Excellence Is Not a Performance Target

Leaders and performers have a critical choice to make.

Do they focus on the outcomes…or the processes that produce results?

Even though hundreds of research studies and practical cases support the idea that a great process will produce better long-term results, leaders and performers often fixate on outcomes to the exclusion of the steps taken to get there.

They equate excellence with great results, not the work required to achieve them.

Here’s a reality check: People hit targets and achieve goals all the time without doing excellent work.

That’s because excellence describes a standard for achieving the work, not the outcome.

Why is the distinction between excellence and outcome so important? Because when excellence becomes a performance target, it distorts behavior.

When excellence is defined by the result and not by the work standards behind it, people melt down the moment outcomes fail to materialize.

Instead of doubling their efforts, attending to improvement, and maintaining a focus on the process, they overreach, cut corners, take risks, and do whatever they can to save the result.

Discipline goes out the window.

They do things they haven’t trained or prepared for, all for some small chance of attaining the prize.

Top coaches of high-performance athletes know this too well. When athletes view excellence as an outcome, they seldom achieve greatness.

The same can be said for leaders, teams, and performers of all stripes.

Viewing excellence as an outcome produces a host of negative consequences that lead to less effective performance.

But one stands out.

Once leaders or performers focus exclusively on the outcome, especially during the performance itself, decision-making quality deteriorates rapidly.

With any setback, obstacle, or impediment, a fixation on the outcome creates hesitation, tension, and second-guessing.

When excellence as outcome starts to slip away, motivation becomes desperate. Emotions take over. Decision-making becomes cloudy. Whatever preparation came before disappears.

Excellence isn’t something that can be reached by hitting a specific metric or goal. It’s a standard of how people approach the work, not the result they produce.

Excellence is a way of working, usually with a high attention to detail, prideful ownership of the process, and a focus on continuous improvement.

Excellence is a standard people constantly pursue, not a box that can be checked.

By focusing on the systems, habits, and standards that naturally produce excellent results, people can achieve great things.

Setting goals and establishing performance metrics is vitally important. But the best leaders and performers reserve excellence to describe how they achieve, not the achievement itself.