criticism or risk. The focus is on 'how am I doing?' rather than on producing a specific outcome. Excellence, on the other hand, is a way of life. It is the context in which high achievers and peak performers produce and contribute to the quality of life. High achievers and peak performers get things done by taking action looking for appropriate outcomes and measuring their success based on the quantity and quality of their results.

The bad news is that being a human being means we have the abilities and the failings of human beings. We make mistakes. We get tired. We get distracted. We fail to communicate clearly and accurately. When we set perfection as our goal, all of our actions are based on attempts to conquer our natural human limits with little or no intention on the ultimate outcome. The search for perfection limits our ability to act meaningfully.

Acting in accordance with standards of excellence allows us to produce superb results and opens the door to experimentation and creativity.



Royalty Free Coaching Products. - Keep 100% of the profits by selling your own royalty free coaching products!
Organizing Your Youth Soccer Team. - Youth soccer coaching book of over 100 drills, and exercises for beginning and experienced youth soccer coaches.


Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81



More Articles:


1. Performance Management - Getting The Most Out of Your Employees By Megan Tough
Managing for Best PerformanceIn it’s simplest form, performance management is a common sense set of discussions that make sure people are clear about what they need to do, have the support to do it and get open and honest feedback on their performance.Any performance management process should answer 4 important questions for your employees:· Direction: What do I need to do and how well? · Feedback: How am I doing? · Rewards: What happens when I do well? · Support/Development: What happens wh…

2. Managing People for Performance By Graham Yemm
“People improve productivity, not organisations.”Managers who have had any form of training will be familiar with the idea of setting goals or objectives, and probably with the principles of appraising performance. With this in mind, why is it so many managers keep asking about how to motivate their staff or how to get more from them?This whole area is a key differentiator of good managers and is a large part of what managers are being paid for! In this article I want to offer some ideas to …

3. Writing and Revising Your Life Story By David Krueger MD
Change is not simple. Why do we repeat behavior that doesn't work? Those actions that lead to stifling debt, disappointing careers, or stuck relationships? Then do it harder, yet expect a different result? Why is it not obvious that trying to exit an old story by simply writing a “better ending” only recreates the same story, and ensures that we remain in it? That a thousand better endings to an old story don’t create a new story? That the past cannot be changed and is a settled matter? …

4. The Fairness of Office Politics... Integrity and Political Motivation! By Edward Toupin
I hear many complaints daily about the "unfairness" of politics in corporate America. Employees say that their managers "lie" or issue "personal attacks" against them. Indeed, based on the pure ideals that we are taught as a child, this might appear to be the case. However, the corporate culture is not the "real world" in which we live out our personal lives. Each corporate culture is its own world with its own rules and reality. To understand this, one must understand the directions and …