High Performance Leadership

High
Performance
LEADERSHIP
Leaders are what leaders do

PAUL ROBINSON

POSITIVE REVOLUTION

Copyright c 2009 Paul Robinson
The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All cartoons narrated in this work is by
Randy Glasbergen
Copyright c Randy Glasbergen

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Acknowledgments
NOTHING OF LARGE importance has never been
created without the collective support of like minded
people. This book is an outcome of consistent research and
the collective contribution of positive revolution research
team. I would like to extend my much gratitude to all of
them.
First and foremost the creative source from where
everything flows and channeled through creativity.
Next my collaborators at Positive Revolution, my
partners and specially Vanitha Ram, who took the extra
hours from work to edit this book.
Secondly my well wishers and friends. This book is
dedicated to you for your continuing support.
I thank all the participants of my seminars and
workshops. Thank you all for your valuable suggestions
and intriguing questions that has triggered many of the
revelations in this work.
To all the members of Positive Revolution, it has been an
amazing experience to enter in some intelligent discussion
with you all. Every feed back I have received has helped me
improve better every time I speak and write.
Finally to you, the reader. As intended as it may seem, I
believe you and I are kindred spirits, because I started of
my development reading hundreds of books in
management and leadership and they have tremendously
helped to be improve my perceptions of reality.
Together let us transform leadership together.

Paul Robinson
Bangalore, 2009

Contents

Preface 1

Introduction 2

Chapter One
High Performance Leadership 5

Chapter Two
Deep Into the Leadership Data 10

Chapter Three
Leadership is no Moral Science 16

Chapter Four
Action Based Leadership 19

Chapter Five
People Based Leadership 44

Chapter Six
System Based Functional Leadership 55

Chapter Seven
Creating Change In Evolving Landscapes 65

Chapter Eight
Leadership is Developed 76

Conclusion 80

A Call for Action 83

Preface

Wikipedia's definition of leadership is:
“The process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid
and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task".

“Leadership is the ability to see things as they are, to see things as
better than they are and then to make them as you see it.”

"Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute
to making something extraordinary happen."

"A leader is a dealer in hope"
- Napoleon Bonaparte

The U.S. Army says a leader must
"Be, Know, Do."

The New York Fire Department says a leader is
"First in, last out."

Lee Iacocca says
“A leader picks good people and sets the right priorities.”

Jesse Jackson says,
"Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides.
It must bring sides together."

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more
and become more, you are a leader.”
~ John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States

“Leaders are not what leaders are. Leaders are what leaders do”
- High Performance Leadership

High Performance Leadership 1 Paul Robinson

THERE ARE THOUSANDS of
definitions about leadership and each
year thousands of books and articles get
published about leadership. Why
another book?

INTRODUCTION
Leadership has been a curious subject
for me for years. Amidst the
bombardment of information it made
me rethink on several grounds. First
leadership was observed and studied on a
common ground; later management
gurus sliced leadership in to several
pieces and objectively proved differences
and variations from each other. Today
they are joining the pieces back to
reinterpret leadership on holistic
grounds. Leadership has evolved over
times and our understanding on the
subject is still evolving.
This book is not just another extension
of leadership verbatim. I know that,
there are thousands of books and articles
published every year on the most sought
after subject in management- leadership.
Thousands of jargons and terms are
invented every year to elaborate an
innovative style or variable style of
leadership to complement the changing
times.

Terms like evolutionary leadership, transformational,
change, innovative, collective leadership ,`strategic
leadership`, `market leadership`, `team leadership`
,`de-personalising` leadership and so on and many are
getting tied to this holistic band wagon.
Not so surprisingly, people who research on the
subject of leadership come up with new jargons every
time adding a word from dictionary and prefixing it
with leadership. What you get is a new point of view, a
new perspective highly refutable on management
circles. This happens because the subject we are
talking is huge and everyone has a unique way of
executing their leadership function; let it be it is in
military, business or organizational or personal level.
One point is very sure- A vast awareness of the
subject on leadership can however help you to evolve
your own personal leadership style.
There is no one style, personality profile, or
interaction approach for an effective leadership.
Leaders do come in "all shapes and sizes." Few can
deny the effectiveness of leaders such as Golda Meir,
Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Meg Whitman,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Lee Iacocca, Oprah Winfrey,
Jack Welch or Steve Jobs. They all had success and
few can deny that these leaders also differ
significantly. Each of us has different role models.
Many people in leadership positions struggle with
understanding what makes a great leader. While
billions of dollars are spent annually on leadership
development, quality leadership is still in short
supply. This book is my attempt to light up clarity
among confusion.

We all know that nothing stays the same, but the rate
of change in today's business world must be
unprecedented. We've seen the advent of global
competition, rapid technological development and
widespread political change. The business world has
moved from being relatively stable and simple to being
increasingly dynamic and complex. Organizations
now face new challenges and leaders must perform at
high levels in today’s increasingly unpredictable
situations.
This new world requires a new set of leadership
skills to ensure high performance and faster delivered
results. The question is: can we identify leadership and
team behaviours that underpin outstanding performance in
dynamic, complex and competitive environments? And
more than that, can people learn and develop these skills?
The answer is Yes. It is possible. Leadership can be
taught, coached and mentored to human perfection.
That is what High performance leadership is all about.
High Performance Leadership teaches you how to be
an outstanding leader within your organization
envied, loved and respected by others. The principles
and practices you learn in this book is based upon
observation and research from the foremost
authorities in the field of leadership.
High Performance is the new paradigm for result
focused organizations to create outstanding leaders for
today's changing and challenging times.


Chapter One
HIGH PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP.
LEADERSHIP IS A rich and
meaningful word. It stirs up a sense of
idealism, excitement, hope and
courage. It is a word that inspires us to
be our best; a word that we associate
with those who have made the
greatest difference in our lives. It is a
title everyone respects, it is a person
others follow, it is a function highly
pivotal in the success of any
organized human endeavor.
Leadership is an exciting subject over
all. High performance Leadership is
even more productive and exciting
when you study them. That is a
promise.
Performance is a term usually used in
automobile industry, like high
performance cars like Ferrarri or
Lamborghini. When it comes to
utmost human performance the term
is- peak performance, referred mostly
in sports and athletics. To understand
high performance leadership in
detail, you must understand three
words in this context ie ‘high’,
‘performance’ and ‘leadership.’


