Excellence is Not Perfection

 Passion for Excellence: a Center Value that guides us in our daily actions. 

No one is perfect, but we can all strive for excellence. Setting the bar high and striving for continual improvement is a function of excellence.

Perfection is to have no flaw. Excellence is to recognize our mistakes and learn from them. Furthermore, excellence is to implement systems to automate repetitive tasks and eliminate waste.

Perfection is to do no harm. Excellence is to be compassionate when mistakes inevitably happen. When mistakes happen it’s best to listen. Let clients realize we are truly hearing them - be sympathetic about the error. Acknowledge that we understand how this affected them and that we are striving to build ways so this will not happen again.

Perfection is pure and rigid. Excellence can have a core set of "rules" but also be unique and flexible.

NO! – can be a threatening word; try to be careful when using “no." Consider this, “Let me see what our options are."

Perfection can be intolerant and exact. Excellence was best said by Gandhi: “Intolerance is usually all that I can not tolerate, so I guess I still have some work to do.”  Be open to differences; some clients are older and slower than others

Perfection is static and closed. Excellence is open to possibilities but accountable to detail. We generally find comfort in our similarities but growth in our differences.

Perfection is rude. Excellence is about attitude, a strong discipline to continual improvement, a focus on goals with open communication.  I will ask you to consider embracing work discussion with a level of constructive criticism when necessary this next year. Especially when developing systems and processes for the entire organization to use. Tighter specifications to details are necessary when building synergies for an organization like ours.

Our work for clients is hardly ever completed. Perfection is completion, while excellence is usually found in the pursuit.

I'm proud that our firm has always pursued excellence.