I wrote an article titled, “Wanted: Leadership with a motivation for excellence,” for the Baltimore Business Journal on August 11, 2000, and the premises was that leaders have a responsibility for creating high levels of motivation for employees to perform effectively. The response to that article was great, as leaders and those aspiring for leadership roles consulted with me to enhance their skills.
Twenty-years later to the chagrin of employees, not much has changed for the need of instilling purpose, empowerment, action-oriented performance, commitment and being a change-agent, which were the five key principles I espoused then and now. There are correlations for instilling meaning to highly talented employees as quality talent is attracted to high-performing organizations. The five PEAC/C Performance principles remain critical to leading and have enhanced meaning:
Purpose. leaders must have reason for leading and know their team, lead strategically, provide value and align purpose to the mission.
Empowered. leaders empower others to make things happen, allow team autonomy and accountability to be engaged for results.
Action-oriented. leaders allow teams to be creative and innovative in generating new ideas. When employees generate ideas, act on it for return-on-investment (ROI).
Committed. Leaders’ model what it takes for others to emulate the same. Losers are not allowed. Team building activities along with open communication breads success.
Change-Agent. Leaders always question status quo and are inquisitive themselves. Employees bore with the same as it was last year. Be a smart ‘disruptive’ agent for greatness.
As highly talented teams have become smarter and more engaged to the strategic approach of organizational operations, leaders have to be on point to allow the evolving focus of their contributions and go-getter attitude. If you want teams to aspire for greatness, then unleash them, empower them, and see the results take form.
In the end strategic operations become ‘owned’ and ‘accounted for’ by highly engaged team members who focus on how to exceed the needs of customers and the organization. Isn’t this environment and performance what effective leadership warrants and expects from their team. I’m sure you agree it is? Just Lead Them!
Dr. Lorinzo Foxworth
theleaderdoc.com