Episode 75

Kill Perfectionism and Build a Culture of Excellence as a Christian Entrepreneur

What is the difference between excellence and perfectionism? By definition, it's the quality of being outstanding or extremely good, where as perfectionism, is a doctrine holding that religious, moral, social, or political perfection is attainable, especially the theory that human moral / spiritual perfection should be attained. Pierce has been on both sides of this conversation and provides a useful framework to understand what excellence looks like, and how to use it to be build a more impactful business. He talks through useful industry standard and gives a framework for helping teams build a culture of excellence at the end of the show.

This episode covers the topics of standard-bearers, excellence, perfectionism, military, Gibson guitars, mental health, prayer, Joseph in the Bible, freedom, the anointing, and consumer-focused values.

Get Pierce's book Calling: Awaken to The Purpose of Your Work

https://www.amazon.com/Calling-Awaken-Purpose-Your-Work/dp/0830780734/

Transcript
Pierce Brantley:

Welcome to lunchbreak a special weekly series of the eternal

Pierce Brantley:

entrepreneur that gives you bite-size pieces of wisdom on how to do the

Pierce Brantley:

function of faith and business.

Pierce Brantley:

Each episode unpacks, a short, actionable topic you can put into practice this week.

Pierce Brantley:

Let's get into it.

Pierce Brantley:

Hello and welcome back to the eternal entrepreneur podcast.

Pierce Brantley:

I am Pierce Brantley cohost of the show.

Pierce Brantley:

And today we're going to explore the topic of excellence.

Pierce Brantley:

And I say explore, because I think there's a spectrum that we as Christian leaders

Pierce Brantley:

get into and we can have opposing ideas.

Pierce Brantley:

And there is a biblical standard of excellence and there's a worldly standard

Pierce Brantley:

of excellence and one will run us dry.

Pierce Brantley:

The other will actually, I believe, bring on the mantle of God's anointing

Pierce Brantley:

on your life to carry something that you couldn't carry before.

Pierce Brantley:

And that's why I want to talk about it because I think most of the time.

Pierce Brantley:

We place ourselves in the realm of workaholism and perfectionism to big

Pierce Brantley:

isms, but effectively what it means is we are in pursuit of something at all

Pierce Brantley:

costs, and that cost costs us something.

Pierce Brantley:

It costs the soul something, whereas biblical excellent.

Pierce Brantley:

Jesus says my yoke is easy.

Pierce Brantley:

My burden is light.

Pierce Brantley:

He is carrying something, but what he's carrying he's equipped to carry.

Pierce Brantley:

When we try to pursue excellence in an area that we are not equipped to carry.

Pierce Brantley:

What it does is it becomes a yoke of bondage and bondage may seem like.

Pierce Brantley:

A, a big word, spiritual word, especially as it relates to

Pierce Brantley:

excellence in the workplace.

Pierce Brantley:

But the reality is if you are carrying something that is not I don't want to

Pierce Brantley:

say it goes as far as to say willed, but breathed on like a fire from God, then

Pierce Brantley:

something is going to happen to your soul.

Pierce Brantley:

You're going to get agitated with a lack of excellence.

Pierce Brantley:

You are going to get into the nitty gritty.

Pierce Brantley:

You're going to become a control, a fanatic, and you were going to obsess

Pierce Brantley:

about details that actually are at a detriment to the morale of your business,

Pierce Brantley:

to your employees, to your family life.

Pierce Brantley:

And so we want to adjust that.

Pierce Brantley:

So there were two healthy types.

Pierce Brantley:

Of excellence that you can aspire to.

Pierce Brantley:

And by the way, I don't think either one of these are

Pierce Brantley:

wrong, they're just different.

Pierce Brantley:

And I want to explore both of them.

Pierce Brantley:

So we can think about how to take a chiropractic adjustment

Pierce Brantley:

to your business as it relates to building something really good.

Pierce Brantley:

So the first type of excellence is a standard.

Pierce Brantley:

Someone who is a standard keeper or business.

Pierce Brantley:

That is a standard keeper is all about meeting the

Pierce Brantley:

industrial mark of the business.

Pierce Brantley:

So there's a status quo and not a bad set of squirrel just or actual status quo that

Pierce Brantley:

is normal in your sphere of influence.

