Reliable Leadership Methods Lead to Better Employee Performance

A common leadership method is the best way to inspire great employee performance, says Impact Achievement Group

SEATTLE – November 15, 2007 –An organization’s leadership is what truly helps companies compete in today’s market, powered by a highly committed and productive workforce.  Yet training leaders to employ a common, repeatable method for managing employee performance is critically important and what many companies miss, according to Impact Achievement Group. 

Disciplines from accounting to engineering to sales have adopted methods that can be practiced, replicated and critiqued.  Yet too many companies rely on dated or deficient leadership development approaches that do little to help them inspire optimum performance from their staffs, say Rick Tate and Dr. Julie White, senior managing partners for Impact Achievement Group Inc., a Seattle performance management and leadership development firm.

"We’re not talking about an intractable method, rigid behavioral steps for managers to follow," said Tate.  "One size does not fit all.  Managers have natural personality styles and strengths that no organization’s policies should suppress.  But companies need to train leaders to apply a method.  This basic routine optimizes their personal style and strength, allows for pro-active, not reactionary leadership, and correlates with effective performance management."

When leaders have a shared language to lead people and manage results, management as a whole is better at proactive problem solving and working as a team. Employees no longer have to deal with ambiguity and unpredictability when it comes to how individual managers lead. 

Tate and White have documented this in their book, "People Leave Managers, Not Organizations."  Impact Achievement Group has made Chapter 1, titled "Leadership and Performance," available as a free download.

Approaching performance issues as a problem to be solved is sure to create frustration and failure, particularly when managers apply a knee-jerk approach.  A replicable, proactive method gives managers the ability to treat performance not as a problem to be solved, but as what it really is—a condition that needs constant treatment.

A shared philosophy and approach among management is the best way to improve employee performance throughout an organization.  "Lone Ranger" leaders have all the answers, hold all the power, and are the "hero" problem solvers.  While good entertainment, this approach is not productive for today’s leaders.  This type of leader develops unintended dependency in direct reports.  Rather, building consensus, developing others, shared problem solving and empowering employees are the key traits for leaders to master to inspire optimal performance.  Leadership and managing performance is not something you do to people—it is a process you do with people.

People have an enormous capacity to reach their potential, solve their own problems and perform on their own two feet in an environment of appropriate – and reliable – management practices.

About Impact Achievement Group

Impact Achievement Group provides assessment, coaching, customer loyalty and leadership development training that focuses on employee selection, retention, employee engagement and customer engagement. By integrating and blending the world's best assessment and recruiting processes, workshops and eLearning training, coaching and measurement programs, Impact Achievement Group helps organizations improve human performance to achieve bottom line results.