Nothing is more effective than consistency when it comes to making your company, or your performance, stand out. In a sense, it underlines the message you want to convey to stakeholders and customers regarding your ability to regularly achieve goals and objectives. In short, consistency is the habit that leads to successful projects.
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In any enterprise, consistency means that you’re organized, and people know what to expect. That consistency creates an atmosphere where managers and employees are more comfortable. And where there’s consistency, there is usually productivity. While change is inevitable, a lot of wasted energy can be focused on unnecessary change: change that you should be able to control, such as policies and procedures. Being consistent in the fundamental structure of an organization means that teams don’t have to stop working to get accustomed to new regulations.
Then there’s the baseline of consistency, which allows for easier measurement of progress with reporting tools. Therefore, when you apply new initiatives, you have consistent data on which to compare whether the change is for better or worse. Also, when managers and teams are consistent, then they’re accountable because everyone knows what’s expected.
What else can we say about consistency? Nothing more than what’s already been said by greater minds than ours, which is why we’ve collected 10 of the best consistency quotes. To make sure you don’t misquote us, we created popup art for each quote, so you can cut them out and place them around the office for when you need a beacon to help you maintain your work ethic.
1. “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest.” – Maya Angelou
Consistency gets a bad name, but the truth is that it’s the bedrock on which all things that make a person a success stand. Author Maya Angelou understood this and anyone in business can relate. A lack of consistency undermines trust and the best-laid plans of mice and men, well, you know how that goes.
2. “I’ve learned from experience that if you work hard at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work.” – Louis C.K.
Comedian Louis C.K. has almost a Shakespearean career arc. He was on top of the world and with a disturbing revelation has been taken off that peak. But as much as the word canceled is thrown around, he’s still telling jokes for a living. Like him or not, He is proof that consistency has its own rewards.
3. “I don’t have a formula to pass on. I always did it my own way. Even today, I hold my independence close. It’s what’s most precious to me. Passion. Risk. Tenacity. Consistency. This is my professional history.” – Giorgio Armani
His fashion may be too rich for most of us, but we all know his brand. Giorgio Armani has turned his name into a global brand in an industry that is fickle and difficult to rise in for a season let alone decades. Being true to oneself is not as easy as it seems. It can be scary. But Armani has shown how his consistency has been the fabric by which he has woven a successful career.
4. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This famous quote by transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson is often used to critique consistency, but that’s because the word foolish is often omitted when one brings the phrase to mind. Consistency can be used wisely, but it is important to think about how that consistency is being enacted. Foolish consistency, as in any foolish endeavor is destined to fail.
5. “In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.” – Tom Seaver
Pitcher Tom Seaver might be talking about baseball, but the same can be said about business. Too often people get lost in data and follow the trends without keeping a consistency to their work. While numbers aren’t without value, they are useless without a consistently reliable brand, product or service.
6. “Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” – Dwayne Johnson
With a nickname like “The Rock,” what else would you expect? The wrestler-turned-actor knows that waiting for inspiration is not an option. Working consistently towards a goal will have you not only achieve it in time but will also reveal greatness in the process.
7. “In any team sport, the best teams have consistency and chemistry.” – Roger Staubach
Though this NFL quarterback was referring to football, his consistency quote could just as easily be about business if you delete the word “sport.” A quarterback is like a manager, one who assembles a team and has an ethic of consistency to get their project over the goal line. And chemistry is often the byproduct of that consistency.
Related: 10 Strategies to Motivate Your Team
8. “I pray to be like the ocean, with soft currents, maybe waves at time. More and more, I want the consistency rather than the highs and lows.” – Drew Barrymore
Actress Drew Barrymore has known her share of highs and lows, coming from a famous family and experiencing the roller-coaster ride of early fame. Over that time, she’s come to understand that consistency is the best course to live a happier and more productive life. The same can be said about any project, which suffers from apathy as much as it can from exuberance.
9. “Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose and of action over a long period of time.” – Bruce Springsteen
They don’t call him “The Boss” for nothing. His career is a perfect example of a creative project that is subject to the demands of the marketplace. A lot of talent goes unseen, or withers on the vine, without the consistency to care for that soil and put in the hard work over time to make it bloom again and again.
