High Performance
“An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.”
—Mae West, American actress
Leadership is about using every available tool in your arsenal to lift performance and build a better world. It’s about enabling people, in a purposeful way, to perform at a high level. You’ll notice that the key word, again and again, is “perform.” The most important thing to understand as a leader is that if you don’t perform, nothing else matters much.
As you work your way through the Blueprint, learning and growing and building your arsenal of best practices, it is essential to remember that none of those practices are worth a penny if they do not help deliver the desired results. Let this chapter be a firm reminder of a simple but often forgotten truth about leadership: leadership is about creating and delivering sustainable value for all stakeholders. Intentions are important, but that’s not what you will be measured on. Everything boils down to results, results, results.
Performance as Motto and Mantra
As you continue on your journey, keep this motto at the top of your mind: Process must always be in service to outcome. If you’re spearheading an employee engagement effort, it’s not about engagement for engagement’s sake; it’s to get better results from people. If you’re championing a training and development overhaul, it’s to get better results from people. If you’re revamping your approach to strategy, it’s to get better results from people. Everything is about finding ...
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