dstraito
TB Fanatic
In Search of Excellence
By David
I used to be a skeptic when it came to company initiated programs like Vision statement and Quality programs. I felt that the statements were just platitudes and were not really reflecting the reality of the company environment. I have since changed my views on those programs and see them as an integral way of assimilating those ideas into the company culture and making them a reality.
I started reviewing what excellence meant to me and I found quotes that I want to reflect my personal choices.
Pearl S. Buck said “The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”
What this statement means to me is that a person will enjoy doing a task or project if they can do it well. That does not mean there will not be a learning curve at first and they will have to work hard at learning the task, but having learned it enough to do an excellent job they will get more enjoyment out of it. A few things have to be in place for this to happen. The person has to have an infrastructure in place that allows them to learn the job well enough to be excellent at it. The infrastructure could include a mentor or very good documentation with a practices framework in place that allows them to reach the level of excellence desired. The person has to have a mindset that allows them to continue assimilating the information and framework that allows them to meet or exceed management expectations as well as their own. The expectations of management need to be thoroughly communicated and the use of excellence policies can help facilitate that. It also helps if a person knows the type of tasks they do best and try to obtain a job that concentrates in areas they excel at and enjoy.
The Peter Principle states “in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence.” This principle shows the concept of how an organization takes people that are very competent in their field and promotes them until they achieve a level of incompetence. I think more often than not, this is not related to a persons abilities but their level of enjoyment of the tasks they perform. For example, a person that is very good at technical tasks and enjoys the hands-on aspect of their job gets promoted to the management layer. All of a sudden they find themselves performing tasks such as HR related administration and not doing the things they enjoy which makes it hard in the long run to be consistently excellent.
Lee Iacocca had a philosophy about the type of people he wanted working for him. “The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots are the eager beavers, the mavericks. These are the guys who try to do more than they’re expected to do – they always reach.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said “Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.” Too often this is the case in large bureaucratic organizations where new and innovative ideas are not taken up the management chain for fear of rejection. Instead the management layers prefer to not question anything from their management and only manage in a downward direction. Upper management are people too and as such, they are not infallible.” I would rather have a subordinate question my decisions when I am not making sense or there is a better way to do something, than to implement a less than optimal solution.” Innovative companies foster individualism and new ideas that often let them excel as well as provide an environment that allows their employees to excel and find enjoyment in what they do. This quotes shows how the employee that exude excellence are rare, but even more rare are managers that foster and relish this attitude. Too often the manager just wants someone to follow their edicts and not question anything which brings to mind another quote.
Isaac Disraeli said “It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.”
Colin Powell said “If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
Horace said “No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation.” This means that excellence can be hard work in areas that may not come naturally to an individual but can be obtained through the pursuit of excellence.
Ralph Marston said “Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.”
Thomas J. Watson said “If you want to achive excellence, you can get there rtoday. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”
Robert Townsend captures the essence of excellence with this “If you don't do it with excellence, don't do it at all! Because if it's not excellent, it won't be profitable or fun, and if you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing there?”
Abraham Lincoln said “I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. “
Oliver Goldsmith said “to aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured: to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service.
Lyndon B. Johnson said “The noblest search is the search for excellence.”
John W. Gardner said “Whoever I am, or whatever I am doing, some kind of excellence is within my reach."
I like what Pat Riley said about the process. “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”
Bob Beamon exemplifies excellence in his life with this philosophy: “Whatever you do, don’t do it halfway.”
Howard W. Newton said “People forget how fast you did a job, but they remember how well you did it.”
Og Mandino shows the value of excellence “Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”
John W. Gardner sums it up with “Excellence
is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
Vincent Lombardi says “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Henry Ward Beecher says “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
Albert Schweitzer:
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Colleen C. Barrett:
When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers.
"Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time."
The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous. Shana Alexander
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
* Lord Chesterfield
There is more credit and satisfaction in being a first-rate truck driver than a tenth-rate executive.
* B. C. Forbes
It is always pleasant to be urged to do something on the ground that one can do it well.
* George Santayana
To be great is to be misunderstood.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
Author: Helen Keller
Great work is done by people who are not afraid to be great.
Author: Fernando Flores
When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.
Sir John Lubbock
Deliver more than you are getting paid to do. The victory of success will be half won when you learn the secret of putting out more than is expected in all that you do. Make yourself so valuable in your work that eventually you will become indispensable.
Og Mandino
"Excellence can be attained if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, and expect more than others think is possible." – Unknown
“Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest.”
Mark Twain
“Great minds ask great questions.”
Michael Gelb
“If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart.”
Buddha
“You must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences.”
Ayn Rand
I am a writer because writing is the thing I do best.
Flannery O'Connor ~
"It is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them. The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves."
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-45), German Protestant theologian
"No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe."
Harry Gray
"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."
-- Stephen Jobs
"The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."
-- Richard Milhouse Nixon (1913-94), 37th US President, Republican
"It is impossible to excel at something you don't enjoy." -- Jack Nicklaus
"If we don't change the direction we're going, we're likely to end up where we're headed." -- Chinese Proverb
"The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for the common goal." -- Dave DeBusschere
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." -- Albert Einstein
I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone , Arizona . It says: ''Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.'' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have.
Harry S. Truman
1884-1972, Thirty-third President of the USA
Harry S. Truman
1884-1972, Thirty-third President of the USA
