It is a tremendous challenge to elevate the culture and behaviors of an organization to achieve Peak Performance.

Much like a mountaineering team attempting to make a difficult and dangerous climb to the summit, organizations must envision their goal, have the tenacity to make the ascent and utilize the skills necessary to reach the top.

The difficulty of elevating an organization can be understood by reflecting on how difficult it is for any of us to make the smallest positive change in our personal lives. Most of us would like to improve at things, but in most cases, it doesn’t seem to happen. If we struggle to get results in our personal lives, imagine how difficult it can be to elevate the culture, behavior and results of organizations where the paradigm and comfort zone have evolved over many years.

In order to truly achieve Peak Performance, leaders and organizations must commit to the following three elements:

1.Transformational Leadership

Leadership is at the very core of Performance Improvement. It is crucial that leaders develop and harness the skills necessary to communicate effectively, manage professionally and lead securely. These attributes ultimately determine the success or failure of the people being led. In order to positively leverage personal strengths, leaders must be able to work with and through others. Personal leadership sets the foundation for every successful team and must emerge from all levels of the organization to maximize performance.

2. The Human Element

When we are part of a team, it needs to stop being about me and start being about we. Leaders must work with and through others to scale the heights. This isn’t easy. People can be complicated and group dynamics are often difficult to understand. The human element presents a continuous challenge to effective leadership. We need to understand that ultimately, we will be measured by the success of our teams.

3. Performance Management

The Performance Improvement Process involves Three Phases.

Phase One – Strategic Planning
Setting a clear vision is the foundation to maximizing personal and organizational performance. If we can’t envision beyond our current reality, we have no chance of elevating performance.

Phase Two – Strategy Design
Once the business and performance issues have been defined in phase one, phase two integrates the Four Cornerstones of Performance Improvement: Communications, Training, Reinforcement, and Measurements. The cornerstones are critical in connecting people to the strategy.

Phase Three – Performance Management
Performance Management is defined as the active engagement of the leadership team in managing the behaviors of their managers and employee participants to achieve strategic goals. It requires commitment to the cornerstones of Transformational Leadership.