Let me first elaborate the term high. The latin motto
of Olympic games- ‘altius, citius, fortius’ means higher,
faster and stronger. It encompasses the whole
rationale of Olympic Sports. This applies also to a
performing skill like leadership. Altius or higher is the
first motto of Olympics. Soaring above the ground
defying gravity is a universally recognized challenge.
In leadership to perform high means to set a goal above
your current functionality, higher than your current
performance and achieve the perceived vision,
through developing attitudes and aptitudes that will
accomplish the measured progress.
We live in a time where bottom line results are not
only desired but are also very essential for survival.
The demands for high performance are so heavily
placed in today’s time. Mediocrity and average
performance is no longer engaged in a competitive
environment. Today people and companies are only
keen on breaking records, but also in increasing share
value, increasing customer’s trust and base. Every
organization wants a high performer who will give
them the quantum leap of outstanding progress.
Secondly this book is about performance. It is about
the behavior and not about the personality of
leadership. Performance is the result of a behavior.
You judge performance as good or bad based on the
measurable results that are produced from a behavior.
There is a huge difference between personality and
behavior. It is like the difference between ‘what you can
and what you do.’ What ultimately produces result is
the result of an action or a behavior, not what you are

capable of. Therefore- the so called virtue and qualities
of leadership take a back seat when it comes to the
result focused behavioral leadership. Behaviors are the
actions you take and the decisions you make. You can
control these things and they are manageable because
they are also measurable.
On a broader sense leadership is about improving
people’s performance and performance is only judged
by results. You can only manage what is measurable.
High performance leadership is measurable and
manageable. And the best part is, it can be taught.
High level performance results from doing the
right thing by the right person who possess the right
attitude and aptitude at the right time applied
singularly or collectively.


These days a lot of leaders suffer from the ‘capability
syndrome’. They think they are capable of delivering
results but they remain inactive. Capability does not
equal results. You can be the person with all the
qualities of a leader possessing all the skills a leader and
you can be the worst leader if you do not produce any
high optimum results. Remember results come from
action.
What you do is your behavior and what you are is
your personality. Results come from action. The world
will not pay you for what you know or what you are
capable of; it pays you for what you do. No matter what
your personality may be, the results always come from
behavior. Leadership is not about who you are. It is not
a person. It is about what you do at your best.
Personality is the simple word for characteristics and
traits and that alone will not make a high performance
leader. In fact personality is a poor predictor of
performance. Because we all do different things when
we are faced with different situations, regardless of
what our basic personality may be.
However knowing a personality can predict a
range of behavior in a person. Extensive researches in
to charecter traits of effective leaders have failed to find
any correlation between one particular set of traits and
success. But on a behavioral level, a set of actions a
person may take can actually predict the level of
performance. According to behavior kinetics there are
set of performance blocking behavior in a person as
well as performance accelerating behaviors that make a
high performer.

Thirdly high performance is about leadership.
Academics and success of many organizations teach us
that one of the primary components of any organized
success is great leadership. There are more than 500
definitions about leadership and more than 1000
theories to elaborate each of them. Indifference is the
new style to defining leadership. There are no written
rules about it, because conventional knowledge about
leadership is getting defied at this very moment as you
read.


Chapter Two
DEEP INTO THE LEADERSHIP DATA

LEADERSHIP IS AN
interesting subject and a curious one
too. After the Second World War,
the US govt. sponsored a massive
piece of research in to leadership.
Prior to the war they believed that
leaders are born and not made but
the results taught them to disbelieve
on the theory. The researchers had
spent roughly a half a million dollars
examining the behavior of a large
number of officers, they concluded
that leadership was comprised of
two types of behavior: one was based
on the tasks performed like taking
action, getting the job done and
getting results and the other was
based on the behavior of a person
who builds interpersonal relations
with others like showing concern,
aiding them for their development
and being sensitive and attentive to
others needs.
There were two strong
distinctions made in the behavioral
aspects of leadership, one the task
master- skilled person who gets the

job done and the other interpersonally skilled person
with people skills. Then later the third element was
found- the leadership function and behavior of
integration and coordination.
Now there are three approaches to leadership. One is
action based that talks about initiating activities,
driving for results and getting things done. The second
is people based, means show concern to people, and aid
them in their development. Thirdly the system based
leadership which is more like strategy oriented,
integrating ideas and action, innovation and thinking.
This is more like a functional aspect of leadership.
All three types are suited for different situations.
All these possess a set of attitudes and behaviours. You
can develop a personal style best suited for your
situation by combining three primary leadership
approaches which I will be explaining in the following
chapters. Bottom line you can demonstrate a set of
attitudes and behaviors to reach the high performance
you want.


What is interesting about these three types of
leadership style is that it has its core origin in human
personality. Core of personality is the cause and
behavior is the effect.
Famous psychologist Sigmund Freud recognized
that there are an almost infinite variety of
personalities, he identified three main types: erotic,
obsessive, and narcissistic. Most of us have elements of
all three. We are all, for example, somewhat
narcissistic. If that were not so, we would not be able to
survive or assert our needs.
Freud’s definitions of personality types differed
over time. When talking about the erotic personality
type, however, Freud generally did not mean a sexual
personality but rather ‘one for whom loving and above
all being loved is most important’. This type of indivi-


