First the good news....

The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence represents a breakthrough in management thought. It highlights the importance of managing your whole organization and provides a balanced assessment of your company and its capabilities. It highlights areas of organizational dynamics and leadership competencies that are often overlooked by small and large organizations. Most important, it provides a framework for defining excellence at every level of your organization.

Baldrige deserves careful study by every leader striving to understand what it takes to achieve organizational greatness. However, with all its attention to detail, its usefulness is limited by its own charter, which, in my opinion, does not go far enough.

Baldrige dangles the carrot of "Performance Excellence" right in front of your nose.... but does not let you have a bite to eat.

Baldrige, for all its brilliance, is only an assessment. It is a kind of comprehensive "Report Card" for your business. It sets a very high performance standard, but does not tell you how to achieve those standards. The Baldrige Assessment highlights your company’s weaknesses but will not tell you how to make required improvements.

It's enough to give a business leader a headache...

To better understand this point, all you have to do is read the following excerpt from the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence:

"The Criteria are nonprescriptive (sic) …The focus is on results, not on procedures, tools or organization structure….. Selection of tools, techniques,systems and organizational structure usually depends on factors such as business type and size, your organization’s stage of development…"

As you can see, the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence severely limits the scope of its purpose to self-assessment. And, even though it represents an extraordinary synthesis of current management thought, it only sets the standard for excellence -- it does not tell you how to achieve excellence.

What you need is a leadership strategy, that fills the "Baldrige Void" by supplying you with the tools, techniques, systems and organizational structure that your business needs to achieve "Performance Excellence". What you need is Baldrige Step-by-Step.

First, Decide what you want: A Baldrige Award, Success or both.

Most leaders who download the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence are simply curious about how Baldrige can help their businesses succeed. These leaders want to achieve "Performance Excellence." They want to strive for the Baldrige benchmark of competitiveness, quality and productivity.

After all, as a business leader the greatest possible award you can receive is Success itself! Although, you have to admit... it would be nice to have a shiny Baldrige Award in your trophy case. Nevertheless, positive cash flow, high profits, winning teams, industry respect, well run projects, meetings and strategies would be an even more valuable award. Don't you agree?

In my opinion, the greatest contribution Baldrige can make to your success is that the Criteria for Performance Excellence identifies the kinds of tools, techniques, systems and structure your business needs to Win Big.

You need to start by reading the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. You can download it for free at www.baldrige.gov.

As you read the document, f ocus on understanding the importance of the leadership tools, techniques, systems and structure. They are key to your success.

Once you understand what leadership tools, techniques, systems and structure your business needs.... you are half way to achieving new levels of success and preparing your business for the Baldrige Assessment and even Award.

What if you had the tools, techniques, systems and structure -- Ready-made and ready to implement?

Imagine if Baldrige gave you the actual tools, techniques, systems and structure you need to lead your business to incredible success and win the Baldrige Award. Imagine how great it would be to avoid wasting the time, effort and money needed to create those tools yourself. Your business would be the shining example of "Performance Excellence," Baldrige style.

The fact is, every business requires the same universal leadership tools, techniques, systems and structure to achieve "Performance Excellence." That's what makes the Baldrige document so valuable and relevant. It applies to all organizations...even non-profits.

Think about it: Every business requires leadership tools, techniques and systems for:

• Marketplace Analysis

• Strategic Planning

• Project Management

• Process Standardization

• Team-Building & Leadership Development

• Program of Continual Improvement

Furthermore, every business requires a comprehensive "Organizational Structure" that uses these tools to create a standardized leadership framework.

To understand this, all you need to do is read the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The message is loud and clear.

The problem for most businesses is that they do not have access to either the leadership framework or the tools. That's too bad; because, the leadership framework and the tools make business-building quick, easy and even fun.

If your objective is to transform your business quickly and become a Baldrige Award contender, you really need the ready-made framework and the ready-to-use tools. Without them, the effort required to create the tools will far exceed the effort required to use them to transform your company.

To learn more about this subject, get a copy of the free eBook titled, “My Win Big™ Secret – The Ultimate Small Business Breakthrough Strategy” – www.winbig.org/secret.