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The end of each year provides an opportunity for reflection on the past and preparation for the future. 2009 was quite a year – filled with new challenges and opportunities. But through it all, lessons were learned as people began to navigate through a changed business environment. In our series of Blogs “2009 Reflections,” we will be sharing interviews with Five Star team members who tell what they learned in 2009 and what they are preparing for in 2010.

In this blog post we will be sharing our recent interview with Lou Camerlengo.

Lou Camerlengo
President

What has ’09 taught you?
It has shown me that staff versatility and corporate agility continue to be important competencies.

What is the one big lesson that you learned this year?
The importance of continually communicating the status of business conditions with our team. Benchmarking our company’s progress on goals helps keep the team focused and motivated. You can never communicate too much.

What is your biggest personal accomplishment?
Getting settled and established in our new offices. It’s really helped our productivity and our ability to interact across all areas of the company.

What do you believe is Five Star’s biggest accomplishment this year?
Five Star’s marketing team did a really nice job of developing a comprehensive methodology and approach to external communications. We are consistently delivering value-added educational webinars, seminars, and newsletters as part of growing our brand as thought leaders.

How are you going to transfer what you learned in 2009 to 2010?
By focusing on professional development to enable our team to expand their skills within their discipline.

What do you hope to learn in 2010?
As a niche company, it’s vital to keep everyone engaged in new challenges and growth opportunities. I am going to focus on developing a more robust “leaders at every-level culture.”

Final thoughts
I am optimistic about 2010. I think we did a nice job this year of identifying and bringing on key new accounts and adding new levels of service to our existing clients.

The process of executing business strategy can’t happen solely through the efforts of a single person. Strategy execution is a team game, and it requires a commitment to collaboration and partnership within teams of people and across organizations. In fact, the people within high-performance organizations know this, and as a result, they strive to create a unique type of partnership: trust-based partnerships.

Trust-based partnerships differ from other types of agreements that people or organizations enter into in several ways.

First, the foundation of a trust-based partnership is rooted in the belief that all entering parties are pursuing a common, compelling purpose. Typically, when two are more parties enter into a partnership; each party believes that the goods and services it provides are similar enough to be complimentary to the other, but different enough to be unique. As a result, by entering into a partnership, all parties are able to enhance the value they provide, while at the same time advancing their unique mission. This is not so with trust-based partnerships. In trust-based partnerships, the foundation upon which the partnership is grounded is not to advance separate missions, but to pursue one common, compelling purpose or mission. Do you see the difference? In the traditional partnerships, both parties are free to move in separate directions, but in trust-based partnerships all parties acknowledge that there are differences in what they provide but they are joining together as they move in the same direction.

Next, trust-based partnerships require and build trust between the entering parties. There are two meanings of the word trust, which are both applicable when discussing trust-based partnerships. The first dictionary definition of trust is “an assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” The second definition is “a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship.” When describing trust-based partnerships within organizations, both definitions shed light on the nature of these partnerships. For a trust-based partnership to exist, there must be a belief that the other party is capable of delivering what it commits to and in a manner that brings value to all parties. In other words, in trust-based partnerships, trust is both given and earned.

These two differences noted in the blog are two of the most prominent differences between trust-based partnerships and more traditional partnering agreements. Ultimately, for strategy to be successfully executed, we believe that trust-based partnerships must exist between the various teams and delivery groups within organizations. Do you feel that you have entered into trust-based partnerships with your internal business partners? If so, please share your stories of how you were able to build these partnerships and the results your teams have been able to obtain in committing to trust-based partnerships.

To thrive in today’s current economic conditions, organizations must adapt rapidly. In fact, the stakes for executing new and distinctive strategies to strengthen an organization’s position, improve efficiency, and build greater customer loyalty have never been higher – either adapt or die. However, if organizations and their leaders do not link strategy changes to the long-term compelling purpose of their organization, any change could quickly be perceived as a reactionary or “flavor of the month” strategy. The need for rapid change inherently creates a challenge – what should a leader do to successfully translate changes in high-level strategy into meaningful actions that inspire and encourage action from others?

In our last newsletter, we defined leadership as an “influence relationship between leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes” (Joseph C. Rost). This definition highlights the fact that leaders and followers share equal responsibility for ensuring that strategies are successfully executed. Although responsibility is shared, what is required from each group differs greatly.

