Gary Ryan Blair, The Goals Guy, read my post on sweating the small stuff and sent me a piece on quality from his book, Everything Counts. It’s great common sense advice. I’ve included it in its entirety here…
A Passion for Quality – Gary Ryan Blair
Quality is about love; it’s a passionate obsession with perfection. It is always the result of high intention, uncompromising standards, sincere effort, intelligent design, attention to detail and skillful execution; it’s the calling card of greatness and it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.
Quality is only achieved through continuous improvement and performance excellence to ensure the highest standards of our products, services, processes and technology. If you have any plans on being competitive, then quality in the broadest sense of the term must become an obsession. Dynamic, sustainable results will only be achieved through an obsession with quality.
High achievers in every field view their world through a different lens. They are essentially scientists whose laboratory happen to be the kitchen, athletic field, courtroom, classroom, and boardroom. They test assumptions, experiment with new concepts and ideas, and search through the minutia looking for the needle in the haystack that can take lead to a breakthrough and competitive edge.
High achievers bring an approach to work that is methodical, pragmatic and demanding. Their personal standards are not just high they are uncompromising. In their pursuit of perfection, they pay rigorous attention to detail, they expect greatness, and they consistently deliver superior quality. In their efforts to perform at the top of the game, they show no mercy to themselves or others. They understand that quality is a competitive weapon and they use it with great authority.
• World-class Chefs are far from being merely a cook, as they might seem to some. They must fully comprehend the blending and interaction of ingredients down to the microscopic compounds in the foods they create. They are passionate about food and strive to create a visual presentation that just as delicious as the food.
• An Oscar Winning Actor, Grammy Winning Artist, and Tony Award Winning Broadway Performer are so much more than simply performers. They inhabit their work, they are students of their trade, and they strive to create perfection in every performance and rehearsal.
• A champion athlete approaches their work with the precision of a surgeon and the brilliance of a military strategist. They know that success comes down to the smallest of detail and look for the slightest edge in order to deliver a quality performance. They expect to win, play to win and intimidate the less committed.
• A superior Teacher and College Professor never forget the significance of their role. They approach teaching with a sense of love, duty and an awed sense of responsibility. They constantly and passionately look for ways to educate and inspire their students.
• An exceptional computer programmer uses a series of digits to create a work of art. They search for ways to make the complex simple, they visualize the perfect outcome, and they work with a sense of conviction and obsession to make that vision a reality.
• Passionate wine makers accept nothing less than perfection. They tend to their grapes like mother hens, they lovingly watch over each quality detail and always look for ways to make their best product better. Nothing is sacrificed, all is given, and no exceptions are ever allowed.
• The finest jeweler or watchmaker in the world lives by an exceptional set of standards. Their commitment to quality materials, craftsmanship, and design is heavenly. Their standards are respected at all times and reflect their preoccupation with quality and perfection at every level.
Quality is about doing things right the first time. It’s easier to succeed the first time, because failure is more expensive in terms of time when you have to do the job over. It’s easier to succeed the first time, because success eliminates the embarrassment of mediocrity and defeat. It’s easier to succeed the first time, because money spent to fail must be spent again to succeed. It’s easier to succeed the first time because credibility once lost is difficult if not impossible to regain. A commitment to quality means never having to say you’re sorry.
The goal is simple; make your name synonymous with quality. Strive to render ever more perfection to the form and function of your work. Ensure that every aspect of your work receives a finishing touch. The final attention to detail must be given to the polish. Every single facet of quality must be polished and buffed in such a way that the end result exceeds all customer expectations.
Quality comes from putting your heart and soul into your work. It is lovingly doing all things that bring out your absolute best. The word love is appropriate because it is precisely right in both the meaning and the feeling that it carries. Do all things lovingly. That is the secret to quality. .
Expecting nothing but perfection is the first step toward achieving it. A loving devotion to quality allows no detail to be overlooked. It wants everything to be just so. Nothing can be neglected or regarded as trivial if it might affect that which makes the performance spectacular. An urge to be tidy, orderly and well organized is a natural impulse and by product in the workplace where quality is taken to heart.
To pursue quality is to aspire to perfection. And while perfection is unattainable, the passionate pursuit of perfection is what drives quality and ongoing improvement. We can set high standards and strive to meet them, but no matter how brilliantly we perform, our performance can always be improved. The ideal and pursuit of perfection is always humbling but should never be defeating. There is no rest when it comes to quality; therefore, quality has to be an obsession.
The passionate pursuit of perfection is what gives work meaning and which gratifies the human soul. When the work we do is the work we love, the results are a shining testament of quality. Quality first, quality always is the mark of greatness.
Our obsession for quality in our work should be a model for the rest of our lives as well. Drinking life from a full cup is a noble ideal. We must do all things lovingly and quality of life will follow. That is the secret to virtue, and that is why quality counts!
Some great common sense advice on quality – and sweating the small stuff – from the Goals Guy. Thanks for your e mail Gary. I’m going to pick up a copy of Everything Counts and read it from cover to cover.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense. Check out my other blogs: www.CareerSuperStar.com for common sense advice on becoming the life and career star you are meant to be; and www.CommonSenseDay.com to learn more about Use Your Common Sense Day -- November 4, and to read stories of common sense in action.
I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.
Bud
PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open. Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.
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