Leading High Performance Organizations
Author: Brian Ward

Organize your leadership efforts around a high performance trilogy

Leaders in high performance organizations know that they must excel in every aspect of their business.

To achieve that, they must develop high performance leaders throughout their organizations, who in turn must build high performance teams. These teams must develop and implement high performance strategies...and all of these 'musts' need to be perfectly aligned in order for the whole to work.

The process of building and aligning this trilogy of leadership, strategy and teamwork competencies is an iterative one...so where do you start?

There is no simple answer to that.

We find that asking the following questions can reveal where the most leverage lies, and after all, if you want to make change happen, you need as much leverage as you can find...

LEADERSHIP
How many of your managers can be classed as true leaders, who will act as change champions? Is that where your leverage lies?

For help with this, read the article The Five Key Facets of Quality Leadership

STRATEGY
How compelling, inspiring, and understandable is your business strategy? Does it get you up in the morning and keep you awake at night (for the right reasons)? Do you have a way to communicate, monitor and measure performance against it?

For help with this, read the article Planning as Doing

TEAMWORK
How many of your teams are truly aligned with your organization's strategy? Can change champions, and the leverage they bring, emerge from within these teams?

For help with this, read the article The Eternally Successful Team

Asking these questions will help you discover many truths about your organization, its leaders and those who, although not in formal leadership positions, can emerge as champions of change.

Building a high performance organization requires a special blend of leadership, strategy and teamwork. The recipe for success is different for every organization, but the ingredients are much the same.

And if after reading this you are still not sure where to start, my advice is, if you 'must', to start with leadership.






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Brian Ward is a Principal in Affinity Consulting, and the author of "Lead People...Manage Things: Master the Five Key Facets of Quality Leadership and Become a Great Leader"

He assists organizations of all sizes develop high performance cultures incorporating leadership, strategy and teamwork. He can be contacted at brianward@affinitymc.com - his website is at www.affinitymc.com where you can subscribe to his free monthly newsletter Strategy in Action

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