Unless it’s backed by a culture of collaboration and execution, your strategy isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. As Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.
Culture change starts at the top. Leaders must ask questions to understand what is needed from them to embed a collaborative, winning and high-performance culture:
o What behaviours and practices are required to achieve our strategy?
o How well do we demonstrate these?
o How are we embedding these within our organisation?
o What measures are in place to ensure they are happening consistently?
Consistent application of these behaviours and practises by your leaders will determine your culture over time. Crucial then is the recruitment, development and promotion of leaders.
So, what makes a truly great leader?
When analysing the research for his book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins found that leaders who ran great companies during the transition from good-to-great were Level 5 leaders.
Your leadership standard is defined by what Level 5 means for your business. To cultivate this level of leadership, four crucial elements are required:
Your leadership standard is defined by what Level 5 means for your business. To cultivate this level of leadership, four crucial elements are required:
1. Visibility – invest time to really engage your people and get to know them personally to understand what makes them tick
2. Engagement – lead with inclusivity, set your people up for success and help them grow
3. Humility – know the difference between self-confidence and arrogance, seek to add value to others, show gratitude for what you have and take responsibility for your actions
4. Grit – lead with courage, conscientiousness, perseverance, resilience and passion.
Longer-term high-performance starts with the right type and depth of leadership in your business coupled with consistency. Talk to us if you want to develop and implement this kind of leadership.
In the next blog post, we are going to explore how to create this consistency. If you’ve enjoyed this read, be sure to sign-up for our monthly newsletter bringing you tips, tools and the latest industry thinking https://www.2collaborate.co.za/subscribe
About the author:
Tjaart Minnaar, CEO and Leadership Development guru at 2Collaborate.
Tjaart has spent 35 years in business and consulting conceptualising, designing and implementing solutions to improve business and individual performance. The success has been highlighted by several of his clients winning Deloitte’s Best Company To Work For Survey, overall or in their industry categories.
Get to know more about Tjaart on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjaart-minnaar/
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