Leadership and Performance

The Leadership Challenge Middle East

Leadership has one objective.
It’s always and only the outcome which is the reason for leadership.
Leadership brings everyone together with a 'shared vision'.
Everyone knows where they are going, the view to the mountain peak is clear.
And performance is the ‘engine’ which will take the team there, to reach the objective. Leadership is personal, leaders build relationships. So how does the leader set the basis for achieving the outcome, for determining the performance along the way?
This begins with the leader, simply saying to everybody in the team: “We know the objective. So let’s talk about how we’re going to get there. This (plan or strategy) is what I suggest …but of course I need your input and your suggestions."
After all, we’re doing this together.
The leaders objective here is to build a culture of engagement, a culture which is focused on performance and achieving the outcome. The leader is like the chessmaster, guiding the chess pieces who then perform their task.
The leader encourages all team members to “sharpen the stone”, to look for a better way, a smoother path to the top of the mountain.
The leader enables, he or she empowers the team members to perform beyond what they believe they could do.
And of course, the leader recognizes and celebrates the achievements, the level of performance of individuals and of the team. In order to achieve performance, which is directly related to the outcome, the leader may well say “how about we set up a coaching process, so that I help you improve your performance all the time, so that if there’s any ‘course correction’ required, that can be easily handled.” The leader will also encourage “micro improvements” as part of a culture of continuous improvement.

And when it is all done and the performance objective is achieved, the leader will say “We did this together. Thank you. “