A High Growth Leaders Guide to Peak Performance

In any business climate, it is imperative that businesses are leveraging their resources to achieve peak performance. Here are 8 simple but effective steps to help leaders move towards this desirable state:

1. Develop a concise Vision Statement. A well written vision will assist you to enrol & inspire your people as well as provide a clear strategic direction. Your vision should also include your key values that will reinforce and attract the right people whilst repelling the rest.
2. Document your organisational structure. If you can’t draw it on paper, it doesn’t exist and it will cause confusion in accountability and responsibility. Don’t worry about who is in each position yet – that comes later. Document the positions.
3. Develop clear responsibilities and measures for all positions, starting at the strategic level. If confusion exists at the top, it will also exist further down the organisational chart. These will ideally include financial, customer, team and process responsibilities and measures. What gets measured gets managed!
4. Get the right people in the right seats on the bus. It is not good enough to simply have the right people on the bus – they need to be in the right seat, with the right resources. This means never hiring B grade managers – they in turn will only ever hire B or C grade people!
5. Manage the performance of your team. Your people can provide competitive advantage that can be difficult for your competitors to replicate – this however does not lie in the realm of mediocrity. Be ruthless in demanding ownership, accountability & responsibility and be quick to reject blame, excuses and denial.
6. Invest in your people, both financially and emotionally. Engaging the hearts and minds of your people is key to developing this competitive advantage. Start with your key managers – often these people are promoted into management positions based on their technical not leadership ability.
7. Recognise and reward the behaviours in your business that are driving you toward your vision. Build your emotional bank account by ‘catching your people doing something right’
8. Lead with authenticity & integrity. There is no shortage of managers in business but very few leaders. Be genuine and do what you say you will. If you don’t follow through on your small commitments then people won’t trust you to follow through on the large ones either.