“Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”

 Colin Powell

Colin L. Powell, Joseph E. Persico (2010). My American Journey. New York: Ballantine Books. p198.

The word ‘excellence’, like the word ‘leadership’, is a challenging word in many ways. To start with, it begs the question: how excellent does something have to be, to be excellent? It also raises the question: why is something considered excellent in one organization considered ordinary in another? Are there degrees of excellence? If excellence is the destination, is the journey there as important as the arrival? What is known, is that when you come across an organization that strikes the ‘Excellence Home Run’ regularly, you just know that excellence is being achieved by excellent people that make up the excellent organization they work within! Excellence achieved often multiplies as the possibilities are realized. Excellence, like great leadership, is a moveable feast. Often talked about, it always seems to be over the next horizon, even if you think you have already achieved it.

The opening quote from former United States Secretary of State and the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, is informative of this discussion. Bringing the whole quote into the picture starts to give some ideas as to how excellence can be achieved.

“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.”

Powell Colin, L., Persico, Joseph, E. (2010). My American Journey. New York, New York: Ballantine Books. (p198).

It seems simple, but it passes the common sense (pub) test. If you can’t achieve excellence in small things, you will unlikely have acquired the skill set to achieve it in bigger things. It aligns with the conventional wisdom that “the behavior you walk past is the behavior you accept.” All of this goes to the heart of great leadership. Leadership that has a purpose and is based on quality relationships, is more likely to lead to excellence. Colin Powell in his other instructive book ‘It Worked for Me’ highlights the importance of purpose.

“Purpose is the destination of a vision. It energizes that vision, gives it force and drive. It should be positive and powerful and serve the better angels of an organization. Leaders must embed their own sense of purpose into the heart and soul of every follower. The purpose starts from the leader at the top, and through infectious, dynamic, passionate leadership, it is driven down throughout the organization. Every follower has his own organizational purpose that connects with the leader’s overall purpose.”

Powell, Colin, L. (2012). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership (eBook). New York, New York: HarperCollins. (p26).

For Colin Powell, the prevailing attitude of excellence, is well supported through “infectious, dynamic, passionate leadership.” It also requires everyone to understand the purpose, of the organization, the team, the task. Obviously, Colin Powell is drawing on his extensive military experience in the United States Army, where he rose to the rank of four-star General, with his last appointment being Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There is an important, not so moot point to be made here. In the military, understanding the mission and purpose, is something that is lived, not just spoken about, on a daily basis. In the case of Colin Powell, the purpose of the different parts of the army, the purpose of each brigade, through to individual units and teams, is lived daily. When a unit is tasked for an operation, understanding what mission success looks like, is critical. Communication, asking questions, clarifying roles and knowing that each person has their role in the scheme of things, is also critical to mission success. Applying that to a non-military organization, it means that leaders need to have clear expectations and model what they expect of others in the organization. A leader that can ‘walk the talk’, is likely to bring people along and embue a real sense of purpose throughout the organization. Staff need to be able to join the dots between the purpose of the organization, the purpose of the task, and their purpose as an employee of the organization. Purposeful alignment, role clarity, and crystal-clear communication is important in the achievement of excellence.

In their classic work on the topic of excellence, ‘In Search of Excellence’, Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman (Jr) identified eight attributes found in organizations of excellence.

The eight attributes that emerged to characterize most nearly the distinction of the excellent, innovative companies go as follows:

1. A bias for action, for getting on with it. Even though these companies may be analytical in their approach to decision making, they are not paralyzed by that fact.
2. Close to the customer. These companies learn from the people they serve.
3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship. The innovative companies foster many leaders and many innovators throughout the organization.
4. Productivity through people. The excellent companies treat the rank and file as the root source of quality and productivity gain. They do not foster we/they labor attitudes or regard capital investment as the fundamental source of efficiency improvement.
5. Hands-on, value driven. Thomas Watson, Jr., said that “the basic philosophy of an organization has far more to do with its achievements than do technological or economic resources, organizational structure, innovation and timing.”
6. Stick to the knitting. While there were a few exceptions, the odds for excellent performance seem strongly to favor those companies that stay reasonably close to businesses they know.
7. Simple form, lean staff. The underlying structural forms and systems in the excellent companies are elegantly simple.
8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties. The excellent companies are both centralized and decentralized. For the most part, as we have said, they have pushed autonomy down to the shop floor or product development team. On the other hand, they are fanatic centralists around the few core values they hold dear.

Peters, Thomas, J., Waterman (Jr), Robert, H. (2012). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies (eBook). New York, New York: HarperCollins. (Ch 1 pp19-24 of 41).

At the time of their research, what was underlining these eight attributes in these companies of excellence, are people. In the twenty different titles that Tom Peters has authored, the recurring theme is definitely ‘people first’. Everything, including the ultimate success of the business, flows from right relationships with the staff, suppliers and clients / customers. Ultimately you need people to form an organization. You need people to be customers that trust you with their business and you need people who have the acumen to meet the needs of the customers.

In his wonderful book, ‘Lead from the Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century’, Mark C. Crowley makes a wonderful point about excelling and excellence in leadership. Whilst the statistical data, KPIs and achievement of goals have a very definite place in the management of organizations, there is another indicator of excellence, that is more long term and a likely indicator of true customer and client satisfaction. The statistics might suggest that in the moment, everyone was happy with what happened but if it was simply lip-service or customers telling you what they think you want to hear, what researchers often refer to as ‘the Hawthorn effect’, the validity of the data has to be questioned. If the data cannot be triangulated to evidence of client / customer satisfaction (e.g. returning customers), then the story is incomplete. The other point relates to the journey. The gain might have been minor but the journey as a team might have been extensive.

“Yet, as I look back on all that time, I realize I only have a broad recollection of our accomplishments. Long after you can remember the actual work or the targets you met along the way, what’s sustained in your memory is the effect you had on people’s lives. By this one measure, above all others, you’ll know the true impact you had as a leader.”

Crowley, Mark. C. (2022). Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century (eBook). Carlsbad. California: Hay House, Inc. (Conclusion p9 of 9).

What should be noted at this point is the very fine difference between excellence and perfectionism. Too often, we think of perfection as the ultimate form of excellence. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a better iteration of yourself today than what you were yesterday. That’s akin to an Olympic athlete striving for their next personal best. Perfectionism means that there is no room for further improvement, you have reached the limit of possibilities. As a result it imposes limitations upon those who are expected to achieve, what is obviously the impossible. Excellence leaves open the option of further improvement, despite achieving the required benchmark by the proverbial mile.

In her outstanding book ‘Dare to Lead’, Brené Brown highlights the impact that perfectionism can have.

Here’s how I define perfectionism:

• Perfectionism is a self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of blame, judgment, and shame.
• Perfectionism is self-destructive simply because perfection doesn’t exist. It’s an unattainable goal.
• Perfectionism is more about perception than internal motivation, and there is no way to control perception, no matter how much time and energy we spend trying.
• Perfectionism is addictive because when we invariably do experience shame, judgment, and blame, we often believe it’s because we weren’t perfect enough. Rather than questioning the faulty logic of perfectionism, we become even more entrenched in our quest to look and do everything just right.
• Perfectionism actually sets us up to feel shame, judgment, and blame, which then leads to even more shame and self-blame: It’s my fault. I’m feeling this way because I’m not good enough.

Brown, Brené. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts (eBook). New York, New York: Penguin Random House. (p70 of 230).

The point here is simple. Organizations are a collective of people working towards a common goal or purpose for a particular clientele. It’s people that create an organization and a culture that strives for excellence.