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The Excellence Blueprint

“‘High potentials’ will take care of themselves. The great productivity ‘secret’ is improving the performance of the 60% in the middle of the distribution.”

Tom Peters


Exemplary Performance has been able to increase value for our clients across a wide range of industries. We do this by utilizing a consistent approach that leverages your own best performers and replicates their performance, what some have called “internal benchmarking.”


External benchmarking encounters challenges when it comes to implementing lessons learned in the sponsoring organization. What may be a best practice in one business becomes impossible to implement in another due to differing organizational cultures and evolving market dynamics.


Even amid “sub-optimal work environments,” or with less-than-ideal tools and resources, your star performers have figured out how to make things work. They are readily available, inexpensive, aligned culturally, and have rich mental models. We identify their roadblocks to superior performance, as well as the work-a-rounds, transferring that expertise to all performers in a given role. The net result is both a short and longer-term plan for improving organizational performance.


Shifting the performance curve is all about driving results, enhancing revenue, and improving margins. Our model and methodology allow organizations, their leaders, and teams to capture more value with existing resources, and includes:

Recreate Your Top 1% of Talent

You know who they are. The top 1%. Your go-to people when you need something accomplished. But did you ever stop to consider what it is that makes them shine? These folks have an inherent sense of purpose and operate with greater efficiency. They are insatiable learners and have honed unique filters that only allow specific, high-value information in that will accelerate their performance. We help client organizations articulate meaningful metrics and as a by-product, capture their stars.

Decoding the Differences That Make a Difference

Stars in any industry focus on those actions that contribute most to achieving their goals. They do this so naturally and effortlessly, through learning and experience, that it becomes a part of them. We call this “unconscious competence” and we help them articulate their measures of success and how they think about their role. Often this process alone boosts star performance 10-20% as they share better practices and learn from other high performers.

Replicate Stars for Sustained Change

With a high-performance blueprint extracted, and embedded into job descriptions, hiring guides, new hire and incumbent training, and performance management, a transferable model of expertise is created. When all employees perform in their role with the same higher purpose, and are equipped and coached to produce the same outcomes, the organization realizes tangible impact to the bottom line. 

Looking for Guidance?

Press the button to request a full analysis of your star performers.

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