From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership

A CLEAR, ELEVATING GOAL

The objective for any leader is to build a successful, high-performing team. For individuals and teams to reach targets and realize goals, they must be highly motivated and engaged. I was very fortunate to learn these lessons from a senior human resources executive at Baxter named Frank LaFasto. Frank held a PhD in organizational behavior and wrote several books on team development. He interviewed thousands of teams, from scientists at NASA to the people at IBM who invented the first PC. To understand the real differences among these teams, he studied both those that succeeded and those that failed. What Frank found was that it all came down to people feeling that they were part of something worthwhile and significant. ...