High-performing leaders are able to lead others through the process of executing innovative strategies by focusing and building strength through these five key behaviors:

• Communicating goals and the ongoing progress toward those goals.
  The goal setting process is very fluid and requires constant communication from the leader. As goals change, it is vital to communicate three important things: what is changing, why it is changing, and how the changes will help the overall organization achieve success. Once new goals are established, revisit progress against those goals and celebrate successes as appropriate.
• Influencing those involved to continue toward overall progress.
  As a leader, you do not always have to have the answers to how changes in strategy will impact every member of the team. However, as the leader you must be able to engage people in action planning and the change management process by directly involving them in the process of determining how they can personally contribute to achieve specific organizational goals. Remember that the people who are most directly affected by the strategy should have an opportunity to identify the best ways to implement the new strategy within their job responsibilities.
• Maintaining a strong emphasis on results.
  High-performing leaders focus on results. In order to successfully deliver results, there must be clearly established metrics and measurements in place that help to determine what success and failure will look like. As changes in strategy are made at the organizational level, be sure to revisit your metrics and measures and adjust them as needed.
• Removing obstacles that hinder progress.
  There is nothing more frustrating for people than being asked to execute changes, but at the same time feeling powerless to act because obstacles hinder the work that needs to take place. As a leader, one of your biggest assets can be your level of seniority within the organization and the power it provides to remove obstacles hindering people from affecting change. Once a new strategy is announced and new goals are established, be sure to encourage your people to identify obstacles. Than do whatever is within your authority to remove them!
• Resolving issues and challenges quickly and fairly.
  With any strategy change, you can expect that issues and challenges will arise. Some of these issues can include overlapping responsibilities, redundancy of work, and process breakdowns. Your response to these changes will greatly impact how effective your team will be in achieving its new goals. Unresolved issues quickly halt momentum and rapidly erode trust. Be sure that as issues arise you address them quickly and fairly. Don’t leave today’s work for tomorrow!

The organizational dimension of leadership is critical to a leader’s effectiveness and ultimate success. To be a successful Organizational Leader, you must be able to lead your team through the process of translating changes in strategy into clearly understood and measurable actions.

For more information about Organizational Leadership or Five Star’s High-Performance Leadership Model™, contact Dan Hupp at 412-802-2500.

Interested in learning how to develop high-performance leaders in your organization? Sign-up for our free webinar on September 2.

What does it take to build an enthusiastic and energetic workforce? How can you encourage all of your team members to begin each day wondering how they can do their job more effectively? Furthermore, how can you create a sense of urgency, particularly during tough economic times?

The simple answer is strong leadership. Leaders who inspire others with a compelling purpose are necessary in order to cultivate the kind of culture in which employees look forward to coming to work. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to examine each of the four key behaviors of effective Organizational Leadership.

Inspire Others with a Compelling Purpose and Vision

People have a basic desire to be a part of something important. Most want to know that they are making a difference in the world. Strong leaders have the ability to inspire that kind of purpose by effectively communicating the importance of their organization’s mission. They provide a clear vision for the future – a future that can only be reached through the commitment, competence, and energy of everyone on the team.
There are a lot of people in leadership positions who would probably not describe themselves as inspirational. When we think of inspirational leaders, persuasive speechmakers like Martin Luther King Jr. come to mind. With his “I Have a Dream” speech, he moved hundreds of thousands of people. However eloquent, it’s not necessary to possess that exact kind of charisma. What is necessary is the ability to personalize the importance and value of your work in a genuine way. Organizational leaders must be able to communicate how their team’s work makes a difference to their organization, industry, customers, and community.

We were recently motivated by this very clear example of a leader who found a way to inspire others. This person is the department manager of facilities for a corporate campus. She leads a workforce of landscapers, maintenance workers, and janitors. Her vision is simple, “We create peace and serenity for our employees and visitors. People should experience serenity when they look out the windows at a beautiful, well-groomed landscape. They should find peace and calm with the cleanliness of the restrooms and other facilities. This peace and serenity leads to higher productivity and employee morale.”

What is your compelling purpose? How do you inspire your workforce to high performance? Share your inspirational story with us by commenting here, and be sure to visit our blog next week to learn the next key behavior for effective Organizational Leadership.

This week our discussion on the importance of Relationship Leadership concludes with the focus on building trust-based partnerships, internally and externally.

Mutual trust and respect is at the heart of all effective working relationships. As a leader, it makes good sense then to realize that in order to build effective partnerships with those who work for you, alongside you, or above you, you must focus on establishing trusting relationships.

Build Trust-Based Partnerships, Internally and Externally

“Why doesn’t everyone in our organization have the same sense of urgency as I do? “ Where is the accountability?” “All I ever hear are excuses.” These are just some of the thoughts and frustrations that leaders share with us when we begin leadership development engagements. Our answer is always the same. In order to build a sense of urgency and accountability, everyone in the organization must be on the same page. The only way to create this sense of teamwork and shared responsibility is by establishing trust-based partnerships with everyone in your organization – direct reports, peer leaders, suppliers, and customers.

