Level of Excellence

I work hard and I take pride in my work excellence.  I would never prepare a deliverable that was less so - the quality of my work reflects on me and my perception of who I'm doing this work for!  Generally, these days people seem to be unwilling to do whatever it takes to achieve a level of excellence.  So why that is.


It's hard to do excellent work. 


You must put in significant time and effort to create something that's complete, well constructed using top quality components, and is shined to the point where it gleams!  I could be talking about anything - building a quality piece of wooden furniture, baking a special dessert or creating a business proposal.  The principles are the same.  You must plan well, have all your ingredients/components at hand, and, work and rework the product until you have it just right!


It takes more time to do excellent work.


There's an old adage about anything worth doing is worth doing well.  Unfortunately, people's time is not as highly valued as it once was.  People are working harder than ever (measured by the hours they put in on the job) and yet the quality of their work is, for the most part, going down.  A direct result of not being given enough time to do the job properly.  How many times have you been asked for an estimate on how long it will take to get something done only to be asked if you can do it quicker.  Happens all the time.  Over the years, people become accustomed to being given less time to do a job and delivering less quality.  Another old saying is "good enough for government work!"  It's this attitude that sets-up the expectation:

lower work quality = less time spent working =  do more things in this time

Marketed as higher productivity and operational efficiency, it begets inferior workmanship.  Not only are the end products lacking, but the people who produced them start to think this is okay.  Is it okay for you to not get what you asked for or even paid to get?  We find ourselves overloaded and unable to put in the real time and effort when it's really required from time-to-time.  People need to push back and make it clear that:

less time = less quality = unhappy recipient

Now, if the recipient is your immediate supervisor, that may be fine.  But, if that recipient is getting an inferior proposal, it may well mean less business!  That's not okay.

It is very satisfying to do excellent work.

How many people do you know who are happy where they work?  Sadly, I think having time to spend on your given craft and getting that deep satisfaction that comes from doing a job well done is getting lost in the modern workplace.  I hate to end my day without feeling I accomplished something worthwhile.  Don't you?  This may be the most important reason to slow things down a bit and allow employees to adequately focus time and effort on producing higher quality results.  Those employees will stay around longer and they will tell everyone about the great place to work they work.  I call that a thing of beauty!