Great Leaders, Great Teams and Great Results

This is one of my favorite topic to talk about after the earlier post of Leadership. I treat it as the sequel of a movie. Not really but I'm just passionate about this topic and that's all. I may want to use the topic above to write a book or thesis as a research paper for my post graduate study. In fact I am working on it for my future career. After some thought, I rather write a book. My wife challenge me to brush up my english-writing before pursuing such goal, which she could be right after all. Writing a book required more effort comparing pen down my thought via a blog.

I discovered this subject as the ultimate solution for today most chronic problem in every organization irregardless cultural, religion, ethnic, continent, country and skin color. In a global knowledge economy, the source of highest value is the creative engagement fo whole person; body, mind, heart and spirit. The unfortunate that happened today, most organization practices industrial age model where people treated as thing. Even we have the greatest value, skills and experiences that waiting to be tap on and subsequently unleash the potential, we are still trapped with the practice of industrial age.


Great Leaders carrying out 4 major imperatives and it is build upon another sequentially. They are also simultaneously progress which a leader need to pay very close attention to all 4 in order to sustain superior performance in an organization. They are classified as Inspire Trust, Clarify Purpose, Align Systems and Unleash Talent.


Inspire Trust: Trust is the core imperative of a great leaders as it impacted their ability to do everything else. A mediocre leaders viewtheir position of formal authority as the source of their power to get results. The mind-set of the great leader is to get things done through personal influence and credibility. Great Leaders use informal or moral authority. Trust is a function of personal credibility and behaviors that build trust. Credibility of trustworthiness is a function of a leader character and competence. It is demonstrated through specific behaviors that either create or destroy trust. When trust is high, speed goes up and cost go down, think about it like receiving dividend at the end of it. No one wastes time covering up, creating unnecessary forms and procedures, or altering information to meet someone's agenda. On the other hand, if you invest 100% of your effort on something, only half may actually be brought to bear on your goals because of all the 2nd guessing , bureaucratic, protective behaviors people engage in to protect their interests.


Clarify Purpose: Great Leaders create clear and compelling purpose for their team, people will volunteer their best efforts. A clear team purpose are able to answer questions related to;

Job To Be Done - What is the specific job your customers are hiring you to do or deliver?

Strategy Link - How does your team connect with the organization's mission and strategy?

Money Making Model - How does your team contribute to the economic model of the organization?

Great Leaders when developing a purpose balance rigorous thought and analysis with appropriate team feedback and involvement. Together they work and create a shared and compelling vision around the purpose.


Align Systems: Great Leaders align systems and results and institutionalize them to endure over time. Great Leaders will say " Enduring Success is in the systems". These leaders work to build success into the systems that it becomes independant of any person, creating a lasting legacy for those who follow. A great system is aligned to achieve your highest priorities, enables people to give their best, operates independantly of the leader and endures beyond the leader. There are four systems that are essential to your success. They are;

Execution - This is the system meant to be focusing on achieving your most important goals of all.

Talent - This is the system that designed to attract, position, develop and reward the people. It is about getting the right people in the right position to create successful results building their capability overtime.

Core Work Processes- This is the system for organizing our most critical work as a team or an organization. They define their core work processes and are constantly working to improve them.

Customer Feedback - This is the system for gathering consistent feedback on how well you are meeting the needs of your customer and making an ongoing improvements based on the data.


Unleash Talent: Great Leaders create culture that unleashes the highest talents and contributions of people. A great leader will release the talent and passion of each team towards our highest priorities. Everytime a great leader speaks it automatically create a culture and they constantly looking for opportunities to turn a normal conversation into leadership conversation. There are 3 elements that deliver the most impactful leadership conversation.

Voice- To affirm the worth and potential of each person in the team.

Performance - To clarify expectations and accountability.

Clearing the path - To be a single source of assistance in enabling people to succeed in their job.

These conversations will become more credible and powerful when there is high trust, clear purpose and aligned systems that support the execution of the team's most important goals. As a result, they focus each imperative interdependant approach in giving all equal priorities to untap the greatest potential and talent of the people.

In conclusion, the key to the big is the small. Great Leaders recognize that large things are accomplished by consistently doing the right smaller things over time. Just as small trim tab on the rudder of a large ship determines the direction of the ship, small things done consistently over time can have the tremendous impact we could ever imagine.