Behind every high-performing organization is an influential leader who is keenly aware of how thought habits drive individual behaviour, and how behaviour habits affect those with whom you work. And, whether formally trained or not, this influential leader knows the power of positive human energy to drive strength-giving workplace behaviours. This finding emphasizes one simple truth: influential leaders with a deep sense of behavioural-awareness not only can close the performance gap but can also inspire others to make a difference in the work they do every day.
State-of-the-art equipment, technical and operational expertise, and use of proven quality improvement methodologies (e.g., benchmarking, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing) are merely tools that help leaders, but on their own they cannot bring about a performance driven culture. The key to performance excellence, as research continues to reveal, remains to be a unique leader awareness of one’s self and of the impact they have on those they lead.
In many organizations at mid-level leadership levels, particularly in not-for-profit and public organizations, when asked “Where did you learn how to be a leader? “, the answer will reveal very little, if any, formal leadership training and development. This is really not surprising. Many leaders of today came into their titled positions by being exemplary employees with outstanding technical skills, and moved successfully through progressive levels of management. These former “front-liners” were exceptional at their day-to-day responsibilities and were rewarded a promotion to management level positions with little or no training (formal or informal) or experience in leadership and management. It’s an unfortunate truth that very few organizations will or can justify the investment of the time and/or money necessary to develop and prepare these, their most capable employees, for leadership positions. The hope being that leadership qualities will ‘trickle down’ from the top – not so.
Implementing a business improving process of Positive Presence is a simple and effective way to bring leadership training to mid-level and front-line leaders. Not only is it a tested world-level program of traditional management competencies, it is a journey of awareness, relationships and organizational connection that will bring the human element of organizational performance to the forefront of success in today’s knowledge economy. It is a new way of thinking and being that is cost efficient in every way.
CORPORATE HARMONY is grateful to Dr. Michael E. Frisina for his contributions to this entry.
Performance can be illustrated by this simple formula: Performance= technical skill x behavioural skill.
At the heart of sustaining highly effective relationships is the skill of expressing a professionally artful apology. There are various excuses people give for refusing to apologize for inappropriate, disrespectful, rude, and a host of other more toxic behaviours. Whatever the fundamental driver in your own life for withholding an apology for your inappropriate behaviour, you will never be able to sustain highly effective relationships among peers and subordinates unless you develop the behavioural and moral skill of an effective apology. And at some point in our career, we will all need the knack of getting a professional apology right.
At the heart of organizational performance and a performance driven culture is performance at the individual level – and more specifically, individual leader behaviour skills. To help you reframe and refocus your thinking on behaviour competency to drive performance, consider the following key behaviour skills essential to creating and sustaining the highly effective relationships necessary in a performance driven culture.
At the heart of a high-functioning integrated team in a performance driven culture, is performance at the individual level – and more specifically, ‘influential leader’ behaviour skills. Every team member is an influential leader regardless of rank or title. What’s more, people pay more attention to behaviour than to words. It is influential-leader behaviour, not words, that determines how engaged, agile and productive the team is. Influential-leader behaviour skills are what we ‘see’ in the workplace. These are the behaviours of collaboration and connection. These behaviours have been studied and the science has confirmed that they only occur when individuals have cultivated a positive and energized mindset focused on team performance and goals.
The prevalence of knowledge workers and the knowledge workforce is actually just three decades old, and we all know change is mostly slow and painful. But the truth of the matter is what worked for success in the 1990’s will absolutely not work in the 21st century, for two very big reasons. First, our front line workers are now highly educated, and more times than not, professionals in their own right, and management and leadership skills of the 1990’s will not fly with the new front line staffers. And second (and perhaps more importantly), the nature of the work itself – knowledge work – brings with it innate stresses that organizations are only now starting to recognize and respond to.
Far too many people are unaware of how they are perceived by family, friends, and professional colleagues. We all know, and it is easy for us to recognize, other people with bad habits, and disturbing, and disruptive behaviours. The harder thing is recognizing those same bad habits and behaviours in our self. 
Changing behaviour is not something that comes easy for most people. Generally, being human means you lack the willingness to change even when you have the knowledge and the capability to do so. In fact, many lack the willingness to change even when they know doing so serves their own best interest in the most critical personal, familial, and professional relationships.
There is a fundamental truth about organizational performance. The majority of people you know, yourself included, have a legitimate need for effective, functional relationships – personal, familial, and professional. It is actually these relationships that make you human and without which you cannot survive. But did you know, research coming from the fields of neuroscience and quantum physics suggests that much of who you are resides in your subconscious and therefore a huge amount of self-awareness is needed in order to create effective, functional, and professional relationships in the work place. But here’s the thing … few people are willing to do the hard work at the personal level to create and sustain those relationships. 
Today’s knowledge-based organizations require highly educated individuals to bring their specialisms and experience together with others for a common goal of meeting organizational strategy and objectives. Predictably, these organizations are facing unique challenges. Not only do they require a clearly articulated mutual, beneficial, and meaningful purpose for their subject-matter-expert workers (who are professionals in their own right), but they also require a new kind of leadership awareness, and an energy-positive work environment for them.