The Daily Pursuit of Excellence: The 4 Keys to Achieving Superior Performance
The Daily Pursuit of Excellence is one of the best leadership books to help you maximize your personal effectiveness, influence people, improve organizational efficiency, and develop a culture of excellence in your company. The learnings from 50 years of experience are summarized in the 4 key principles for achieving superior performance-leadership, people, systems, and culture.
The principles enable rapid transformation in any organization. Through personal stories and experiences, a proven roadmap is provided for demonstrating strong leadership to create a culture of excellence that matches the expectations of the organization. In today's competitive environment, individuals and organizations must be best-in-class to compete and win.
Smolik's book describes a practical way to be a results-focused leader and drive improvement in safety, reliability, quality, and the customer experience.
The book summarizes best practices in a manner that readers can easily understand and implement. A clear roadmap is provided for how to design, utilize, and maintain a good management system and to create a strong culture that provides consistency in performance and productivity. Simplicity is a prevailing theme throughout the book.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Safety performance is about leadership, culture, processes, and discipline. Sam’s passion for safety really comes through in this book.”
***** Bob Patel, Chief Executive Officer, W. R. Grace, Former Chief Executive Officer, Lyondellbasell Industries
“This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to take his/her organization to the next level of performance and competitive differentiation!”
*****Robert W. Bryant, Former Chief Executive Officer, Axalta Coating Systems
“Sam’s book accomplishes what hundreds of other publications have attempted to do, which is to simplify and clearly state how to achieve step-change in an organization.”
*****Charlie Shaver, Chairman and CEO, Nouryon Chemicals (Carlyle Private Equity)
“Sam Smolik was my very first management new hire at LyondellBasell after I was brought in to help the company recover and emerge from bankruptcy. Our employees led the way with best-in-class operational performance, cost structure, and most importantly, industry-leading safety results.”
***** James Gallogly, Former Chief Executive Officer, LyondellBasell
“This book offers a comprehensive step-by-step approach to creating an incident and injury-free workplace. A must-read for today’s managers.”
*****Jeet Bindra, Retired President, Chevron Global Manufacturing
“When you invest 50 years of your life into something with the passion and skill of Sam Smolik, amazing things happen. Businesses have been improved and transformed, people have been changed, and most importantly, through his focus on safety, lives have been saved.”
***** Kevin Garland, Chief Executive Officer, Mountaire Farms
“The Daily Pursuit of Excellence is strong because it is real event-driven with truthful outcomes.”
***** Jon Hodges, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Evergreen North America
“Sam Smolik’s decades of experience make this book a must-read for anyone who wants a roadmap to safety excellence.”
*****Katie Mehnert, Chief Executive Officer, ALLY Energy
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