10 ways to pursue excellence without negativity

10 ways to pursue excellence without negativity:

1. Ask teams, who believe in the mission, where they can be better. Don’t point out their failures. Let them point out their aspirations.
2. Every time you feel like pointing out a problem, ask, “How can we make that better?”
3. Never allow conversations about issues or problems to end without finding some corrective action. At the least, set a “make it better” meeting.
4. Choose your battles. Focus on behaviors and issues with high visibility.
5. Ask, “What can we do about that,” when someone points out a problem or shortfall.
6. Reject the need for big solutions. The need for big solutions is the reason teams end up doing nothing, except complaining.
7. When someone says, “That won’t work,” ask, “What might help?”
8. Focus more on where you’re going than where you’ve been. Apply Pareto’s 80/20 principle.
9. Say, “You have more in you,” when something falls short.
10. Think of the pursuit of excellence in terms of people, then systems. How can you maximize talent and passion?