PURSING EXCELLENCE

                                    PURSING EXCELLENCE

There is no good alternative to the goal of perfectionism - seeking top performance in yourself, and being constantly dissatisfied at less -than-perfect- result. Be your own best critic, daring attention to your faults, and going in search of excellence.

SEEKING PERFECTION

The pursuit of the highest possible standers automatically point you towards achieving excellence. If you achieve perfection in any activity, you must be the best, which is the proper objective in any context. Even momentary perfection is extremely hard to achieve, if not impossible. In practice, aiming for excellence will mean perfection significantly better than your present standers, which are always imperfect. Remember that refusal to tolerate imperfection is a powerful force for success.

BEING THE BEST

Just like runners, managers and organizations need opponents, or at lest pace-setters, to produce their best performance. The process know as "bench marking" measures comparable performance to set targets that the company seeks to exceed. The defect in this approach is that the benchmarks may themselves be too low. You want to be the best at what you do. That means looking at the performance of others to see not just what they do well, but how it could be dramatically improved. being the best means sitting new standards, very likely by adopting new ways. this drive for reform can be very demanding, but also highly rewarding.

Being Self-Critical

There is a crucial difference between self-criticism and low self-esteem. You need a high personal opinion of your aptitudes and the way that you apply them. But you first earn that high personal regard by subjecting your actions and output to rigorous judgment. By acting as your own most severe critic, you avoid complacency and substitute the pursuit of excellence. Just as with others, it is important to make constructive, rather than negative criticisms, and then take positive action to improve areas of weakness. Beware if you find nothing to criticize, however. That is usually a sing of trouble ahead.

IMPROVING STANDARDS
Seek constantly to improve your performance by consistently setting yourself new and higher personal targets, and by taking every possible opportunity to learn and practice new skills.

RAISING YOUR STANDARDS

However good you are at something, you can always improve. Similarly, however high the standards you have set for yourself and others, they can always be raised higher. Apply the total quality principal of continuous improvement to everything that you do. When starting a new job, you my feel daunted by new demands and doubt your ability to tackle the tasks successfully. Yet your past experience will confirm that after a few weeks in the new role, you will be performing well and without difficulty . People tend to underestimate their powers, which achieves the opposite of maximizing potential. It is better to overshoot and miss than never to try for the best of which you are capable.