Business results are in direct proportion to how people work together. When leaders are not aligned and employees are not engaged, even the most brilliant business strategy will not succeed. How people behave and relate to the organization, coworkers, and leaders determines what is achieved. Unproductive behavior takes up your time, frustrates everyone in its path, and prevents the company from achieving its goals.
You cannot change how people behave with mandates, slogans, or programs-of-the-month. No amount of cajoling, persuading, or threatening will alter what people do. People will continue to behave in the same way; they will just take it underground where you cannot see it. The grapevine is the strongest communication network in companies that do not have an open and safe environment.
A culture of accountability is the hallmark of world-class organizations. These companies place a significant emphasis on how to maximize the value and contributions of people. They are distinguished by their unrelenting drive to create an environment in which people can perform at their best.
You may clearly see the need for engaging and aligning people, but you may be looking for change in all the wrong places. Misdiagnosing people issues leads to:
1) costly and ineffective business solutions—process and system changes—that do not resolve the underlying issues.
2) an inconsistent leadership approach that lacks standardization and uniformity about how people are expected to behave.
Transformation begins when leaders choose to change their behavior. The frequently misunderstood barrier to change is behavioral blind spots—automatic and unproductive behavior that blocks leadership effectiveness, organizational change, and business results.
Nothing works when people are not working together.
The Top Differences for the World’s Most Admired Companies
More effective at building clarity. They are better at implementing strategy and simplifying complex organization structures.
Have a stronger culture of accountability. They excel at driving strategic accountability right down through the organization.
Pay more attention to customers and growth. They place greater focus on customer loyalty and long-term growth in performance measures.
Are better at working across the organization. They place much more importance on leaders’ working cross-organizationally, are more effective at it, and get more value from it.
Have a stronger focus on innovation and resilience. They are more effective at creating a culture of innovation and building resilience into the organization.
Have a stronger focus on people. They are more effective at managing employee engagement and stronger commitment to internal development.
Have a stronger focus on succession planning. They apply a broader and more consistent approach to talent management.
Have stronger leadership and focus on the top team. Leaders are significantly better at self-management, empathy, teamwork, and collaboration.
Are better at rewarding and giving recognition to attract and retain talent. They have a stronger focus on total reward for and recognition of top performance.