-dual is dependent on those people they fear will stop
loving them. They are driven by the human need for
connection and love. Their identity is an extension of
the larger network of people they are connected to. As
personalities they are ‘outer directed people’, caring
and supportive of others. These people develop a
‘people oriented’ leadership style and they want to be
loved by their followers.
Obsessives, in contrast, are ‘inner-directed’. They
are self-reliant and conscientious. They create and
maintain order and make the most effective
operational managers. They look constantly for ways
to help people listen better, resolve conflict, and find
win-win opportunities. Obsessives are also ruled by a
strict conscience—they like to focus on continuous
improvement at work because it fits in with their sense
of moral improvement. As entrepreneurs, obsessive’s
start businesses that express their values, but they lack
the vision, daring, and charisma it takes to turn a good
idea into a great one. The best obsessives set high
standards and communicate very effectively. They
make sure that instructions are followed and costs are
kept within budget. Obsessives develop the system
based functional leadership style.
Narcissistic types are ‘self directed’ people. They are
independent and not easily impressed. They are driven
by the need for significance and in business they gain
power and glory. There are productive and
unproductive narcissistic leaders. The difference is
between Bill Gates (productive) and Bin Laden
(unproductive). Productive narcissists are experts in

but they go beyond it. They also pose the critical
questions. They want to learn everything about
everything that affects the company and its products.
Unlike erotics, they want to be admired, not loved.
And unlike obsessives, they are not troubled by a
punishing superego, so they are able to aggressively
pursue their goals. They are the task masters. They get
every job done. They are driven by results.
Achievement and results are their preferences over
people and system. They will change the system, bend
the rules even manipulate their followers to get the
work done. They are highly action oriented and they
make up the ‘action based leadership’ style.
In High Performance Leadership, behavioral
leadership is an outcome of certain personality or the
combination of the three core personality.High
performance leadership can deliver manageable results
through action based or people based or system based
leadership. All leaders have a part of their behavior
triggered either by action based or people based or
system based leadership style from time to time.
Leaders may adapt different styles as circumstances
and times of change. All leaders dominate any one of
these behavior and their style of leadership changes
drastically and thus their performance and results
change.
Action oriented leadership is driven by the need for
significance and significance is achieved by creating
change. People based leadership is driven by human
values and the need for connection and love. System
based leadership is driven by principles and the need
for certainty and they create an environment for best

practices and highly successful in driving proactive
human behavior.
In action based leadership every outcome is
controlled but in people based leadership outcome is
allowed. In system based leadership an outcome is
generated. Action based leaders will say ‘do it” (action
& result) to their teams, while people based leader will
say ‘let us do it’(work or play together) and system
based leaders create an environment for proactive
actions from everyone in the organization (job is
duty).
There are several variations in each of these
leadership styles. Each of them deliver results and you
will learn them in detail in the following chapters.


Chapter Three
LEADERSHIP IS NO MORAL SCIENCE
SCHOLARS SHOULD
REMIND us that leadership is not a
moral concept. Leaders are like the
rest of us: trustworthy and deceitful,
cowardly and brave, greedy and
generous. To assume that all good
leaders are good people is to be
willfully blind to the reality of the
human condition, and it severely
limits our scope for becoming more
effective at leadership. Worse, it
may cause the leaders among us to
kid themselves into thinking that,
because they are leaders, they must
be trustworthy, brave, and generous
and that they are never deceitful,
cowardly, or greedy.
There is no infallibility with
leaders. They are humans. Every
human intention is variable. As it
can be self orientation or other people
orientation or even company
orientation. No one can put a moral
principle to any of these orientations.
This is just the way it is. You can’t
expect all the leaders to be respectful
towards their followers or do all their
administrative responsibilities.

For some leaders their primary function is to create
more followers but for other leaders it must be the task
of making more leaders. There is no good leadership
versus the bad one; there is only effective leadership
against the ineffective leadership. Some leaders are
effective at certain time and ineffective later. This is a
function determined by a situation and as situation
varies the style of leadership and leaders change
according to circumstances. Sir Winston Churchill
was a great leader for Britain under Second World
War, but he never got re-elected for a peaceful Britain
after the war re-election. Some leaders are effective for
turbulent times to keep the homeostasis together and
some are effective in peaceful times for growth. Some
leaders make the best for crisis times and some for
crucial changing times and others for maintaining the
status-quo.
Human needs like certainty, uncertainty and
significance come and play at various situations.


Leaders are what leaders do. There is no moral science
to it. There is no particular style to leadership. Only
thing that matters is results. Leaders are there for a
reason and the purpose of leadership in any context is
to deliver results. If there is a problem, the leader must
deliver solution. When there is chaos, the leader must
deliver order. When there is confusion, a leader must
bring clarity. When there is indecision, a leader must
take the decision even if there is no evident answer.
That is decision making. Leaders make the decisions
today and they get their decisions managed by others
for tomorrow.
Each leaders lead differently. Leaders don't just lead
from the front they lead from all angles. They push,
they pull they tug from the sides. Leaders just do what-
ever it takes to get results.
Leadership is not only about having power but it is
also about giving power. The most important thing to
remember is that leaders are not always born. Leaders
are also made. In today’s times leaders are emerged.
They emerge because something outstanding in a
person can not be hidden for long. They are also made
by manipulations. They are voted or elected. Leaders
spring up everyday. The effective ones are looked
upon. The ineffectives are tolerated or violently
opposed or forgotten in the sands of time. The one that
deliver results are admired by everyone. Nobody can
put down a productive leader who delivers results.
That is just the way it is. I believe that high
performance is in. Ultimately everyone wants to be
the part of the winning team that is performing above
all

Chapter Four
ACTION BASED LEADERSHIP
LEADERS ARE MADE of
action. In an organization
individuals at all level exert their
influence over the behaviors of
others and customers and they are
influencing the action part of the
leadership where the job has to be
done, where the task has to be
completed.
Action based leaders are powered by
their narcissistic personality. They
are skilled orators and creative
strategists who want to influence a
group by attracting followers.
These leaders also possess high
linguistic intelligence that gives
them a command over language and
people.
They are driven by the need for
significance. They make their
stamp of significance by making
large contributions to the world.
One major key to achieving
significance is to do the most daring
thing in any situation. Creating
change is a significant event.
Change leaders (as often called as)
are action based

leaders. They turn around and re-engineer
organizations. They also become founders of new
organizations. Companies they lead or manage
become their self extension of character and charisma.
They love to transform. They want their impact felt in
every echelons of society. There is so much of
productive narcissism that drives their behaviours.
The only major reflection of their narcissism is in
creating the change they want to see. They want their
brands to last longer and their leadership style to
become a legacy. They are ambitious and even reach
the celebrity status.
Sigmund Freud dubbed narcissistic- “People of this
type impress others as being ‘personalities,’” he wrote,
describing one of the psychological types that clearly
fall within the range of normality. “They are
especially suited to act as a support for others, to take
on the role of leaders, and to give a fresh stimulus to
cultural development or damage the established state
of affairs.”


