I have been a fan of Tom Peters for 20 years. His passion and enthusiasm remains undimmed and shining brightly. He’s written a new book called The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence, which will be available in a couple of months. For many years I have been talking about the ‘I’ words and the ‘E’ words and one of Tom’s recent blogs (tompeters.com) talked about The 19 E’s of Excellence. Ranging from Enthusiasm, Exuberance, Edginess, Emotion, Empathy through to Eudaimonia! Here are the 19 E’s from Tom sent to me by another great enthusiast, Alan Webber.

The 19 Es of Excellence

    * Enthusiasm! Be an irresistible force of nature!
    * Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)
    * Exuberance! Vibrate – cause earthquakes!
    * Execution! Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney! Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel! Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame no one! Expect nothing! Do something!”
    * Empowerment!Respect and appreciation rule! Always ask, “What do you think?” Then listen! Then let go and liberate! Then celebrate!
    * Edginess! Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.
    * Enraged! Determined to challenge and change the status quo! Motto: “If it ain’t broke, break it!”
    * Engaged! Addicted to MBWA / Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.
    * Electronic! Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building of every sort.
    * Encompassing! Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions – the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works”!
    * Emotion! The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales. The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.
    * Empathy! Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk in the other person’s shoes” – until the soles have holes!
    * Experience! Life is theatre! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard: “Insanely Great” / Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling” / BMW.
    * Eliminate! Keep it simple!
    * Error-prone! Ready! Fire! Aim! Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff and make some more booboos – all of it at the speed of light!
    * Evenhanded! Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!
    * Expectations! Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Amen!
    * Eudaimonia! Pursue the highest of human moral purpose – the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.
    * EXCELLENCE! Never an exception! If not Excellence, what?

Tom Peters blogs at tompeters.com. His new book, The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence will be available in March 2010.