STAGING YOUR FINEST HOUR AS A LEADER

Low Cost Ways to Develop Talent in Hunker Down Times

“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for 1000 years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”

                                                                                       Winston Churchill, during the Battle of Britain

Every business leader’s attention is riveted on the rampant uncertainty in the global economy.  Every day they confront the fundamental challenge--How do you keep team members fully engaged and giving maximum performance when their sense of normalcy is hanging by a thread? At precisely the time there’s no margin for error in optimizing human resources, many leaders are unknowingly squandering their organization’s talent. 

This program is grounded on an emerging body of elite performance research which isolates an over-riding big idea:

Most businesses seem to be managed brilliantly for producing competent contributors, but managed miserably for developing consummate professionals.  To achieve a competitive advantage in tough economic times, competence is not an option. 

“Staging Your Finest Hour as a Leader” offers a blend of jaw dropping wakeup calls and hard-hitting practicality to enable participants to learn to:

1.Recognize performance management principles that we hold as unquestionable truths, which limit a team’s skill proficiency and derail the possibility of developing consummate professionals.

2.Employ the elements of “deliberate practice” in coaching to help key reports to transcend performance plateaus (Note: The research indicates stars aren’t born; rather they are made through deliberate practice)

3.Discover the abundance of time efficient and inexpensive learning opportunities that lead to continuous improvement of your work forces’ hidden reserves of results-producing capacity. 

4.Learn best practices from emerging research on becoming an expert and from industries where competent proficiency is not an option (sports, performing arts, military combat performance, hospital ER)

There are always winners in any economy, why not you?  Come to a program that equips you to stage your finest hour as a leader.

Points available for customizing your program:

A. Uncertain Economic Times Call for Unprecedented Leadership

1.Customers can’t afford to make mistakes in selecting suppliers and service providers.

2.Employees facing uncertainty need leaders who help them discover their untapped capabilities.

3.Leaders need to bring their A-Game to work, and even redefine the capacities of their A-Game.

4.Developing superior talent as the ultimate competitive advantage in a recession (and when the economy stabilizes).

5.The Stockdale Principle Revisited-Faith you will ultimately prevail + Confront brutal facts in your current reality.

B. Waking Up To The Elephant in the Room—The Curse of Competence

1. Competence is not an option: How settling for competent performance produces disengaged employees and deadwood.

2.Squandering performance capacity:  25 possible signs of the curse of competence in operation in your organization.

3.The enormous competitive advantage from cultivating top flight talent (especially for small and mid-size companies).

C.   Elite Performance Research: 

1. Stars aren’t born; they are made through deliberate practice.

2.Elements of deliberate practice- willingness to face discomfort and incompetence in order to continuously improve.

Two types of greatness:  a) greatness by measuring up to industry standards and competitive ranking, and b) greatness by becoming unrecognizable compared to one’s past history.

Customary Performance Management vs. Deliberate Practice:  No shortcuts, but eventually you become unrecognizable

1.Source of motivation: Being reward-driven vs. being driven by passionate values.

2.Nature of practice: Mindless practice of existing strengths vs. deliberate practice aimed at improving performance gaps.

3.Time allocation: Practice as an intrusion in work getting done vs. Saturating practice opportunities in daily work routines.

4.Responding to plateaus:Tolerating plateaus as maxed-out potential vs. Embracing plateaus to accelerate new learning.

Coaching With a “Healthy Disregard for the Unreasonable”

1.Granting greatness—adopting the orientation to discover hidden capacity rather than expecting predictable results.

2.The eye of the tiger: Different techniques for handling plateaus—golf hacker, golf pro, and Tiger Woods.

3.Use a 3-step accountability process to move through performance plateaus.

Culture Shaping Best Practices/Discovering the Abundance of Practice Opportunities in the Doing the Work Itself

1.Case example USC Football:  Using unwavering principles to instill a culture of greatness.

2.A dozen methods for turning customary work activities into teachable moments and continuous improvement opportunities.

                       

COPYRIGHT ART TUROCK 2009