The Hindu Business Line : Be a leader, not a celebrity

What drives performance is behaviour, not personality, says Robin Stuart-Kotze in Performance: The Secrets of Successful Behaviour ( www.pearsoned.co.in). “Personality is what you are; behaviour is what you do, and it’s what you do that makes a difference,” he explains.

Yet, it is personality that gets the headlines because people would like to find ‘a secret key to success that does not require work and effort,’ the author bemoans. “People are actually highly adaptable and far more flexible than personality typing gives them credit for.” Bizarrely, personality typing often gives people an excuse not to adapt their behaviour.

Through behaviour change and a focus on things that are within your control, continuous performance improvement (CPI) is possible. However, the starting point for change is to acknowledge current behaviour, advises Stuart-Kotze.

“Take a few minutes and write down the five things you do in your job that have the greatest impact on your performance,” he directs. “Then ask someone who works closely with you and knows you well to write down the five things they see you doing that have the greatest effect on your performance… Be prepared to hear some things that come as a surprise.”

Similarly, sobering should be this thought that Stuart-Kotze offers to bosses: “Be a leader, not a celebrity.” Leadership has unfortunately become a cult thing, he rues. “Being a chief executive only says that an individual has the job, not that they can do it well.”

You don’t have to be at the top to be a leader, the author says. “Leadership takes place everywhere. Once you understand that leadership is about performance improvement – getting things done well, done better, done faster, done on time, done reliably – you realise that everyone in an organisation has a leadership role to play.”

Leadership, says Stuart-Kotze, plays a significant role in high-performance teams. He insists that the leadership style has to be a combination of three main things, viz. taking initiative and setting an example, asking for people’s input and ideas, and employing a full-strength delegation – i.e. being confident in delegating tasks to people and not interfering with them.
Most ‘team building’ has nothing to do with creating real teams, the author finds. “Teams develop by doing, not by playing games.” His instruction, therefore, to leaders is straight and simple: “If you want to build a real team then get in the trenches and find out, first, if there is a common goal to which everyone is deeply committed and, second, if they are willing to adopt a common approach to working with clear rules of behaviour.”
Compelling read that can move you to the next level in performance.

D. Murali

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Be a leader, not a celebrity