Crossword Genius

Attention to detail of former head about individual performance (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

exactness

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'attention to detail' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'former head about individual performance' is the wordplay.
'former' becomes 'ex'.
'head' becomes 'ness' (ness is a headland).
'about' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'individual performance' becomes 'act' (act is a kind of performance. I am not sure about the 'individual' bit.**).
'ness' after 'act' is 'actness'.
'ex'+'actness'='EXACTNESS'

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for exactness that I've seen before include "Precision" , "nice" , "truth?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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