Throughout history, narcissists have always
emerged to inspire people and to shape the future.
When military, religious, and political arenas
dominated society, it was figures such as Napoléon
Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt who determined the social agenda. But
from time to time, when business became the engine
of social change, it, too, generated its share of
narcissistic leaders.
Freud also recognized that there is a dark side to
narcissism. Narcissists, he pointed out, are
emotionally isolated and highly distrustful. Perceived


threats can trigger rage in them. Achievements can
feed feelings of grandiosity. That’s why Freud thought
narcissists were the hardest personality types to
analyze. Consider how an executive at Oracle
describes his narcissistic CEO Larry Ellison: “The
difference between God and Larry is that God does not
believe he is Larry.” That observation is amusing, but
it is also troubling. Not surprisingly, most people
think of narcissists in a primarily negative way. After
all, Freud named the type after the mythical figure
Narcissus, who died because of his pathological
preoccupation with himself.
Yet narcissism can be extraordinarily useful—even
necessary. Freud shifted his views about narcissism
over time and recognized that we are all somewhat
narcissistic.
There is productive and unproductive narcissism.
Leaders such as Jack Welch and George Soros are
examples of productive narcissists. They are gifted
and creative strategists who see the big picture and
find meaning in the risky challenge of changing the
world and leaving behind a legacy. Indeed, one reason
we look to productive narcissists in times of great
transition is that they have the audacity to push
through the massive transformations that society
periodically undertakes.
Productive narcissists are not only risk takers
willing to get the job done but also charmers who can
convert the masses with their rhetoric speeches. The
danger is that narcissism can turn unproductive when,
lacking self-knowledge and restraining anchors,
narcissists become unrealistic dreamers like Hitler.

Productive narcissism is an outcome of self
awareness. Productive narcissists are great visionaries
and they understand the vision thing particularly well,
because they are by nature people who see the big
picture. They are not analyzers who can break up big
questions into manageable problems; they aren’t
number crunchers either (these are usually the
obsessives). Nor do they try to extrapolate to
understand the future(like system based
leaders)—they attempt to create it. To paraphrase
George Bernard Shaw, some people see things as they are
and ask why; narcissists see things that never were and ask
why not.
Narcissists have vision. Only people with vision
can create or induce change. To create change one must
know where they are and also must know where they
are headed. Vision gives you the ideal of a great
picture. Narcissist leaders are visionaries—but that’s
not enough. People in mental hospitals also have
visions.


The simplest definition of a leader is someone
whom other people follow. Indeed, narcissists are
especially gifted in attracting followers, and more
often than not, they do so through language and
emphatic speeches. Narcissists believe that words can
move mountains and that inspiring speeches can
change people’s beliefs and attitudes. Narcissistic
leaders are often skillful orators, and this is one of the
talents that make them so charismatic. Indeed, anyone
who has seen narcissists perform can attest to their
personal magnetism and their ability to stir
enthusiasm among audiences.
Yet this charismatic gift is more of a two-way affair
than most people think. Although it is not always
obvious, narcissistic leaders are quite dependent on
their followers—they need affirmation, and preferably
adulation.


That’s because charisma is a double-edged sword—it
fosters both closeness and isolation. As he becomes
increasingly self-assured, the narcissist becomes more
spontaneous. He feels free of constraints. Ideas flow.
He thinks he’s invincible. This energy and confidence
further inspire his followers. But the very adulation
that the narcissist demands can have a corrosive effect.
As he expands, he listens even less to words of caution
and advice.
The significant behavior of narcissistic leaders is
their action orientation. Action oriented leadership is
performance driven. Albert Schweitzer once said
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the
only thing”
This is the lead dog action in example in a dogsled
team. The lead dog is at the front of the team. It sets the
pace. It provides the leadership and inspiration to other
dogs. In fact people will tend to do things if their bosses
are doing the same thing. As the dictum goes ‘action
speaks louder than words’.
Action based leaders behave like the ‘lead dogs.’ the
difference between action based with other styles of
leadership is that, people based leaders behave like a
‘gardener’ and system based leader behave like a
‘shepherd’ to their followers.
Action oriented behavior is also very competitive in
nature. In the high performance level they strive to be
the best, to deliver products and services faster, to gain
market share, go higher to beat the competition, and
capture more consumers and markets and hold them
etc. The list of successful behaviors of action oriented
leaders are:

1. Pro action - or taking initiative and driving for
results by getting things done.
They are the advocators of action. They make their
followers to take action on ideas that are observed
risky. They push the limit by challenging people.
2. Setting an example. Being the Pace setter. Action
oriented leader’ favorite dictum is ‘if I can do it, you
can do it too’
3. Inspiring people with big vision. They make people
not only see the big picture but also make them believe
they can achieve them.
4. Setting clear performance targets. Also monitoring
each person’s performance against their targets.
5. Challenging people to raise their goals. They make
people do things that were once believed as impossible.
This makes them boost the confidence of their
followers.
6. Focusing on actions on areas where there is a clear
impact. They make priorities and action list for every
one to follow. Instructions are followed strictly. Rules
and standards are set for others to follow.
7. Paying attention to details, (evaluation and
managerial). They get into the minutest details of
impact. They never leave any stone unturned.
8.Time bound delivery of results. They are on a race
against time. Pressure is increased to create the sense
of urgency and an increase in productivity.
9. Clear cut quick decisions. They are fast decision
makers because they know that the buck stops with
them.
10. Spontaneous action. They encourage spontaneity.

