Excellence Now

by Tom Peters

For more than three decades, New York Times bestselling author and business legend Tom Peters has been obsessed with Excellence (with a capital E). In this beautifully designed book – the first in a series summing up all that Tom has learned - he’s sharing his thoughts, ideas, inspirations, formulas, stories, tips, lessons, experiences, examples, and, perhaps most important, attitude. The bottom Don’t ask what Excellence is. Ask when. Tom’s Excellence Now.

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 5, 2012

Reviews

[Jim Razinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so not a fan of stream of consciousness writing, but there are exceptions to every rule and Tom Peters is one. What he says appeals to me. For example: Tom says the 4 most important words are: “What do you think?” I've been saying for years those are the four most important words! He also says: “How are we doing?” [to the customer]. Four more good words. Snippets; staccato thoughts; wisdom nuggets. Where Peters's early works tended to the pedantic, his later material has been distilled to just the points. And, as I said, it appeals to me.

Biggest takeaway:
EXCELLENCE is not an “aspiration.” Excellence is the next five minutes.

Obvious, right? Anyway, selected highlights, my comments in [brackets]:

If you agree with the above [listening is important], shouldn’t listening be . . . a Core Value?
“We are Effective Listeners – we treat Listening EXCELLENCE as the Centerpiece of our Commitment to Respect and Engagement and Community and Growth” – or some such
[Again, obvious, and yet the only time I've ever known "listening" to be an evaluation factor was in kindergarten and first grade.]

What about Listening?
Or negotiating?
Or hiring?
Or promoting?
Or giving help?
Or asking questions?
Or expressing appreciation?
Or …
All these latter items, and many more such as “giving help” and “apologizing” and “conducting meetings’” are what managers … DO FOR A LIVING. Each of these arenas are vital to leaders’ effectiveness—or ineffectiveness!

And on meetings...

Meetings are #1 thing bosses do. Therefore, 100% of those meetings [should have]:
EXCELLENCE.
ENTHUSIASM.
ENGAGEMENT.
LEARNING.
TEMPO.
[be a] WORK-OF-ART.

How many ineffective meetings have I sat through? Worse, how many ineffective meetings have I been responsible for? (I tried to not have them, but I'm sure I have contributed to the problem.)

[We all hear "service" as a core value]

Organizations exist to serve.
Period.
Leaders exist to serve. Period.
Service is a beautiful word.
Service is character, community, commitment.
(And profit.) [For private sector, obviously]
Service is a beautiful word.
Service is not “Wow.”
Service is not “raving fans.”
Service is not “a great experience.”
Service is “just” that –
SERVICE.

[Period}]

[And his Twitter-world summary]:
In Search of Excellence basics in 127 characters including quotation marks and spaces:
“Cherish your people, cuddle your customers, wander around, ‘try it’ beats ‘talk about it,’ pursue excellence, tell the truth.”
[Peters is big on Hewlett Packard's "Management by wandering around." (MBWA) I adapted that for me as "Management by walking about" because while I can wander, I usually do it with some purpose.}