Pursue Perfection, but Accept Excellence

Its 3 a.m. As you lie there looking at the same patch of ceiling, your mind races through the myriad processes keeping your project afloat and the few threatening to sink it. You glance at the clock and think, "Two hours." Your alarm is set for 5 a.m. so you can get up, get ready, and make it to the office for an 8 a.m. meeting with your accountant and controller. The quarterly numbers are off. You know why, and you know how to fix it - you've seen it a few times in your thirty years of experience. What you need your finance department to tell you is why it happened again. Your team put everything in place months ago, still, the numbers are off, again. In your quest for #Perfection, you glance again at the clock. Its 3:01.

Every servant leader faces the perfection crossroads. The Army has a saying, "Perfection is the enemy of Good Enough." Some in the Marine Corps have their own. "If the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be the minimum."

Servant Leader, where do we draw the line between perfection and "good enough?"

Let's be honest. The pursuit of perfection is often a fool's errand. Rarely outside of Olympic competition, decades of delicate surgical experience, or automated mathematical computation will anyone find perfection. In the same vein of honesty business leaders expect perfection where they are themselves imperfect. What is a servant leader to do?

The great Vince Lombardi is quoted as saying,

"Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence." - Vince Lombardi

The key, Servant Leader, is to know where to apply your pursuit of perfection and where to accept excellent results as good enough. As a servant leader, it is your responsibility to make that distinction for your team or your company because if you don't, teams will waste countless resources (note: poor stewardship) pursuing an unattainable goal of perfection when satisfactory results are well short of that goal. In business, it is important to distinguish when and where to pursue perfection (note: pursue, not require) or best effort. In pricing a competitive contract proposal, perfection is a valid goal, but is reaching perfection necessary to secure a profit? In calculating the depth and density of foundations for a record-setting arch span or the highest high-rise, perfection may be warranted. Maybe not so much in painting a pure white ceiling against linen white walls, in recording the next Billboard #1 single, or even in designing the next breakout cell phone feature. If your client agrees that two employees can do the job sufficiently, why send three?

One area, Servant Leader, where you can be certain the pursuit of perfection is warranted, is in your treatment of your people. Christ Himself instructed us to treat others with the care and compassion we prefer to receive ourselves. (Matt 22:36-40) When combined with Paul's exhortation to the church at Colossae, we have a recipe for perfect care of our charges.

"Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality." (Col 3:22-25, NKJV)

So, Servant Leader, the next time you are setting up goals, consider the cost of perfection against the backdrop of people, price, production, and passion. Will your team feel as good delivering a product that meets demand, even with a few imperfections? Will the company still make a profit if you achieve excellence instead of perfection? Will you serve your charges well mentoring them on the path of perfection even if they stumble along the way?

Be perfect in your service to your people and they'll pursue your shared goal with passion. Or as Richard Branson says...

"Take care of your employees, and they'll take care of your business." - Richard Branson

(Photo: pointlessplanet.com)