They expect others to do a good job. There is no delay
in their work. They expect results on every deadline
they set.
Their dominant attitude is to win at any cost. They
do not care for others feelings.’ I don’t care, just get it
done’ is their method of approaching a task even if it is
perceived impossible. Failure is not encouraged by
action oriented people.
Performance blocking behavior of action oriented
leadership is many. Since they are task masters they
deemphasize team work. They can create a stressful
over worked environment literally keeping people on
their toes. They demand more from their followers.
They can be savagely witty in their remarks and often
intimidating in their approach.
Despite the warm feelings their charisma can
evoke, action oriented narcissists are typically not
comfortable with their own emotions. They are
selective listeners. They listen only for the kind of
information they seek to understand.


They don’t learn easily from others. They don’t like to
teach but prefer to indoctrinate and make speeches.
They dominate meetings with subordinates. The
result for the organization is greater internal
competitiveness at a time when everyone is already
under as much pressure as they can possibly stand.
Perhaps the main problem is that the narcissist’s faults
tend to become even more pronounced as he becomes
more successful.
Action based leaders believe in their actions and
results that they develop a sense of predicament to
their overall approach. They are highly sensitive to
criticism and because they are extraordinarily
sensitive (don’t tell me what to do, just do what I say),
narcissistic leaders shun emotions as a whole.
Indeed, perhaps one of the greatest paradoxes in this
age of teamwork and partnering is that the best
corporate leader in the contemporary world is the type
of person who is emotionally isolated. Narcissistic
leaders typically keep others at arm’s length. They can
put up a wall of defense as thick as the Pentagon. And
given their difficulty with knowing or acknowledging
their own feelings, they are uncomfortable with other
people expressing theirs—especially their negative
feelings.
Indeed, even productive narcissists are extremely
sensitive to criticism or slights, which feel to them like
knives threatening their self-image and their
confidence in their visions.
Narcissists are almost unimaginably thin-skinned.
Like the fairy-tale princess who slept on many
mattresses and yet knew she was sleeping on a pea,

narcissists—even powerful CEOs—bruise easily. This
is one explanation why narcissistic leaders do not want
to know what people think of them unless it is causing
them a real problem. They cannot tolerate dissent. In
fact, they can be extremely abrasive with employees
who doubt them or with subordinates who are tough
enough to fight back.
Action oriented leaders are not empathetic towards
their followers. Best-selling business writers today
have taken up the slogan of “emotional intelligence
and competencies”—the belief that successful
leadership requires a strongly developed sense of
empathy. But although they crave empathy from
others, productive narcissists are not noted for being
particularly empathetic themselves. Of course, leaders
do need to communicate persuasively. But a lack of
empathy did not prevent some of history’s greatest
narcissistic leaders from knowing how to
communicate—and inspire. Neither Churchill, de
Gaulle, Stalin, nor Mao Tse-tung were empathetic.


And yet they inspired people because of their passion
and their conviction at a time when people longed for
certainty.
In fact, in times of radical change, lack of empathy
can actually be strength. A narcissist finds it easier
than other personality types to buy and sell companies,
to close and move facilities, and to lay off
employees—decisions that inevitably make many
people angry and sad. They have the least sentimental
attachments to their followers when it comes to the
priority of making profits.
But narcissistic leaders typically have few regrets.
As one CEO says, “If I listened to my employees’
needs and demands, they would eat me alive.”
Given this lack of empathy, it’s hardly surprising
that narcissistic leaders don’t score particularly well on
evaluations of their interpersonal style. What’s more,
neither 360- degree evaluations of their management
style nor workshops in listening will make them more
empathic. Narcissists don’t want to change themselves
but they want to change everything around them—and


as long as they are successful, they don’t think they
have to. They may see the need for operational
managers to get touchy-feely training, but that’s not
for them.
There is a kind of emotional intelligence associated
with narcissists, but it’s more street smarts than
empathy. Narcissistic leaders are acutely aware of
whether or not people are with them wholeheartedly.
They know whom they can use. They can be brutally
exploitative. That’s why, even though narcissists
undoubtedly have “star quality,” they are often
unlikable. They easily stir up people against them, and
it is only in tumultuous times, when their gifts are
desperately needed, that people are willing to tolerate
narcissists as leaders.
When it comes to teamwork action oriented leaders
want followers who listen to their commands.
Narcissistic leaders often say that they want
teamwork. What that means in practice is that they
want a group of yes-men.


Another demerit of action leaders is their lack of
interest in mentoring others. Lack of empathy and
extreme independence make it difficult for narcissists
to mentor and be mentored. Generally speaking,
narcissistic leaders set very little store by mentoring.
They seldom mentor others, and when they do they
typically want their protégés to be pale reflections of
themselves.
Most narcissists prefer “mentors” they can control.
They do not follow advices they only listen to
opinions and they make their own decisions with their
gut feeling above all rationale.
Narcissistic leaders are relentless and ruthless in
their pursuit of victory. Games are not games but tests
of their survival skills. As Donald Trump puts it ‘hire
and keep the best people but never trust them’. Of
course, all successful managers want to win, but
narcissists are not restrained by conscience.
Organizations led by narcissists are generally
characterized by intense internal competition. Their


passion to win is marked by both the promise of glory
and the primitive danger of extinction. It is a potent
brew that energizes companies, creating a sense of
urgency, but it can also be dangerous.
These leaders see everything as a threat. As Andy
Grove puts it, brilliantly articulating the narcissist’s
fear, distrust, and aggression, “Only the paranoid
survive.”
There is very little business literature that tells
narcissistic leaders how to avoid the pitfalls. There are
two reasons for this. First, relatively few narcissistic
leaders are interested in looking inward. I have
identified three basic ways in which productive
narcissists can avoid the traps of their own personality.
1) Find a trusted sidekick. Get a Mister#2 for Dr.
Evil in Austin Powers’s movie. You can also get a’ mini
me’ for a likeable or cuter version of you.


