Performance leadership and management

It is a cliché that “People do not like change”. It is also wrong. It is not that people do not like change, they do. What they dislike is change where they have no control over their destiny or influence over the direction.

The problems of measure mania and tyranny of targets come as much from the effects of diktat and imposed targets as the effects of too many unrelated measures and targets.

In contrast, my objective, and I hope your objective, is to have a team of people who understand what they need to achieve and also why they need to achieve it; a team who have helped develop and refine the strategy, who understand its purpose, the timing, its importance and the level of ambition required, and who that are engaged in the process so they are thinking about how they can help, contribute and make a difference.

These are aspects of a culture of performance. It is management’s responsibility to lead and create this environment. I call this performance leadership.

Making sure it happens is performance management.

Learning from this as you implement and monitor your strategy, so you can refine, develop and re-communicate the refinements to your strategy, is called strategic learning.

I use these expressions a lot when talking with clients as theyare distinctions that help clarify how strategy is communicated.

You can read more on the excitant website about creating a culture of performance.

Phil Jones
Excitant Ltd