Today is Wednesday, so this post is on outstanding performance.
I came across a great quote on performance by William Faulkner the other day. “Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
I like what Mr. Faulkner has to say here for two reasons. The first part of the quote says “always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do”. In other words, set high goals. Even if you don’t achieve them, you will probably surpass what you thought you could do. This is great advice. High goals result in high results.
In their best selling book, “Built to Last”, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, urged business leaders to choose a BHAG -- a big, hairy, audacious goal for their companies. In an interview in Industry Week in 1992, Mr. Collins said, “like our national goal in the '60s to go to the moon by the end of the decade. If a company says ‘Our BHAG is to revolutionize telecommunications technology on the earth,’ then that company has some way to determine up and down the line whether people are doing things consistent with that vision and goal. Is everyone aligning with it by setting their goals in accord with the BHAG? Are they committing their resources to it? Are they putting most of their efforts in that direction?”
The same is true in your career. Choose a BHAG, set smaller goals that support it, commit your resources and efforts into achieving it.
Mr. Faulkner’s quote ends with these words: “Try to be better than yourself”. That’s a tall order. It means continuous improvement. Once you have achieved your goal of being “better than yourself”, you can always get better still. It’s kind of like Abraham Maslow’s concept of self actualization – being all that you can be.
In other words, compete with yourself – every time you do something, do it better than you did the time before. Measure yourself and your performance against yourself, not others. In this way, you are sure to keep learning and growing – and improving your performance.
And, as you know, outstanding performance is one of the keys to career and life success.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense. Check out my other blog: www.CommonSenseGuy.com for common sense advice on leading people and running a small business.
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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