I recently had the pleasure of hearing a CEO of a listed company offer advice about managing the performance of people while maintaining accountability for leading business performance so it provides the anticipated and expected results for shareholders. His words of wisdom were to “move hard, and move early” – adding the importance of being tough on the issue while caring about the person.
To enable such an approach it is essential for leaders to clearly agree on expectations with people in the business – what needs to be delivered, how it needs to be delivered and the behaviours expected as they work to achieve these outcomes. This is done by engaging in a REAL conversation and it takes courage to be this real!
An interesting and exploratory conversation that we recommend is to talk about – what do we each need to think, to believe and to do in order to create mutual and interdependent success. The conversation that ensues from these questions will determine very clearly the expectations you have for each other which will then allow the leader “to move hard”. Leaders don’t do this often enough because it takes courage to be this real and to be this vulnerable!
And to enable you to “move early” this conversation must be had as you draw the line in the sand about performance, like when you are:
- the new leader of a team
- the new CEO of a business
- under pressure to change business performance.
At the heart of his advice was the importance of having the courage to engage in REAL CONVERSATIONS at the right time, with the right intent and to the right level of detail.
Read more about implementing the tools to facilitate better conversations in your organisation.
