Excellence Every Day: Make the Daily Choice-Inspire Your Employees and Amaze Your Customers Book

Preface and Acknowledgments     xi
In Search of Excellence?     1
Excellence-Today More Than Ever     3
Excellence or Nothing     7
The Excellence Myth     9
Admiring the Legends     9
The Culture of Dilbertism     12
The Theory of Excellence     17
Now What?     19
Excellence Every Day?     20
The Excellence Aptitude Test     22
Why We Fail to Delight Our Customers (While We Think We Do)     25
The Gaps Tell the Story     27
"I Wish I Could Do More"     31
Excellence-Defining, Believing, Living     33
Excellence vs. Consistency     35
Anticipating Needs     37
Response-Ability     39
The Art of the Human Touch     41
Early in the Morning     43
Sincerely Yours     44
The Daily Choice You Make-Delivering Excellence One Decision at a Time     47
Choices or Chores?     50
Does It Have to Be Every Day?     51
Twenty Years to Overnight Success     52
Excellence Starts with You     53
The Puzzling Paper Clips     56
Creating OrganizationalExcellence     61
Millions of Daily Choices Every Day     61
"You Must Smile Sincerely at All Times"     64
The New "E"     67
Generation Why?     69
Upside-Down Management     71
The Entrepreneurial Manager     73
"We Just Do"     77
Fly the Server     78
Excellence and the Art of Persuasion     80
Leading Your People to Excellence     83
Serving Your Employees     83
Summer Santa     87
Live in the Customer's Shoes     89
Empowered to Make the Right Decision?     91
Permission to Fail     94
Mistake of the Month     95
Recognizing Excellence     96
Would You Go All the Way?     98
I Will Take the Cynic Over Any Other Employee     100
Tell Me a Story     103
Celebrating the Heroes     104
Excellence Enablement     106
Making Excellence Personal     109
When I Grow Up I Want to Be     109
Mechanical Performance vs. Impact Performance     113
"How Would I Want to Be Treated If I Were on the Receiving End?"     116
Inertia-Falling into a Performance Coma      117
Make It Personal     120
Hey, You! Yes, You!     122
Be Proud of Your Masterpiece     123
It Is All Around Us     125
Excellence Daily Choice-Personal Leadership     129
Performance at the Moment of Truth     129
In Search of the Right Customer     136
To Tie or Not to Tie: That Is Not the Question     139
Excellence Daily Choice-Taking Ownership     143
Waiting at the Altar     143
Chocolate Chips to the Rescue!     145
Never Give Up     147
In Sickness and in Health     150
Excellence Daily Choice-Creative Ways to Delight     153
The Extra That Makes the Difference     153
Delighting Customers One Clip at a Time     157
The Old Is Dead-Long Live the Change     160
Creating Customer Compliments in Five Minutes     170
Excellence Daily Choice-Wow!     173
All You Need Is Love ... in 11 Languages     173
Excelling at the Smallest Details     175
The Sweet Taste of Everything     178
A Courier for a Day or Redefining On-Time     178
Who Is Dr. WOW?     180
A Beary Passionate Place to Be      182
Excellence Daily Choice in Difficult Times     187
Redefining "Getting It Done"     187
With Patience and Perseverance     189
Everyone Listens to Customers     190
Chainsaw and the Art of Amazing Customer Experiences     192
Wrenching Customers Away from the Competition     196
Team Excellence or the Gifts Keep on Coming     198
Just Imagine ... Then Make It Happen     201
Are You Ready to Deliver Excellence?     204
Lifelong Pursuit of Excellence     206
Only 15 Minutes of Fame?     207
It's Showtime     208
Be Originally You     210
The More You Give, the More You Have     211
I Think I Can     212
Higher and Higher     214
Afterword: Moving Forward     217
About the Author     219