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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.

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.