By Mark Aesch, TransPro CEO
A lot is being said and written about over the uncertainty of Washington, DC. What we know to be certain is that yesteryear’s argument of “give us more money and we will make it better” will unlikely carry the day.
High-performance executives are those who can precisely explain – supported with data – why their organization has achieved success. And not the success that happened to them, rather the success they purposefully designed and delivered. Here are three essential action steps to high-performance leadership:
- Declare The Results: Put a stake in the ground and measurably declare the outcomes your organization will produce in the coming year. For example, Customer satisfaction will improve by 8%, We will become 5% less reliant on taxpayer subsidies, Our Community Value score will rise by 8.5%. This is absolute clarity of success. Notice, this is NOT a laundry list of effort, actions, and programs, unrelated to measurable outcomes.
- Deliver the Results: Organize your team’s time, treasure, and talent to produce the declared outcomes. Improving Community Value by 8.5%, for example, doesn’t occur by happenstance. The performance-driven executive needs to understand what the community prioritizes and then deliver on the priority. Team alignment requires prioritizing, saying no, and extreme focus to produce the outcomes that have been declared. High performance alignment does not have time for a litany of programs, distractions, and budgets that fund and protect the status quo.
- Disseminate the Results: The performance-driven executive insists upon objective evaluation of their performance and will tie their compensation to it. For example, if customer satisfaction increases by its objectively desired goal, the executive is financially compensated. Even better, so are their subordinates.
Today, more than ever, performance results will matter. Personalities at the podium are nice, but the actual delivery of measurable outcomes is what really matters. More plow horses and fewer show horses.
Outstanding customer satisfaction, improved efficiencies, communities that prioritize value, reduced tax burden – this is what performance-driven leaders deliver.
Communities across the country will be best served by public sector executives who have declared measurable outcomes, delivered them, and take ownership by being evaluated based on facts.