A partnership is formed when two or more people have a common set of goals and realize that their best chance to achieve results is through collaboration. When those building blocks are established, trust begins to grow. Each person in the partnership takes ownership for his/her part in the organization. At that point, accountability for delivering expected results is a given. You don’t want to let your partners down!

Here are the three keys to creating effective trust-based partnerships:

Frame Your Values – The leader and his/her partners have to frame their relationship around a common set of values. Each person openly discusses what is important to him/her and consistently stays true to the values that are shared by the partners. These values form the foundation for the partnership. Staying true to those values provides the strength for that partnership.

Show that You Care – The leader needs to clearly demonstrate that he/she is just as concerned about his/her partners’ success as his/her own. Taking the time to get to know a partner’s needs and interests strengthens the relationship. Listening, communicating, and doing what you can to meet your partners’ needs goes a long way toward maintaining a trusting relationship.

Deliver on the Shared Vision – The final bond that seals a trust-based partnership is delivering results. Nothing does more for a partnership than the successful feeling of being a part of a winning team. When each partner gets as much or more out of a relationship as he/she puts in it, the partnership endures.

Leaders who build trust-based partnership in all aspects of their business are able to create high-performing organizations. Do you have these kinds of partnerships with your employees, peers, suppliers, and customers?

Visit our blog next week as we begin the discussion on Organizational Leadership.

This week our discussion on the importance of Relationship Leadership continues, focusing on the next key behavior of effective leaders: Provides Open Access to Information.

No one likes to be told, “You don’t need to know that.” It’s even less flattering to hear, “That information is only available to people at a higher level than you.” In addition, it can be very disheartening to find out that you are the last to know about a change. Leaders play such an important role in the effective delivery of information to their workforce. It’s important for leaders to know the right way to deliver information, in the right amount, at the right time.

Provides Open Access to Information

When employees perceive that their leader is withholding important information from them, it leads them to believe that they are not qualified or considered important enough to know certain information. Thus, we have the beginning of the phrase, “Information Is Power!”

As a leader, you can use information to convey trust and empowerment. At the same time, you are responsible for what you share, with whom, and by when. Often, the decision regarding who gets to know what is made on the “needs to know basis” theory. Often, this theory can be too restrictive. The more information an employee has, the better prepared he/she is to make decisions quickly. With the current pace of change and the increasing demands of our customers, rapid decision making is imperative. Therefore, making information accessible to as many people as possible is a competitive advantage.

A better criteria with which to judge who should receive information is as follows. As a leader, ask yourself, “Could this information in this person’s hands be harmful to our organization?” By asking this simple question, you will feel more comfortable making more information available to more people. The challenge then becomes how to keep from overloading your employees with information. The key is providing open access to information without dumping information on employees. Make your employees aware that information is available, and tell them how to access it. Communicate change as early as possible and then direct your employees to a common source where they can receive information.

If you feel that an employee is not ready to hear certain information, that may be your cue to offer development assistance to that person so that he/she can get to a point where you feel comfortable providing open access to information. Employees who are provided with open access to information are better prepared to serve their organization and their customers.

Are you strengthening trust by preparing your employees to handle more information and make better decisions? Are you building these kinds of trust-based partnerships with your employees?

Visit our blog next week to learn the next key behavior for effective Relationship Leadership.

Our last blog began the discussion on the importance of Relationship Leadership by examining the first key behavior of effective leaders: Exemplify Personal Values and Integrity. It’s true that leaders in today’s modern workforce must be able to master critical relationship skills in order to achieve success and get things done on a day to day basis.

So much of what constitutes effective relationships between leaders and their employees begins with mutual trust and respect. In order for leaders to afford their employees the kind of necessary autonomy it takes to get work done, their workforce must feel empowered to act.

Inspire Empowerment through Purpose and Influence.

Empowerment is a term that has been rejected by many since first introduced in the 1980s. It lost its luster mainly because it was thought of as an entitlement by employees. “Good” managers thought they were obligated to “empower” employees. This led to near anarchy in some organizations.

Peter Block did an excellent job of defining empowerment in his book, The Empowered Manager. Peter stressed that empowerment is a decision made by the employee, not a gift given by managers. This choice is made by each individual who decides that his/her success fully lies within his/her own responsibility. If there are factors in the organization that inhibit an individual from achieving high performance, he/she is obligated to use influence to change or remove the obstacles. Empowered employees accept the full accountability and responsibility for personal and organizational success.

Leaders can inspire their employees to choose empowerment. It begins by creating a passion for their work and the work of the organization. Last week in this blog we explained how leaders base their relationship with others on the foundation of core, shared values. Leaders must use these values to give employees meaning in their work. This creates a sense of ownership in the business and further inspires employees to use influence to continuously improve their work and the work of others.