Pierce Brantley:

So in the auto industry, for instance, if you're getting maintenance done on your

Pierce Brantley:

vehicle the standard, the high standard is they're going to give you a free car ride.

Pierce Brantley:

They are going to, give you coffee or some nice drink while you're there.

Pierce Brantley:

They are going to, have a concierge that's going to, take care of

Pierce Brantley:

your car while you're there.

Pierce Brantley:

And you're not ever going to have to get into the details of

Pierce Brantley:

your car, getting maintained.

Pierce Brantley:

That's the standard in the industry.

Pierce Brantley:

And so anything less than that is falling short of the standard,

Pierce Brantley:

but that is the standard itself.

Pierce Brantley:

That any new car maintenance business, if they were to get into that space

Pierce Brantley:

would need to quickly move towards, because if they're not doing that,

Pierce Brantley:

then they're not meeting expectations.

Pierce Brantley:

So that's one type of excellence, which is just meeting the standard.

Pierce Brantley:

And, there's a lot of books out there.

Pierce Brantley:

Some of them that I love around being innovative and being disruptive.

Pierce Brantley:

And everything else.

Pierce Brantley:

And there is a place for all of that.

Pierce Brantley:

There was also a place for meeting expectations in a way that people expect

Pierce Brantley:

and are delighted by and that's okay.

Pierce Brantley:

Not everything needs to be innovative.

Pierce Brantley:

Then there is a second type of excellence and this is the type of

Pierce Brantley:

excellence that transcends what I believe is simply Working in the flesh.

Pierce Brantley:

And that is to be a standard bearer, not just a standard keeper.

Pierce Brantley:

So in the military, a standard bearer is someone who carries a flag who

Pierce Brantley:

runs out ahead of their platoon or the group of soldiers, and is basically

Pierce Brantley:

saying that they're claiming ground and being a front lead for that group.

Pierce Brantley:

Standard bear is going out ahead of where everyone else is going underneath

Pierce Brantley:

the flag that they are carrying and they are fighting for, to be a standard

Pierce Brantley:

bearer means to redefine and to take new territory redefined what it means to be

Pierce Brantley:

excellent and to provide good service.

Pierce Brantley:

In a space and also means to go into new territory that hasn't

Pierce Brantley:

yet been conquered or claimed.

Pierce Brantley:

And it goes without saying that you need the first, before you can go

Pierce Brantley:

into the second, if you are simply a pioneer, but you have no skillset,

Pierce Brantley:

then what you're gonna do is just end up tearing up the land you're in.

Pierce Brantley:

You need more than.

Pierce Brantley:

But a standard bear's able to go fully equipped into the unknown,

Pierce Brantley:

take new territory and define new standards that are good for them.

Pierce Brantley:

Good for the industry.

Pierce Brantley:

And it's how I think really powerful brands are made.

Pierce Brantley:

So a few years back, I was at the Gibson factory and I think

Pierce Brantley:

it was Nashville or Memphis.

Pierce Brantley:

It was Memphis.

Pierce Brantley:

Yes.

Pierce Brantley:

And what was really cool about that factory other than the fact that, I'm

Pierce Brantley:

a guitar nerd, but towards the end of the tour, they wanted out this huge

Pierce Brantley:

blue dumpster and ended the dumpster.

Pierce Brantley:

You could see over the top of it were just piles and piles, countless piles.

Pierce Brantley:

Of finished guitars in the dumpster.

Pierce Brantley:

And we asked about that.

Pierce Brantley:

We're like, what?

Pierce Brantley:

What's wrong with those guitars?

Pierce Brantley:

And the tour guide goes is nothing wrong with the guitars.

Pierce Brantley:

He said, every single one of them plays just fine.

Pierce Brantley:

He said our standard here at Gibson.

Pierce Brantley:

He said, if there is one speck of dust on the paint, if there was one malaligned.

Pierce Brantley:

Not on the adjusters, if there is a grain of a knot that shows up

Pierce Brantley:

or a grain of color in the wood that looks wrong on the neck, he

Pierce Brantley:

said the entire guitar is useless.

Pierce Brantley:

We throw the entire thing away.