Many narcissists can develop a close relationship with
one person, a sidekick who acts as an anchor, keeping
the narcissistic partner grounded. However, given that
narcissistic leaders trust only their own insights and
view of reality, the sidekick has to understand the
narcissistic leader and what he is trying to achieve.
The narcissist must feel that this person, or in some
cases persons, is practically an extension of himself.
The sidekick must also be sensitive enough to manage
the relationship. Don Quixote is a classic example of a
narcissist who was out of touch with reality but who
was constantly saved from disaster by his squire
Sancho Panza. Not surprisingly, many narcissistic
leaders rely heavily on their spouses, the people they
are closest to. But dependence on spouses can be risky,
because they may further isolate the narcissistic leader
from his company by supporting his grandiosity and
feeding his paranoia.


2) A greater sense of Self-awareness can uphold
action oriented leadership to perform at the highest
level. Since narcissistic leaders lack empathy, a strong
understanding of one’s emotions, strengths,
weaknesses, needs, and drives are essential. People
with strong self-awareness are neither overly critical
nor unrealistically hopeful. Rather, they are
honest—with themselves and with others. People who
have a high degree of self-awareness recognize how
their feelings affect them, other people, and their job
performance.
Self-awareness extends to a person’s understanding
of his or her values and goals. The decisions of self-
aware people mesh with their values; consequently,
they often find work to be energizing. How can one
recognize self-awareness?
First and foremost, it shows itself as candor and an
ability to assess oneself realistically. People with high
self-awareness are able to speak accurately and
openly—although not necessarily effusively or
confessionally— about their emotions and the impact
they have on their work.
Self awareness is not a trait you are born with but a
capacity you develop throughout your lifetime. It’s
your understanding of your strengths and weaknesses,
your purpose in life, your values and motivations, and
how and why you respond to situations in a particular
way. It requires a great deal of introspection and the
ability to internalize feedback from others.
No one is born a leader; we have to consciously
develop into the leader we want to become.

One of the hallmarks of self-awareness is a self-
deprecating sense of humor.
Self-awareness can also be identified during
performance reviews. Self-aware people know—and
are comfortable talking about—their limitations and
strengths, and they often demonstrate a thirst for
constructive criticism. By contrast, people with low
self awareness interpret the message that they need to
improve as a threat or a sign of failure.
Self-aware people can also be recognized by their
self-confidence. They have a firm grasp of their
capabilities and are less likely to set themselves up to
fail by, for example, overstretching on assignments.
They know, too, when to ask for help. And the risks
they take on the job are calculated. They won’t ask for
a challenge that they know they can’t handle alone.
They’ll play to their strengths.
Furthermore, leaders are constantly required to
make judgment calls that require a candid assessment
of capabilities—their own and those of others. Do we
have the management expertise to acquire a competi-


-tior. Can we launch a new product within six months?
People who assess themselves honestly—that is, self-
aware people—are well suited to do the same for the
organizations they run.
3. Self-Regulation.
Biological impulses drive our emotions. We cannot do
away with them—but we can do much to manage
them. First of all self-regulation, which is like an
ongoing inner conversation, is the component of
emotional intelligence that frees us from being
prisoners of our feelings. People engaged in such a
conversation feel bad moods and emotional impulses
just as everyone else does, but they find ways to control
them and even to channel them in useful ways.
Secondly, self-regulation is important for
competitive reasons.


Everyone knows that business today is rife with
ambiguity and change. Companies merge and break
apart regularly. Technology transforms work at a
dizzying pace. People who have mastered their
emotions are able to roll with the changes. When a
new program is announced, they don’t panic; instead,
they are able to suspend judgment, seek out
information, and listen to the executives as they
explain the new program. As the initiative moves
forward, these people are able to move with it.
Sometimes they even lead the way.


ACTION BASED LEADERSHIP FOR CHANGE
Whatever may be the flows of action oriented
leaders, they are famous for creating change anywhere
they are. People with narcissistic ideals often seem
restless with the status quo. They are persistent with
their questions about why things are done one way
rather than another; they are eager to explore new
approaches to their work. Since continuous change is
not a natural condition of life, hence resistance to
change is a healthy human instinct.
Bringing change to any human condition is a majour
challenge. This is the challenge action leadership is
capable of handling better than everyone else. Change
instills fear in followers. Therefore the process of
creating change is vital. There is an educative process
before change happens. Since action based leadership
boast of oratory skills, this makes it easier for
narcissist to inspire change among followers.
Today’s times action oriented leadership has taken
a new definition with regard to productive narcissism
as change leaders. Change leaders follow
Transformational Leadership. Transformational
leadership theories are based on the idea of some form
of collaborative greater good. There are skills and
qualities that are needed in change management. The
effect of these qualities on people undergoing
significant organizational change can be summarized
as:
(1) Building an awareness of the value and
importance of tasks.
(2) Focusing their minds on group objectives rather
than just personal interests.

(3) Appealing to and activating their aspirational
needs.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Transformational Leadership is particularly
relevant to successful change management - especially
in situations of major change. Transformational
leadership is about raising consciousness. In practical
terms this is all about encouraging people to become
conscious and aware of what they feel, to feel it
strongly and to do so in a context where their values
have been defined in such a way that they can be
motivated and encouraged to take constructive action.
It takes tenacity to tame cynicism, mass ignorance and
fear. Narcissists thrive in chaotic times. they love
danger and uncertainty because they are adventurous
people by nature.
Action oriented leaders can motivate their
followers. Interestingly, people with high motivation
remain optimistic even when the score is against them.
In such cases, self-regulation combines with achieve-


-ment motivation to overcome the frustration and
depression that come after a setback or failure.
It’s not difficult to understand how and why a
motivation to achieve translates into strong
leadership. If you set the performance bar high for
yourself, you will do the same for the organization
when you are in a position to do so. Likewise, a drive
to surpass goals and an interest in keeping score can be
contagious. Leaders with these traits can often build a
team of managers around them with the same traits.
And of course, optimism and organizational
commitment are fundamental to leadership—just try
to imagine running a company without them.
Very often leadership is mostly familiar with
activities like moving forward, creating change,
vision and constantly improving up on results. But
there is another dimension to leadership which is the
stewardship behavior and function of leadership.


