Performance Excellence

Excellence and success are closely related concepts, often used interchangeably. Excellence refers to the quality of being outstanding or extremely good at something, while success refers to the achievement of a desired outcome or goal. When someone strives for excellence in their work or personal life, they are setting a high standard for themselves, and working towards achieving their best possible outcome.

Excellence may be defined as how good you are in relation to how good you (or your company) could be, without reference to the expectations of others. This dedication to excellence often leads to success, as the individual is putting in the effort and focus required to achieve their, or their company's, goals. In many cases, success is a result of excellence.

When someone consistently produces high-quality work or consistently performs at a high level, they are more likely to achieve their desired outcomes and be successful in their endeavours.

At a personal level...
Success seeks the external - status, power, prestige, wealth, privilege.
Excellence is internal - satisfaction in having done your best.

Pursuing excellence is more likely to lead to long-term personal fulfilment than when the immediate thrill of meeting a goal has melted away. Achieving excellence can further motivate individuals to continue striving for excellence in their future endeavours.

People often talk about individuals being ‘successful’, but rarely about being a person being ‘excellent’.

Let's take this idea into a work context. In the corporate world success is usually understood to be about closing a deal, posting a handsome profit, having the share price rise, or increasing the size of the bonus pot. While these achievements should be celebrated, making them the sole focus can lead to a short-sighted business approach that lacks market resilience.

Corporate authenticity is important. Successful organisations understand ‘why’ they exist, and focus their efforts on meeting their purpose, not just executing the ‘what’. For any commercial business, achieving success means having a clear understanding of its products and how they address its chosen market, and of the people, process and tooling needed to deliver the service its customers need and expect. And on top of this it needs to be delivered efficiently and effectively, so that the resulting profit makes it all worthwhile. Being excellent helps.

Let's break down excellence further. It has three component parts: process excellence, operational excellence and business excellence.

Process excellence is about looking at the entire operating model and determining how to standardise, make consistent and automate all of your functional and regional activity, whether it is dealing with your suppliers, with your customers or with the internal value-chain which connects them both. It is about reducing the waste and variation so that we are doing everything we need to do, and nothing that we don’t.

Operational excellence is about colleagues following increasingly optimised ways of working, and delivering the outcomes which its customers need. When the staff collectively understand what activities they need to do, when they understand their place in the internal value chain, and when they are allowed to make decisions without asking for permission, then employee engagement rises, and performance increases. It’s part of the culture.

There may be great process, which is well executed operationally, but there may still be challenges with customers thinking that the service is suboptimal, or in the organisation continuing to make products that the market no longer wants. Business Excellence is largely achieved by engaging with and listening to customers, and in having a clear strategy in the pursuit of the organisational purpose.

Together these three related excellences come together to deliver on organisational performance.

This performance excellence drives sustainable excellence when services exceed customer expectations and deliver sustainable results at a sustainable cost.