Pierce Brantley:

He said, and we're so strict about the.

Pierce Brantley:

That he said, even if an employee were to go in and take one of these

Pierce Brantley:

perfectly playable guitars out of the dumpster, he said they get fired.

Pierce Brantley:

He said that we have a zero tolerance policy on.

Pierce Brantley:

Again, perfectly playable guitars.

Pierce Brantley:

Absolutely useless from the perspective of a standard of a

Pierce Brantley:

standard bare in the industry.

Pierce Brantley:

The same thing is true of Mercedes.

Pierce Brantley:

I saw this cool documentary years ago and Mercedes was going

Pierce Brantley:

through their final point check.

Pierce Brantley:

And they're not the only ones that do this, but between the

Pierce Brantley:

outside panel, Of the car.

Pierce Brantley:

They have a, I think it's called a micron measurement tool and I'm

Pierce Brantley:

probably going to get that wrong, but effectively they measure down to, I

Pierce Brantley:

want to say it was two millimeters of distance between two outside panels.

Pierce Brantley:

We're talking about the decorative panels on the car.

Pierce Brantley:

If there is more than two millimeters of gap between the

Pierce Brantley:

two panels, the entire thing is.

Pierce Brantley:

To get rid of it or they go and fix the problem because the standard for

Pierce Brantley:

Mercedes is so much higher than a lot of the other vehicles in the industry.

Pierce Brantley:

Again, they're not the only ones that do this, but if there was more than

Pierce Brantley:

a two millimeter difference and you might be saying the difference between

Pierce Brantley:

two millimeters and three millimeters, is that even like noticeable from

Pierce Brantley:

the naked eye, maybe not in one area.

Pierce Brantley:

If you think of one thing going wrong in one part of the car, then it says

Pierce Brantley:

something about the entire vehicle.

Pierce Brantley:

It says something about the standard of integrity that relates to how

Pierce Brantley:

the company wants to produce things.

Pierce Brantley:

And I don't think this applies to all Christian businesses, but

Pierce Brantley:

I think often we can operate.

Pierce Brantley:

What we think is the guise of grace.

Pierce Brantley:

Meaning, we want to provide good service, but ultimately, we need to be flexible

Pierce Brantley:

if things don't go exactly right.

Pierce Brantley:

We need to be understanding about our own employees and everything else.

Pierce Brantley:

And that's true.

Pierce Brantley:

The, in that, the development of the person and the love for the person

Pierce Brantley:

should pre emanate everything we do.

Pierce Brantley:

But when you think about being a standard.

Pierce Brantley:

And you think about these two companies, Gibson and Mercedes

Pierce Brantley:

one speck of dust ruins, the whole guitar, one millimeter disqualifies

Pierce Brantley:

the entire car from being sold.

Pierce Brantley:

When you think about what it means to be a standard bearer, it means to pioneer

Pierce Brantley:

something in a space and to hold a mantle that other companies aren't doing.

Pierce Brantley:

And these details are not just for the sake of doing it.

Pierce Brantley:

Perfectionism gets obsessed with fixing things for the sake of fixing them.

Pierce Brantley:

You ever met someone who's like a die hard perfectionist and

Pierce Brantley:

you go what is the end in this?

Pierce Brantley:

And most of the time it's fixing it.

Pierce Brantley:

It is the end baking it.

Pierce Brantley:

Perfect is the end and of itself.

Pierce Brantley:

Perfectionism for its own sake is not actually that great of a thing to aspire.

Pierce Brantley:

We know it's abusive.

Pierce Brantley:

We actually talk about this and calling awaken to the purpose of your work.

Pierce Brantley:

If you say, why did my best, and my best is perfectionism.

Pierce Brantley:

That's that's your standard.

Pierce Brantley:

But that's your own personal standard, the best companies in the world.

Pierce Brantley:

They're the best in the world because of a comparison related to something else.

Pierce Brantley:

So you can't just say did my best and it's actually the best.

Pierce Brantley:

Like you, can't, that's a self fulfilling prophecy.

Pierce Brantley:

You have to go outside of your circle in order to have any standard

Pierce Brantley:

at all, a personal standard.

Pierce Brantley:

That gives you personal integrity does not actually do anything

Pierce Brantley:

for the market competitively.