STEWARDSHIP FUNCTION OF LEADERSHIP
The stewardship function is where most actions are
carried out; it is the sustenance factor for any
organization. A steward focus on sustaining
performance making sure that everything runs more
than ok. The performance at this level will greatly
affect the entire functionality of leadership. These are
the arms that carry out the leadership in to action and
in to measurable results. Most often we only know
about the top leaders in organization, only their names
will be heard often, but there are hundreds and
thousands of leaders in their organization whose
names are not heard of, the people who really run
things, who really steer various operations in the
business. Every one is a leader whose actions affect the
larger body of an organization.
Leadership is a body of collective action to fulfill a
collective goal.
Leadership is accelerated by action. Changes,
improvements, winning work culture, increased
returns all take place as a result of several actions. On
one side of leadership in action the performance is
accelerated to create changes with a set of successful
behaviors and on the other end the performance is
sustained by the successful momentum of action. In a
successful organization acceleration and sustenance go
hand in hand through constant and never ending
improvements. Japanese call it kaizen. You can apply
this in several areas. Consistent action on a particular
direction delivers results. Consistent improvement
leads to better performance.

High Performance leadership delivers results through
action.
Productive narcissists are gutsy and fearless. What
separate them from the rest is their commitment to
action and the mantra of ‘do whatever it takes’
Major decisions of action based leaders are carried
out by support teams that follow either a system based
or people based leadership style.
Action based leadership often exercised by founders
of small and large organizations. Their identity
becomes bigger than their organizations. It won’t be
surprising to hear when an employee in Virgin says, ‘I
work for Sir Richard Branson’s company rather than
saying he or she actually work for Virgin.
The persona of narcists go further than their
organization. All narcists are revolutionary by nature.
They create change wherever they are. They want
people to remember them. They don’t form policies
from their subordinate’s suggestions. They impose
their decisions on people because they believe it is
right for them.
Gandhi is a true productive narcissistic leader. He
never asked his followers what strategy they must use
to get Britishers out of India. He formed his own
policies of non-violence and non-cooperation, and he
told the people to just follow them.
Action oriented leaders are not only made of action,
they also have a personal philosophy that drives their
behavior. When the right philosophy is in coherence
with vision and action, action based leaders deliver
amazing results.

Chapter Five
PEOPLE BASED LEADERSHIP
ACTION BASED
LEADERSHIP is ‘self oriented
narcissistic leadership’ but people
based leadership is ‘others oriented’
driven by the human need to
connect, love and contribute to other
fellow humans. This is an
enlightened level of leadership and a
rare one at it. It is not so easy to find
people these days who are ‘others’
oriented. This also reveals the higher
purpose of leadership more refined
in its true function of serving people.
Prentice defined leadership as ‘the
accomplishment of a goal through the
direction of human assistants.’
The man who successfully
marshals his human collaborators to
achieve particular ends is a leader. A
great leader is one who can do so day
after day, and year after year, in a
wide variety of circumstances. He
may not possess or display power;
force or the threat of harm may never
enter into his dealings. He may not
be popular; his followers may never
do what he wishes out of love or
admiration for him. He may not ever

be a colorful person; he may never use memorable
devices to dramatize the purposes of his group or to
focus attention on his leadership. As for the important
matter of setting goals, he may actually be a man of
little influence, or even of little skill; as a leader he may
merely carry out the plans of others.
His unique achievement is a human and social one
which stems from his understanding of his fellow
workers and the relationship of their individual goals
to the group goal that he must carry out. The
effectiveness of Dale Carnegie’s famous prescriptions
in his ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ is a
good example. Its major principle is a variation of the
Golden Rule: “treat others as you would like to be treated.”
While limited and oversimplified, such a rule is a great
improvement over the primitive coercive approaches
or the straight reward-for-desired-behavior approach.
It is the- to understand and to be understood
approach that give clarity, power and direction to the
completion of a desired outcome in people based
leadership.


People based (or oriented) leadership is successful in
any model where delegation of responsibility and
accountability is needed to achieve a collaborative
effort. Great teams are managed with people based
leadership. These leaders treat their organization as
an extended family. Everyone is respected and loved.
There is job security and comfort created to every
employee within the organization. People based
leaders encourages risk taking and personal
development in the organization. They create high
performance teams. Other behaviors include:
1. Giving people credits for their achievement.
2. Asking others to perform and won’t use the ‘tell
them’ approach.
3. Creating a learning environment and learning
from failures.


People based leadership focus on human development.
They invest on their followers for further Training and
development.
4. Focus on Employee retention and employee welfare.
5. Soliciting ideas and suggestions from others as well
as rewarding them.
What makes people based leaders is their ability to
connect with people. They have remarkable social skill.
For them any human achievement is a collective work
done towards the attainment of a common goal.
Socially skilled people tend to have a wide circle of
acquaintances, and they have a knack for finding
common ground with people of all kinds—a knack for
building rapport.
That doesn’t mean they socialize continually; it
means they work according to the assumption that
nothing important gets done alone. Such people have a
network in place when the time for action comes.
Social skill along with empathetic skills is the
culmination of the dimensions of emotional
intelligence. Behavioral scientists have pointed out
that on of the major key significant factors behind the
success of many leaders and managers are their
emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is a
bigger factor than IQ when it comes to dealing with
people and succeeding in any human environment.
After studying several star performers with average
ones in senior leadership positions, nearly 90% of the
difference in their profiles was attributable to
emotional intelligence factors rather than cognitive
abilities.


