Driving Performance—Seven Lessons Learned Locally

The very best teachers are often in your own neighborhood. Leader-panelists at the two recent Chicago area regional connects certainly fit that description; having had the opportunity to attend both was especially insightful. From my perspective as a communication coach, it was great to see both classic and cutting edge communication concepts come to life via the executive mindset of food service industry leaders. Here are some of the lessons they shared that I learned and re-learned.
How Do Great Leaders Drive Performance?

1. Over-communicate.

This means more than the performance appraisal, more than you ever feel you really have time for, and in different ways and formats.

2. Don’t wait until you have the perfect answer to make the decision.

Leaders make decisions with 80% of the final data; they go with their gut and trust their delegations.

3. Surround yourself with talent.

While this may sound obvious, the point is to surround yourself with those who have strengths you may not have, or behavior traits and abilities that you can build on.

4. Learn from your mistakes.

Leaders aren’t defeated for long. Even when they make $100,000 errors, they return to redeem themselves and demonstrate a lesson learned.

5. Stick to the goal.

Bombarded with daily details and distractions, leaders make an effort to stick to the goal and to lead their teams to sticking to it, too—or to the five major objectives, or the three parts of the mission—whatever keeps the team on track.

6. Remember leadership has a heart.

Leaders accent the need for recognition and celebration, no matter how big or small the organization. People need to know when they’re on the right track. Leaders must acknowledge the heart with the head.

7. Encourage initiative.

Leaders like it when their teams have better ideas. They encourage new members to manage their own careers. They learn from their reports.