Role of leadership in sustaining a high-performance organization
It is a no-brainer that a successful high-performance organization must have a high-performing leader at its helm. But, it is essential to note that the role of leadership in building a high-performance organization is dynamic and multi-faceted. Leaders formulate, execute, and maintain the workings of a high-performance organization by donning different hats continually and learning from their mistakes. Studies suggest that the most critical roles of high-performance leaders are to drive urgency and direction in their team, prepare future leaders, and ensure that the company vision and values translate into a strategy. Let’s take a closer look at the role of leadership in the development of a high-performance organization.
Designing efficient work processes
Hiring, training, motivating, assessing, collaborating, delivering, and learning - leaders design efficient work processes and systems for all these functions that not only result in success but also enable people to build and explore their potential. They focus on making work processes intuitive, easy, and transparent to allow employees to deliver the best performance they can without being intrusive or authoritative.
How to do it: By replacing command-based leadership models and work processes with purpose and trust-driven leadership models; thereby, shifting the focus from power-based structures to development-based practices. In other words, work towards helping employees realize the importance of self-management, self-monitoring, and accountability through your work processes.
Building and upholding company culture
Leaders of high-performance organizations decide, create, and sustain the culture of their organization through several direct and indirect actions. They are responsible for setting a precedent for upholding the company culture and values to managers and employees by ensuring that the workplace is fair, transparent, empowering, and stimulating. A successful leader understands the importance of creating a respectful and inclusive culture and strives to establish independence and authenticity in their employees above all else.
How to do it: The company culture is nothing but acceptable and established workplace behaviors and practices; thus, the best way to foster a healthy culture is to ensure that leaders and managers endorse the values and vision of the company. Leaders at the highest level must translate the company strategy, vision, and culture to all managers and employees by committing to them.
Aligning values and goals
All successful leaders realize that helping their people succeed with automatically result in their organization's success. Thus, they work towards synchronizing the goals and values of the employees with the broader organizational goals and ensure that they help each individual determine their place in the big picture. They also play a crucial role in preparing for the future by encouraging employees to learn new skills, update their knowledge, and train themselves continuously in relevant domains.
How to do it: By training middle managers to understand the goals and aspirations of their team and supporting employees in their learning journeys. Additionally, help employees develop career progression and development plans and back them with the required resources to see through them.
Creating value and sustainability
Finally, leaders in high-performance organizations work to create value by improving and reforming existing processes continually. They realize that leadership isn’t about merely achieving numbers or holding on to territory, but strengthening the fundamentals of the business by working together passionately. Similarly, they also identify, nurture, and train future leaders to ensure the sustainability of the company and the practices they have developed.
How to do it: By making human development the foremost priority and helping people grow as humans and professionals. Encouraging employees to be authentic to themself and each other helps cultivate trust and authenticity; thus, develop open and inclusive workplaces that allow people to experiment and innovate.
High-performance organizations are led by competent and astute leaders who drive passion, innovation, and agility in the DNA of the business. They recognize the limits of control and power-based leadership models and instead maintain their authority by being a mentor and a visionary. Leaders in high-performance organizations go beyond merely supervizing teams and departments to positively influencing their people, industry, and customers.