I asked a client to guesstimate the percentage of “exceptional”, “satisfactory” and “poor” contributors in a critical frontline role in his business. I was impressed by his claim that the business had no poor performers. The reason for this was, “We do not tolerate less-than-acceptable … underperformers are helped to achieve a satisfactory level of performance or are exited from the business.”
Organisations have had to navigate crises and uncertainty on a scale rarely seen before – without a template to follow. Some organisations have adapted and emerged stronger; others are struggling and are disappearing.
Mistake. The word invokes conflicting reactions in me: mostly positive sentiments synonymous with courage, learning and growth; but also, sometimes, outright contempt.
Finite players set out to beat the people around them. Infinite players play to be better than themselves – to wake up every day and ask, ‘How can we make our company a better version of itself today than it was yesterday, how can we create a product this week that’s better than the product we created last week?’
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Question of the Month
By Wendy Lambourne, Director, Legitimate Leadership.
Question: What is the best way of inculcating a desired set of values in an organisation?
Answer: Legitimate Leadership is a strong advocate that the leadership of any organisation should develop a set of values which provide everyone in the organisation with clarity about what is important and valued, both within the organisation and in its dealings with external stakeholders. This is because Legitimate Leadership is definitively an ethical framework which argues for values- rather than needs-driven behaviour by all at work, but particularly by those in leadership roles.
Managers in organisations often seek to inculcate the company’s values by means of a training or educational process. But values are not an ABILITY issue, they are a matter of the WILL. No matter how well designed or delivered, a training intervention will do little if anything to align employee behaviour with company values.
Read the full answer by clicking here
VIGNETTE CASE STUDY: CHANGING THE RATIO OF SATISFACTORY TO EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMERS FROM 2:1 TO 1:2
By Wendy Lambourne, Director, Legitimate Leadership.
I asked a client to guesstimate the percentage of “exceptional”, “satisfactory” and “poor” contributors in a critical frontline role in his business. I was impressed by his claim that the business had no poor performers. The reason for this was, “We do not tolerate less-than-acceptable … underperformers are helped to achieve a satisfactory level of performance or are exited from the business.”
According to the client, the split of those in frontline roles was 70% “satisfactory” and 30% “exceptional”.
I then challenged him with the following question, “If two out of three rather than one out of three were exemplars, would that make a difference to the results?”
“Absolutely,” he replied. His company went on to achieve this change by doing the following five things:
ARTICLE: WHEN LEADING REMOTELY, SPEND LESS TIME MANAGING AND MORE TIME ENABLING
By Stefaan van den Heever, associate, Legitimate Leadership.
Our lives have changed significantly over the last year, both personally and professionally. Organisations have had to navigate crises and uncertainty on a scale rarely seen before – without a template to follow. Some organisations have adapted and emerged stronger; others are struggling and are disappearing.
As I’ve engaged with clients and organisations, it has become clear that people’s health – particularly mental health – has been impacted negatively. The need for leadership is stronger now than ever. In a time when people work from home with greater flexibility, there is more need for values-driven leadership, in which leaders engage with integrity, generosity and courage.
The principles of leadership stay the same whether you are co-located or remote, but this remote world has certainly raised the bar for leaders to step up and to demonstrate their intent. I believe there is a huge opportunity for managers to engage as leaders, and for them to touch the lives of the people in their charge. Having facilitated a number of Legitimate Leadership’s Leading Remotely with Legitimacy workshops over the past year, which aim to enable leaders to lead effectively in this new reality, I have some insights to share:
ARTICLE: WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES – BUT ARE THEY GOOD OR BAD MISTAKES?
By Angela Donnelly, Director, Legitimate Leadership Canada.
Mistake. The word invokes conflicting reactions in me: mostly positive sentiments synonymous with courage, learning and growth; but also, sometimes, outright contempt.
All mistakes might offer the opportunity to learn, but nonetheless there are good mistakes and bad mistakes – and the difference has implications for managing performance in organisations.
In consulting, there is much to be gained from examining the appropriate use of the word “mistake” in different contexts. Because this is the difference between workplace conditions that unleash creativity and innovation, and those where people wallow in a quagmire of fear and inertia.
For leaders, this is the difference between inviting human excellence and sustaining mediocrity and outright malevolence.
By Simon Sinek, American author on leadership, and motivational speaker.
COMMENT BY WENDY LAMBOURNE, LEGITIMATE LEADERSHIP, ON THIS VIDEO: Good leaders act on the dictum that “the world belongs to the happily discontented”. They make it their business to continually raise the bar or raise the standard. In doing so, they are practising ‘tough love’. They are challenging their people not to remain in their comfort zone or to accept the current is good enough”. Their goal is not to be better than the rest; their goal is to continually strive to be better than they were before.
OUR SUMMARY OF THIS VIDEO: Finite players set out to beat the people around them. Infinite players play to be better than themselves – to wake up every day and ask, ‘How can we make our company a better version of itself today than it was yesterday, how can we create a product this week that’s better than the product we created last week?’
It’s not about being ranked number one, about having more followers on Twitter than your friends, or outdoing anyone; it’s about how to outdo yourself.
It’s not about selling more books or getting more TED views than somebody else; it’s about how to make sure that the work that you’re producing is better than the work you produced before.
You are your competition and that is what ensures you stay in the game the longest. And that is what ensures you find joy, because joy comes not from comparison but from advancement
VIGNETTE CASE STUDY: CHANGING THE RATIO OF SATISFACTORY TO EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMERS FROM 2:1 TO 1:2
ARTICLE: WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES – BUT ARE THEY GOOD OR BAD MISTAKES?