Page 71 - Performance Leadership

60 • Part I A Review of Performance Management

other strategy, the effect of social business models on innovation, customer
perception, and (future) bottom line can and should be measured.

Values Dimension
Covey connects the spiritual dimension to leadership. He states that
values are the “leadership center of our lives, what life is ultimately
about, it spreads like an umbrella over anything else.”
Again, this is no different in organizations. Like a person, organiza-
tions have beliefs and values too. Organizational values can be defined
as an organization’s principal behavior on the highest level. These val-
ues are an aggregation of the personal values of people who work for
the organization, and they attract people with the same values to the
organization. Values help us understand the behaviors of people; they
provide the necessary context. Next to positive values, organizations
have negative values as well. It is important not to dismiss them; they
have the same power the positive values have on an organization’s cul-
ture. This organizational culture can be defined as an organization’s
practical behavior that can be observed over and over again in similar
situations. Culture is an important driver for the success of perform-
ance management. If you don’t align your performance management,
feedback, and reward system to the organizational culture, dysfunc-
tional behaviors will result.
A good mission statement helps. Most organizations have them, but
few actually live by them. Bad mission statements state the obvious.
Great mission statements pinpoint organizational values that are rec-
ognized internally (self-perception) as well as externally (external per-
ception), leading to strategic alignment. A great mission statement
guides which performance indicators and initiatives are needed in the
other dimensions, in order to make the mission statement tangible.
In comparison, the social dimension of performance leadership
teaches us that strategies need to be aligned with how we serve our
stakeholders. We look to the outside world to see where we can add
value and respond accordingly. The values dimension then balances
this with an inside-out view. It tells us who we are and what we are
really good at, to make sure we keep adding value over the longer
term.