The belief that a leader’s behaviour is the key predictor to organizational performance is a radical shift in leadership thinking.

To develop a performance driven culture a key element is to begin to focus not on the technical elements and processes, but to begin to consider the impact that poor behaviour has on safety, quality and service. This shift must start with leaders at all levels.

Real change will never come from an annual conference or the latest management fad. It will come from within an organization whose leaders are committed to a common purpose and have the character to inspire confidence to achieve the strategic aims of the organization. Sadly and with great regularity, we are witness to the self-destruction of leaders and their organizations who fail to grasp the fundamental connection between individual leader behaviour and organizational performance.

Closing the performance gap in any enterprise is a nonnegotiable imperative. The real key to improving in today’s complex and chaotic dynamic organizational systems is to focus on behavioural skill development.

One way we can start improving the training and development of our leaders and simultaneously hold them accountable to strategic outcomes is rethinking the annual performance review process. In his article “It’s Time to Get Rid of Annual Performance Reviews,” Merge Gupta-Sunderji argues, “Most employees look forward to the annual performance review the way they look forward to a root canal. Feelings range from anxiety and angst to annoyance and anger. Not that performance reviews are a thrill for managers. Typically, they involve hours of preparation, and the outcome is often a leader and team member who is less engaged than before. If you add the antiquated practice of forced ranking, the result is more people who are disillusioned, disconnected and demoralized than before you started.”

If we have individuals in our organizations (and who doesn’t) that are toxic and a disruption to performance, quality, safety, and workplace values, then we need effective leadership behaviour that transcends development plans and performance appraisals. Furthermore, we should be developing leaders with the coaching skills to address performance in a systematic and continuing process rather than a once-a-year event. Research indicates that a consistent and progressive process of meeting with team members on a regular basis with constructive feedback tied directly to performance outcomes gets more at the heart of true employee engagement and success.

At the heart of behaviour development is the skill of Positive Presence™ — a new and deliberate way of thinking and behaving that makes the connection between emotional energy and behaviour and is easily practiced and developed right on the job. For many, it is just a lot of common sense, but for others it is a slow and gentle process that requires the help of both team mates and leaders.