Quotes to Create Inspiration on your Performance Excellence Journey
Quotes that Speak to You
I have always been motivated by a good quote that speaks to me. While I was in college, I had inspirational quotes pinned on a bulletin board at my desk and throughout my career I’ve had framed photos containing motivational quotes in my office. At the gym, I push myself a little harder when I read a quote on the wall such as “be stronger than your excuses.” Whenever I read a quote that resonates with me, it gives me an extra kick to do a little bit more or do a little bit better.
Inspiring Performance Improvement
When organizations embark on their journey towards performance excellence, they may encounter resistance from individuals who perceive it as too hard, beyond their job scope, or an additional burden to an already full workload. So how can you motivate and engage people to get on board with performance excellence initiatives? An effective quote may just be the ticket to inspire and engage individuals in activities focused on performance improvement.
Quotes Aligned to Excellence
To assist you, I have compiled a selection of quotes and aligned them to the Baldrige Excellence Framework®, which is utilized by The Partnership for Excellence (TPE) to evaluate organizational performance. The primary product provided by TPE is a feedback report that offers organizations insights into their strengths, opportunities for improvement, and key performance themes. Appropriately, we begin with a quote from Bill Gates, Former CEO of Microsoft: “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
So, let’s get started. For each of the seven categories in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence®, a brief description of the category is provided accompanied by selected quotes supporting its content.
Category 1: Leadership
The Leadership category evaluates how the actions of your senior leaders guide and sustain your organization, how governance is managed, and how legal and ethical responsibilities are ensured while making contributions to society.
“If becoming a high performing organization is the destination, leadership is the engine.” – Kenneth H. Blanchard, author and business consultant
“You cannot deliver value unless you anchor the company’s values. Values make an unsinkable ship.” – Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo
“The difference between mere management and leadership is communication.” – Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
“Good governance cannot remain merely a philosophy. Concrete steps have to be taken for realizing its goals.” – Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
“The betterment of society is not a job to be left to a few. It’s a responsibility to be shared by all.” – David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard
Category 2: Strategy
Strategy examines how your organization sets strategic objectives, implements plans, adjusts for changes, and measures progress.
“If you don’t have a strategy, you’re part of someone else’s strategy.” – Alvin Toffler, former associate editor of Fortune magazine
“Strategy is not the consequence of planning, but the opposite: its starting point.” – Henry Mintzbert, Canadian author and professor
“If a strategy meets a goal: It’s working. If a strategy meets a target: It’s a success.” – Michael Porter, American businessman and professor
“The best strategy in the world is useless unless it’s executed.” – Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks
“The key to successful execution is to create a sense of urgency.” – John P. Kotter, professor and founder of Kotter International
Category 3: Customers
The Customers category examines how your organization engages its customers for continued success. This includes how the organization listens to customers, identifies products/services to meet their needs, builds long-term customer relationships, and improves customer experience.
“If you don’t take care of your customer, your competitor will.” – Bob Hooey, Canadian inspirational speaker and business coach
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest sources of learning.” – Bill Gates, Former CEO of Microsoft
“To the customer, YOU are the company.” – Shep Hyken, author and customer experience expert
“My definition of ‘innovative’ is providing value to the customer.” – Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors
“Although your customers won’t love you if you give bad service, your competitors will. ” – Kate Zabriskie, President of Business Training Works Inc.
Category 4: Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management
This category inquires about the approaches your organization uses to measure, analyze, review, and enhance its performance, as well as how you manage information and organizational knowledge assets.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” – Peter Drucker, Austrian-American management consultant and author
“Measure what is important, don’t make important what you measure.” – Robert McNamara, former US secretary of defense
“One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.” – Grace Murray Hopper, US Navy rear admiral, computer scientist, and mathematician
“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” – H. James Harrington, author, engineer, and consultant in performance improvement
“Set excellent performance as your standard and try to achieve it every day.” – Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!
“Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.” – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright
“Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.” – Robert Boyce, author and professor
Category 5: Workforce
The Workforce category addresses how your organization manages workforce capability and capacity and provides a climate that supports high performance. It also seeks to understand how your organization engages, manages, and develops its workforce to fully leverage their potential in alignment with overall organizational needs.
“The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.” – Vince Lombardi, Hall of Fame football coach
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple
“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” – Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company
“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” – Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
“A positive work environment is the foundation for productivity and employee well-being.” – Dax Bamania, founder and CEO of TIGI HR Solution Pvt. Ltd.
Category 6: Operations
This category focuses on the approaches your organization utilizes to design, manage, and enhance products and services, as well as work processes. It also examines how operational effectiveness is maintained to deliver customer value and achieve sustained organizational success.
“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing.” – W. Edwards Deming, a founder of Total Quality Management (TQM)
“A good process produces good results.” – Nick Saban, former college and NFL football coach
“Unplanned process improvement is wishful thinking.” – Watts Humphrey, renowned software engineer
“The process is more important than the results. And if you take care of the process, you will get the results.” – MS Dhoni, Indian cricketer
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” —Robert Collier, author of self-help books
“A lot of people notice when you succeed, but they don’t see what it takes to get there.” – Dawn Staley, former WNBA player, Olympian, and basketball coach
Category 7: Results
Results should address the key requirements for your organization's success. This category focuses on your organization's performance and improvement in product and process results, customer results, workforce results, leadership and governance results, and financial, marketplace, and strategy results.
“In order to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them.” – Bobby Knight, former coach of Indiana University basketball team
“Luck has nothing to do with it.” – Serena Williams, former professional tennis player
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell, former US secretary of state and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
“You don’t get results by focusing on results. You get results by focusing on the actions that produce results.” – Mike Hawkins, actor
One Last Quote
That's a wrap. I hope at least one of the quotes inspired you. I'll leave you with a final quote from Aristotle: “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
Margot L. Hoffman, Ph.D.
President & CEO
The Partnership for Excellence
