Leadership Results

Chapter 13 Spectacular performance and business results

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.

— Michelangelo

The themes of spectacular or extraordinary performance and excellence, what is possible or impossible, and their challenge to common wisdom, have been debated by great minds throughout history and by contemporary business leaders.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this book, the ideas and concepts presented here, properly applied, can make a significant difference to the way you lead others. I have explored how to lead yourself effectively, which is a prerequisite to leading others. I have also emphasised that this is an ongoing process that requires continuous self-development. This chapter demonstrates what can be achieved when you successfully integrate and apply many of these concepts (for example, the language of possibility, keeping promises and commitments, self-fulfilling prophecies, locus of control and social loafing).

First, I invite you to do a little bit more of this self-development by examining the concept of spectacular performance. Specifically, becoming aware of the assumptions and conditioning that shapes how you see and interpret events (reality). This will uncover the ‘lenses' through which you filter this topic (and other aspects of life, for that matter). These lenses are obstacles or barriers that limit what you can accomplish.

This ‘thinking ...