Pierce Brantley:

All right.

Pierce Brantley:

Rant done, but being a standard bare.

Pierce Brantley:

These companies that, that obsess about details, what they're obsessing about

Pierce Brantley:

is not details for the sake of details.

Pierce Brantley:

It is creating something that is special to, for the sake of the

Pierce Brantley:

consumer that otherwise wouldn't exist.

Pierce Brantley:

And some of you, if you're going to, you're going to hate on

Pierce Brantley:

me in the comments, I've been as I've been as, as another.

Pierce Brantley:

Company out there and they are super flashy and they got tons

Pierce Brantley:

of mother of Pearl and tons of decoration and everything else.

Pierce Brantley:

Their guitars simply aren't as good as.

Pierce Brantley:

As Gibson guitars they're best you could.

Pierce Brantley:

The most money you could spend on the best Ivan as guitar would fall flat

Pierce Brantley:

compared to a Gibson and fall five compared to a lot of other guitars too.

Pierce Brantley:

But that's beside the point.

Pierce Brantley:

And the reason is because the cumulative effect of the details

Pierce Brantley:

themselves are unto something greater.

Pierce Brantley:

They are the sum of the whole, so to speak.

Pierce Brantley:

What does this mean for us as a kingdom business leaders

Pierce Brantley:

as Christian entrepreneurs?

Pierce Brantley:

I believe everyone listening to this right now that God has given you something, he

Pierce Brantley:

might be calling it to mind right now, or maybe you should spend some time praying

Pierce Brantley:

about it that you are a standard bearer.

Pierce Brantley:

Meaning God has given you a skillset and an aptitude that isn't normal

Pierce Brantley:

and what he is calling you to is to develop that out and then eventually

Pierce Brantley:

move into being a standard bearer.

Pierce Brantley:

Someone who takes new territory, who goes into the unknown and sets the standard

Pierce Brantley:

for the rest of the industry for the rest of the competitive landscape, the

Pierce Brantley:

best companies do not compete on price.

Pierce Brantley:

You think of like Peter Drucker's awesome theory and everything else.

Pierce Brantley:

They don't compete on price.

Pierce Brantley:

And I would say the best company.

Pierce Brantley:

Don't even compete directly with other companies.

Pierce Brantley:

It's not a competition because what they're in pursuit of is

Pierce Brantley:

not beating the competition.

Pierce Brantley:

What they're in pursuit of is the pursuit of excellence and that

Pierce Brantley:

upward shift that aspiring shift moves them farther and farther away

Pierce Brantley:

from the quote unquote competition.

Pierce Brantley:

It doesn't even become a competition because we're not even talking

Pierce Brantley:

about the same thing anymore.

Pierce Brantley:

And that's my encouragement to you as a business leader is to get so good

Pierce Brantley:

under the building out of your talent or your business acumen, and then being so

Pierce Brantley:

conscious of what God has given you as a gift of anointing, that when you rest in

Pierce Brantley:

those things for so long before, You're not even in the same plane field anymore.

Pierce Brantley:

And that isn't just to your own benefit, your customers benefit the industry

Pierce Brantley:

benefits the landscape of consumerism in that area benefits because of your

Pierce Brantley:

pursuit of standard bearing excellence.

Pierce Brantley:

There's also a spiritual component to this as well.

Pierce Brantley:

And this is the idea of holiness.

Pierce Brantley:

Now you need to hold these with a special kind of, openhandedness

Pierce Brantley:

because what I don't want you to do is get religious in this, but

Pierce Brantley:

holiness is about being set apart.

Pierce Brantley:

Jimmy Lynn go listen to that episode as a fantastic book and talk about what it

Pierce Brantley:

means to be a Christian in the pursuit.

Pierce Brantley:

Of holiness and that should have a meaningful impact

Pierce Brantley:

on my life as a believer.

Pierce Brantley:

But beyond that,

Pierce Brantley:

the recognition that I have been set apart should also set

Pierce Brantley:

apart the way in which I do.

Pierce Brantley:

Looking at the life of Joseph, the Bible over and over again, says he had favor

Pierce Brantley:

in crazy scenarios in life and it's because he lived his life differently.

