Good enough is quietly becoming your team’s ceiling.
And chasing perfection? That’s a different kind of trap.
Here’s something I’ve observed working alongside elite NASCAR crews and Fortune 1000 leadership teams – the best performers don’t live at either extreme. They find the space in between. And that space has a name.
It’s called Excellence.
The Spectrum Nobody Talks About
Most leaders unknowingly operate at one of two extremes:
They accept good enough because it’s comfortable, it shipped, the client didn’t complain. Or they chase perfection – endlessly refining, hesitating, holding back – and nothing ever quite measures up or gets off the ground.
Here’s the truth about both:
Good enough becomes a ceiling when no one calls it out.
Perfection becomes a paralysis that keeps you from ever shipping anything.
Neither wins championships.
What does? Excellence – the intentional, defined standard that lives between the two.
Ernest Hemingway captured how quietly standards slip in The Sun Also Rises and one character asks the other who had gone bankrupt:
“How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
Excellence erodes the same way. Not in one dramatic failure – but in the quiet accumulation of almost right and close enough, until the team forgets what great actually looked like.
What Excellence Actually Is
Here’s what I want to challenge: Excellence is not a feeling. It’s not a vibe. And it is absolutely not perfection.
Excellence is a shared agreement – and the “E” in my E.P.I.C. Pursuit framework is built entirely on this idea.
What does excellence look like here? What does it sound like? What does it feel like when we’re in it?
Can every person on your team answer those questions the same way?
If the answer is no, you don’t have a performance problem. You have a definition problem.
Excellence is built from named behaviors and actions – the specific things your team agrees to do, consistently, that represent the standard. Not the perfect outcome. Not a flawless product. But the intentional habits and practices that put you in the best position to win.
In racing, excellence isn’t a perfect lap. It’s the agreed-upon execution of every corner entry, every fuel strategy, every communication call between the driver and crew chief. When those behaviors are named, practiced, and expected – performance compounds.
The Leader’s Role in Setting the Standard
Here’s the hard part.
If your team is living at good enough, that’s feedback – not about them, but about whether the standard has ever been clearly named.
Perfection creates anxiety. It moves the goal post every time someone gets close.
Excellence creates alignment. It says: here’s what we’ve agreed great looks like. Here are the behaviors and actions that get us there. Now let’s go do that – every day.
The 1% principle lives here. Not perfection. Not a radical overhaul. Just the daily discipline of naming the behaviors that represent your standard – and then choosing to live into them, one decision at a time.
Good enough keeps you in the race.
Perfection keeps you in the garage.
Excellence wins championships.
⚡ ACTION STEP 1 – Your Individual Diagnostic
Think about one area of your work right now. Ask yourself:
Am I operating at good enough, chasing perfection, or genuinely in the space of excellence?
Be honest. Don’t defend it. Just name it. That awareness alone is the first step to changing it.
⚡ ACTION STEP 2 – A Reality Check With Your Team
In your next one-on-one or team huddle, ask this:
“If someone from outside our team watched us work this week, would they be able to clearly describe what excellence looks like for us?”
Notice whether your team can answer clearly – and consistently. The gap between their answers is where misalignment lives.
⚡ ACTION STEP 3 – Name Your Excellence Standard Together
Within the next week, bring your team together and do this:
Pick one area of your work – a client interaction, a deliverable, a meeting. Ask everyone to write down:
What are the specific behaviors and actions that represent excellence in this area?
Compare answers. Build the shared definition. Post it. Return to it. When excellence is named, it can be practiced. When it’s practiced daily, it becomes your standard – not perfection, not good enough, but the intentional best your team has agreed to pursue.
There’s a ceiling above good enough – and it has your team’s name on it.
The question isn’t whether you want excellence. It’s whether you’ve defined it clearly enough, actually, to pursue it.
Where does your team currently live – good enough, perfection, or excellence? And what’s one behavior you could name together this week that would close that gap?