Unfortunately, I became the epitome of the “Peter Principle” – Laurence Peter's observation that people tend to get promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. I find Laurence's observations a little constrictive. I think the Peter Principle is broader than reaching a level of incompetence. I think many people simply reach a level of disinterest. After over a decade of promotions within the field of human resources development, I had reached an executive level that was entirely about strategies, budgets, staffing, and litigation defense. The area of passion that ignited my career – training and education – was nary a part of my last corporate job. I knew I needed to realign my profession with my joy.
“FAT ENOUGH, HAPPY ENOUGH” ISN'T ENOUGH
In 1995, I left corporate America to pursue my muse: the Leadership Difference, Inc. Armed with a business plan and a passion for training and development, I envisioned myself providing high‐level leadership development to small‐ and medium‐sized companies that otherwise could not afford to have a full‐time staff member dedicated to this role. That vision has evolved over the years; now I spend more time delivering keynote speeches than seminars. But the 25 years since has given me a glimpse – sometimes more – into the vagaries that constitute “organizational culture.”
In 1995, the concept of corporate culture was just finding an audience in the business world. It had existed for around 30 years – largely as an academic construct – but had become more popular as an organizational development consideration in the 1980s and 1990s. It was still a bit of an enigma – one that continues to this day. What exactly is a “culture”? More importantly, what kind of culture drives peak performance? Finally, how do I create a peak performance culture?
That's the challenge.
As an aside, there is an important lesson in my own company's evolution. It began with a vision to be the training and development partner to other organizations. Providing education is my passion. That passion supplied the fuel to begin my organization, but that alone would not be enough to sustain it. Much of what follows in this book is a map for harnessing and directing passion in a way that will achieve success. Without passion, there can be no success; but passion without structure is a recipe for failure. I see that every day in business. That is an important thing to understand about a peak performance culture. Culture is not entirely conceptual. It requires that you combine concept with execution, principles with practices, vision with pragmatism.
Interestingly, it may not be the best organizations from which I have learned the most. Most of the companies and associations I have been exposed to do not apply the best practices outlined in this book. The truth is, even relatively successful organizations are plodding along, using processes that hamstring their success. It is a variation of the “no news is good news” mentality in that they have managed to do things just good enough to have success that is just good enough. Perhaps the better cliché is “fat and happy.” Or maybe “fat enough and happy enough.” But fat enough and happy enough do not allow you to achieve a peak performance culture.
For example, in preparation for a speaking engagement, I like to schedule a phone call with the key contact(s) to better understand their goals for the session. Minimally, I like to know the demographics of the audience and how they will benefit by and apply the concepts that I will be sharing. Optimally, I would like to integrate my content within the broader context of the conference at large or the strategies of the organization. This exercise is a version of “horizontal alignment,” a concept that will be explained later in the book. Peak performance culture requires broad vision, strategies, and ideologies designed to connect the needs of the market with the measures of organizational success.
Most of my clients are eager to provide at least a minimal amount of information for this purpose. Now, that sounds hopeful, but consider for a moment the fact that a significant percentage of my clients don't take the time to educate a guest speaker on information that will make the transfer of learning easier and enhance the likelihood of the attendees actually applying new and useful skills. That is a bit shocking to me. Add to that fact that only a handful of clients each year take the time to help me understand their current strategic approach, and how I can and should align with that during my presentation. I don't think this is an oversight of communication so much as a lack of clarity on that strategy. Many conferences don't have a clear purpose, desired outcomes, or even a theme.
I am not sharing that to shame anyone. People are busy. Conferences and training seminars are often constructed from checklists rather than strategic plans. Location determined, check. Agenda created, check. Invites sent, check. Speaker hired, check. Hotel rooms reserved, check. Our lives are quickly enveloped by activities – “things to do” lists that seduce us into thinking we are working hard to achieve success. I am a box to be checked. This approach results in tons of tasks, but little attention to the event's purpose. Much of this work rhythm is created by the lack of the strong infrastructure described in this book. These events are not supporting some broader approach to peak performance so much as they are an annual event that the organization schedules because, well, we did one last year. Peak performance cultures are not just horizontally aligned, but also vertically aligned. This means that all the tasks within the organization are being performed for reasons that can be tracked back to the company's core vision, strategy, and ideology.
For example, a recent client approached me to do strategic planning facilitation. The group represented a local chapter of a national organization that is well known and established. To successfully facilitate the construction of a new strategy, I felt it would be beneficial for me to understand past strategic plans, the process they used to achieve them, and the usefulness these past efforts had on actual results. To that end, I met with the organization's executive director.
Turns out, the organization had no strategic plan and had never had one. They had a generic mission statement that was rarely referenced when conducting business. They didn't clearly define their measures of success, other than not to spend more money than they had. Again, this is common. To the credit of this organization, the new executive director and board wanted to change that. They realized that to achieve a peak performance culture, they would need a vision and a strategy that resonated with their market and a clear articulation of success (horizontal alignment). They also knew that this strategic plan would illuminate several actionable items necessary to achieve these goals (vertical alignment). Combine these two with passion, and you have a good start on a peak performance culture.
Again, my point is not to pass judgment on the leadership of organizations but rather to reassure you that most organizations are not applying the best practices outlined in this book. Why? Because organizational culture, let alone a peak performance version, is challenging to define. That's actually very good news. If an organization can survive without attending to the key metrics of peak performance, imagine the level of success they can aspire to if they do focus on these metrics. The trap many of these organizations fall into is that without the fear created by failure, they are often uninterested in doing the hard work – the visionary and strategic work, not the daily activities that keep you busy – necessary to unleash their full potential.
Passion, horizontal alignment, and vertical alignment are not the whole of peak performance culture, however. A comprehensive exploration of organizational culture must include the customer experience – because it is far less important to examine what we think our culture is compared to what our clients think. The employee experience is equally important. And lest you, the reader, forget that my company is called the Leadership Difference, the behavior of an organization's leaders is paramount to creating a peak performance culture.
WHAT YOU'LL FIND IN THE BOOK
This book shares the metrics that I have discovered while working with thousands of organizations all over the world. My intent is to provide the reader – you – with a guide for organizational development
