PEAK, 2nd Edition

Chapter FourteenPeak Leadership Practices

Practice doesn't make perfect, but it does make public your commitment to Peak principles. Role model these practices and you're on the path to peak performance.

Chip Conley

Doctors and attorneys practice medicine and law. So why don't business leaders practice business? There's practice involved in sports, the arts, and even religion, but we don't think of our profession as a practice. We just do it. And, quite often, we do it rather unconsciously.

The first 13 chapters have prepared you for this one. They outlined the business model and principles of Peak organizations. But business principles are only as good as the practices that back them up. And those practices are exhibited by leaders. A leader is a person who influences a group of people toward a specific result. In this chapter, we will address how you can improve your capacity to lead.

In the 10 years since I wrote the original edition of this book, I've witnessed how effective leaders use the principles of Peak in their everyday leadership practices to drive organizational performance. So, I've developed a set of Peak leadership practices that can assist any leader, or leadership team, to move their organization from mediocrity to excellence.

When a company embeds these principles and practices into how they grow their leaders, the end result is Peak performance: a phenomenon of sustained growth—both for the organization and for those within it. What is unique about these ...