Pierce Brantley:

And that had an impact on the things that he did on the actual things

Pierce Brantley:

that he did in his working day.

Pierce Brantley:

And so the pursuit of holiness should actually pair have a parallel.

Pierce Brantley:

To my pursuit of excellence.

Pierce Brantley:

Now being excellent does not make me holy.

Pierce Brantley:

That is not what I'm saying, but I'm saying in the heart of the believer,

Pierce Brantley:

there shouldn't be a separation between church and state, so to speak, meaning

Pierce Brantley:

the things that I do, pragmatically and the things that my heart rests in.

Pierce Brantley:

Shouldn't be different.

Pierce Brantley:

There should be a melding of the spirit man.

Pierce Brantley:

And the working man together.

Pierce Brantley:

So to sell up two types of excellence, the standard keeper and the standard

Pierce Brantley:

bearer, you need both mindsets, but one if done well, eventually I

Pierce Brantley:

believe does graduate into the other for those who are super achievers.

Pierce Brantley:

And he a gram threes with the do not think that.

Pierce Brantley:

One is better than the other.

Pierce Brantley:

You can't have one without the other.

Pierce Brantley:

And in some ways, in some areas it's best to know that you actually

Pierce Brantley:

meeting the standard before going and creating your own.

Pierce Brantley:

That's just some practical business advice.

Pierce Brantley:

So action.

Pierce Brantley:

It's a lunch break.

Pierce Brantley:

I want you to prayer fully consider maybe do this as a workshop with.

Pierce Brantley:

You can do this in 30 minutes with a little bit of prayer and a little

Pierce Brantley:

bit of coffee whiteboard this out.

Pierce Brantley:

And it is where are we not meeting the standard so we can

Pierce Brantley:

call this the standard meters.

Pierce Brantley:

That's one column.

Pierce Brantley:

Then the other is where do we think we're standard keepers,

Pierce Brantley:

meaning we are holding the.

Pierce Brantley:

And you need to have some areas again, where you're holding the line and then

Pierce Brantley:

where are we going to be standard bearers?

Pierce Brantley:

And I believe this has a spiritual connotation to it.

Pierce Brantley:

You should not be innovating without intimacy.

Pierce Brantley:

We've talked about this before standard bears, when it Toms to innovation, the

Pierce Brantley:

Christian does not innovate without intimacy, meaning I don't get anything

Pierce Brantley:

without a prayer full consideration.

Pierce Brantley:

I let the Lord lead me in the direction that I should go.

Pierce Brantley:

And that ended up itself is unto innovation in my business.

Pierce Brantley:

So go through these three columns standard Mader standard keeper, standard

Pierce Brantley:

bearer, and identify analytically specifically what the landscape of

Pierce Brantley:

excellent looks like for your business.

Pierce Brantley:

So that you can make prayerful decisions about where you can improve

Pierce Brantley:

and where you can have greater impact with your customers in your industry,

Pierce Brantley:

anywhere that you're touching.

Pierce Brantley:

All right.

Pierce Brantley:

My friends is great talking to you.

Pierce Brantley:

I hope this was a helpful exercise for you and for your business.

Pierce Brantley:

If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend.

Pierce Brantley:

If you're on iTunes, we'd also really appreciate it on podcasts.

Pierce Brantley:

If you would rate it that isn't just for us to make us feel good,

Pierce Brantley:

that actually helps the episode be seen, which means more Christian

Pierce Brantley:

business leaders can find it.

Pierce Brantley:

And so we'd be grateful to you and I'm sure new listeners would as.

Pierce Brantley:

That's all for now, have a great week and don't forget to think.

Pierce Brantley:

Eternally, thank you for listening.

Pierce Brantley:

If you enjoyed the show, do me a favor and leave a quick review.

Pierce Brantley:

When you do it helps other entrepreneurs find this content and

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Eternal Entrepreneur—Equipping Christian Businesses
Eternal Entrepreneur—Equipping Christian Businesses
Podcast for the Christian Business, The Kingdom Business, and Faith-based Entrepreneur

Listen for free

About your hosts

Profile picture for Pierce Brantley

Pierce Brantley

Profile picture for Joe Newton

Joe Newton