10. “Consistency is found in that work whose whole and detail are suitable to the occasion. It arises from circumstance, custom and nature.” – Vitruvius
Roman author, architect, civil engineer and military engineer Vitruvius wrote the book on architecture and knew that consistency wasn’t simply repeating the same task. Consistency is one piece of the larger structure that must be aligned with the other elements involved in the project. This means that consistency for consistency’s sake is wrong. Consistency grows out of the parameters of your project.
11. “People like consistency. Whether it’s a store or a restaurant, they want to come in and see what you are famous for.” – Millard Drexler
Millard Drexler, former CEO and current chairman of the J. Crew Group, knows that the customer might not always be right, but they have certain expectations that must be met for any enterprise to succeed. Consistency helps lay that groundwork, which will bring stakeholders to your team for the work they want done because it’s the work you’ve shown you can do well.
12. “It’s very easy to make a viral video, but longevity and consistency, that’s hard.” – Michelle Phan
Nobody said it would be easy. We live in a culture that loves a flash in the pan. Success has a shelf life that lasts about as long as it takes to make the next clip. Certainly, makeup artist and YouTube sensation Michelle Phan gets it. Anyone can make you notice them once, maybe even twice, but to have staying power means consistency, which isn’t based on gimmicks. It’s hard work.
13. “Part of courage is simple consistency.” – Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan, a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and political columnist for The Wall Street Journal, speaks of courage, but not without noting its underlying foundation in consistency. Once you’ve done your due diligence and have made that plan, it often takes great courage to follow it consistently, but it’s often that lodestar that will lead you to the mountaintop after wading through the valleys. That doesn’t mean that you should be stubborn. Know when change trumps consistency.
14. “Anyone that has a job that takes them away from home, I think, can understand the difficulties in maintaining consistency, not only with your family and those you love but with your friends.” – Heath Ledger
Consistency might be the goal, but there are hurdles blocking that path, many of which are unexpected. Actor Heath Ledger is talking about working in film, but the same is true with any project. It can keep you from those you love, and that will erode the consistency of your work. It’s something to be on guard about. You can’t neglect the important balance of life and work, and you can’t let one corrupt the other.
15. “What makes a publishing house great? The easy answer is the consistency with which it produces books of value over a lengthy period of time.” – Robert Gottlieb
As editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf and The New Yorker, Robert Gottlieb knows about success in publishing. It’s that simple. Just make the best product, and do it every time. That, of course, is easier said than done. But as we end this series of quotes on consistency, it’s good to get back to the basics. Aim high and stay there.
Take Your Consistency to the Next Level with ProjectManager
“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” – Tom Landry
A football game is a project of sorts. It’s limited in time, you have a team tasked with a goal, (literally, in this case) and a quarterback and manager who have a plan to get there. Coach Tom Landry knows that a big part of that is consistency, showing up and doing the work.
Real-Time Communication
Imagine how much more glory he could have attained with a project management tool like ProjectManager. Our software has features that make planning transparent, so everyone is always on the same page. Communications are facilitated by email alerts, so whenever a project status is updated, you know about it.
Live Data for Better Execution
Trusting your team is important. It builds morale and creates greater productivity. But to make sure they’re consistently executing their tasks, we monitor and report on their progress. Our real-time dashboard gives you a high-level view of workload, costs and more. While one-click reporting goes into deeper detail, with filters to show just the data you want. And you can share it with stakeholders, so they see that you’re consistently meeting your milestones.
Flexibility to Maintain Good Results
While consistency is important, being unduly wedded to it can be dangerous. Projects must bend or they’ll break, which is why our software is flexible to pivot as changes threaten to derail your work. For example, you can catch potential bottlenecks in your workflow with our kanban board project view, which gives you visibility into production. Before it becomes an issue, you can quickly reallocate resources and stay on track.
Consistency is sometimes great, other times it’s the hobgoblin of little minds, but one thing you can count on is ProjectManager. Our award-winning software organizes your projects for quality deliverables, on time and within budget.
If you’re looking for consistency, the last thing you want is a tool flaking out on you. It’s hard enough to work towards consistency without having to second-guess the software you’re using to get there. ProjectManager is an online project management software that you can depend on. It gives you the real-time data you need and the features to plan, monitor and report consistently. Try it today and see with this free 30-day trial.