Are you inspiring a sense of ownership and empowerment in your workforce? What are you doing to give your employees meaning and purpose in the work they are doing? Are you able to gain the benefits of providing all of your employees with the level of empowerment they need to run their part of the business?

Visit our blog next week to learn the next key behavior for effective Relationship Leadership.

There are two important dimensions of every high-performing leader. Most agree that high-performing leaders must be effective strategists, innovative and inspiring; in a sense, they must master the first dimension, Organizational Leadership. The second, the one less often mentioned, yet equally important, is the relationship side of leadership. A leader cannot execute a brilliant strategy without help. This article focuses on Relationship Leadership and defines what a leader must do to build the kind of relationships that enable high-performance.

Five Star’s High-Performance Leadership Model™ illustrates the connection between Organizational and Relationship Leadership and depicts how this type of leadership helps sustain a competitive, high-performing organization.

Joseph C. Rost, in his book, Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, describes leadership as an “influence relationship between leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes.” Mr. Rost’s definition highlights the fact that leadership is about building trust and commitment, using an approach that promotes a common, compelling purpose.

Values-based leadership builds trust-based partnerships. In other words, the everyday values and actions of a leader have a direct impact on the level of trust and commitment that leader is able to gain from employees.

In order to master Relationship Leadership, a leader must embody the following behaviors:

• Exemplify Personal Values and Integrity.
  Everyday actions build a reputation. Your integrity, as demonstrated by your values, is directly responsible for whether or not your peers and employees trust you. Be the kind of leader you would want to follow.
• Inspire Empowerment through Purpose and Influence.
  Empowerment is something that is earned, not given freely. Leaders have the opportunity to inspire people to do their best by providing a compelling purpose. Leaders must hold people accountable and continually raise the bar. Once the workforce is empowered, team members accept responsibility to exercise influence of their own.
• Provide Open Access to Information.
  Employees rarely appreciate the closed door treatment, hearing only bits of information at a time. It’s true that as a leader, there are some things you may not be able to share with your workforce. However, it’s important for you to let your employees know that they can expect to receive information in a timely manner. Give them the means to search for and find the information they need when the need it.
• Build Trust-Based Partnerships Internally and Externally.
  The only way to receive trust is to earn it. Be ever-focused on developing strong relationships by modeling the kind of behaviors mentioned above. Since people know you by your actions, strive to be the kind of trusting leader that your workforce and client base can trust and respect. This trust-based partnership sustains over time by the results achieved through this partnership. Everyone wants to be part of a winning cause.

The relationship dimension of leadership is critical to a leader’s effectiveness and ultimate success. The type of strong partnerships a leader is able to build has a direct impact on his/her ability to execute strategy and sustain a high-performing organization.

Our next newsletter will discuss the equal importance of Organizational Leadership. Over the next month, we will be expanding on the behaviors of Relationship Leadership on the Five Star Blog.

For more information on Five Star’s High-Performance Leadership Model™, contact Dan Hupp at 412-802-2500.

How do leaders get things done? They can’t do it all themselves. Leadership involves an influence relationship between leaders and followers, who work together toward a mutual purpose. Leaders in today’s modern workforce cannot ignore the critical “relationship” side of leadership. Successful leaders rely on strong, trust-based partnerships with employees, customers, and/or clients in order to achieve success. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to examine each of the four key behaviors of effective Relationship Leadership and define what a leader must do to build the kind of relationships that enable high performance.

Relationship Leadership Behavior 1 – Exemplify Personal Values and Integrity.

Each one of us has a reputation that is created by everyday actions. In other words, what you do, the way you act, and the words you say play a direct part in building your reputation. Have you created the kind of reputation that commands the respect of your peers and employees? Can they trust you?

A leader with strong relationship skills exemplifies personal values and integrity. A leader’s values and integrity, and his/her ability to remain true to those values, forms the foundation of trust in relationships. Leaders demonstrate integrity in everyday actions by staying true to their values, but this is never as evident as when they stay true to their values when met with opposition or adversity. We identify a leader by listening and watching for him/her to take a stand, particularly when times are tough. Leaders who are effective relationship builders understand their values, communicate them clearly to others, through speech, action, or inaction, and are able to generate passion for those values. It is this kind of courageous leadership that draws the attention and respect of others.

In his book, The Radical LEAP, Steve Farber differentiates “extreme leaders” from posers on the basis of authenticity, their ability to demonstrate their values as a means of “proof.” Extreme leaders prove their commitment to their values and their organization’s compelling purpose through their every day actions and decisions. They don’t avoid making waves or taking required risks if it means being true to their values. For true leaders, doing what is right is the only option.

If this description of a leader sounds exciting to you, then the message is clear: “Be the kind of leader you would want to follow.”

Visit our blog next week to learn the next key behavior for effective Relationship Leadership.