Page 256 - Performance Leadership

Chapter 12 Performance Networks • 245

make sure the stakeholders are successful, realizing that this is the key
to making the manager’s own organization successful. The relationship
manager reconciles the conflicting requirements between account
managers and procurement officers, who each have a clear business
domain goal. The sales manager needs to fight for margin; the pro-
curement officer for a low as possible price and favorable delivery
terms. The relationship manager realizes that the business partner
needs to have a fair profit and that it is in the best interest of both for
the business partner to grow. The success of the relationship con-
tributes to the profit of the organization.
Measurement drives behavior. If you have or desire an added-value
or joint-value relationship, but you put a transactional service level
agreement in place, you will experience dysfunctional behaviors. Peo-
ple fall back on transactional behavior. Conversely, if you desire a more
strategic relationship with a stakeholder, it may help to turn to pro-
gressive performance indicators, to start driving the more strategic
behaviors.

Call to Action
Given specific stakeholder dynamics, performance networks will look
different in various industries, and even for different companies within
a certain industry. Industries have different maturity levels, and organ-
izations have different strategies. In the following chapters, I will
describe typical performance networks for insurance, retail, and tele-
com. However, every organization has a performance network.
Identify your stakeholder relationships and for each relationship deter-
mine the current level as well as the desired level of relationship.
Although transactional relationships are scalable (because they can be
repeated for every single customer) and can be very profitable, they are
becoming increasingly less competitive. See where added-value or
joint-value relationships build more competitive differentiation and
advantage.
Start designing your performance management initiative around
your stakeholder contributions—what do they have to offer in addi-
tion to your own performance improvements? Remember that this
question may only be asked if you are prepared to ask the opposite