Few researchers have confirmed that emotional
intelligence not only distinguishes outstanding leaders
but can also be linked to strong performance.
From a scientific (rather than a popular) standpoint,
emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately
perceive your own and others’ emotions; to understand
the signals that emotions send about relationships; and
to manage your own and others’ emotions. It doesn’t
necessarily include the qualities (like optimism,
initiative, and self-confidence) that some popular
definitions ascribe to it. Of course, emotional
intelligence isn’t the only way to attain success as a
leader: A brilliant strategist who can maximize profits
may be able to hire and keep talented employees even if
he or she doesn’t have strong personal connections
with them.
A decrease in ego can increase in the emotional
intelligence. Emotional intelligence is about caring for
other people. It is not ‘me me me me’ it is ‘us us us us’.
That is the primary shift. Empathy, sympathy,
consideration, humility are all by products of this shift
in thinking and behavior.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Emotional intelligence can be learned. The process is
not easy. It takes time and, most of all, commitment.
But the benefits that come from having a well-
developed emotional intelligence, both for the
individual and for the organization, make it worth the
effort.
Of all the dimensions of emotional intelligence,
empathy is the most easily recognized. We have all felt

the empathy of a sensitive teacher or friend; we have
all been struck by its absence in an unfeeling coach or
boss. But when it comes to business, we rarely hear
people praised, let alone rewarded, for their empathy.
The very word seems un-businesslike, out of place
amid the tough realities of the marketplace.
But empathy doesn’t mean a kind of “I’m OK,
you’re OK” mushiness. Rather, empathy means
thoughtfully considering employees’ feelings—along
with other factors—in the process of making
intelligent decisions.
Empathy is particularly important today as a
component of leadership for at least three reasons: the
increasing use of teams; the rapid pace of
globalization; and the growing need to retain talent.
Empathy plays a key role in the retention of talent,
particularly in today’s information economy. Leaders
have always needed empathy to develop and keep good
people, but today the stakes are higher. When good
people leave, they take the company’s knowledge with
them. That’s where coaching and mentoring come in.


COACHING AND MENTORING
It has repeatedly been shown that coaching and
mentoring pay off not just in better performance but
also in increased job satisfaction and increased
turnover. But what makes coaching and mentoring
work best is the nature of the relationship.
Outstanding coaches and mentors get inside the heads
of the people they are helping. To influence people,
first you must know what is already influencing them.
People based leaders are highly emotionally
intelligent and they sense how to give effective
feedback. They know when to push for better
performance and when to hold back. In this way they
motivate their protégés, they demonstrate empathy in
action.
In what is probably sounding like a refrain, let me
repeat that empathy doesn’t get much respect in
business. People wonder how leaders can make hard
decisions if they are “feeling” for all the people who
will be affected. But leaders with empathy do more
than sympathize with people around them: They use
their knowledge to improve their companies in subtle
but important ways.
So what makes the people based leadership? Is it
leading by feeling? People based leaders have greater
sense of self awareness. They are driven by human
values of respect, empathy, motivation, love and
collaboration People tend to be very effective at
managing relationships when they can understand
and control their own emotions and can empathize
with the feelings of others. A deep feeling of empathy

with the urge to connect oneself to a large spectrum of
human network upbeats a leader’s social skill. Socially
skilled people, for instance, are adept at managing
teams—that’s their empathy at work. Likewise, they
are expert persuaders—a manifestation of self-
awareness, self-regulation, and empathy combined.
Given those skills, good persuaders know when to
make an emotional plea, for instance, and when an
appeal to reason will work better. And motivation,
when publicly visible, makes such people excellent
collaborators; their passion for the work spreads to
others, and they are driven to find solutions. But
some-times social skill shows itself in ways the other
emotional intelligence components do not.
Bottom-line People based leadership is about
managing relationships effectively. No leader is an
island. After all, the leader’s task is to get work done
through other people, and social skill makes that task
possible. A leader who cannot express her empathy
may as well not have it at all.
In people based leadership style dominant
performance roles are:
1)Developmental roles. Functions include building
teams and developing People. They create a positive
climate by providing coaching, training and
developmental resources to improve performance of
followers. These behaviors are relevant to flat,
flexible, team-based structures which have to
integrate with other teams. They build the
ownership, involvement and commitment of people
and nurture their contribution. They improve the


performance of people through development of their
skills and creation of an atmosphere of learning.
When these behaviors are not well developed, an
organization can become fragmented and less than the
sum of its parts. For an organization which relies on
the quality of its people, under-development of this
cluster represents an absolute limit to its growth.
Leaders train others to become leaders. They believe in
and trust the people who follow them. They share,
delegate, give and share credit to others for their ideas
and contributions.
2. Inspirational role. People based leader are others
oriented and they work on their followers through
coaching and mentoring.


The behaviours in this cluster relate particularly to
building confidence and excitement throughout the
team and are crucial to achieving ‘buy in’ to ideas. In a
crisis where decisions are required quickly, these
behaviours create an atmosphere of confidence within
the team. Without these behaviours you will see
confusion, pessimism and lack of direction.
Leaders listen to the counsel of others. They listen to
the criticism of others. They are not defensive. They
don't get angry nor do they wilt away. They accept and
even welcome impute from others for they know it is a
way to make the situation better or themselves better.
3) People based leaders take the role of a servant
more than the master.
This is a biggie. Leaders actually serve. They care
about others they are willing to get their hands dirty.
They come alongside people and get their hand and
feet muddy. They don't sit in their office just giving
orders for someone else to do it. They are willing to
show people how to get it done.
This develops loyalty in an organization. The
objective of this leadership style is to create an
atmosphere where self actualization kicks in as a
driving force for many people in the organization.
People do not want to be told as what to do. They like
to be asked and needed. This increases their self
confidence and moreover in people based leadership
glory of achievement is shared among people.
People based leadership has its own flows as well.
Leaders tend to give undue lenience to people in this
leadership behavior. Leaders develop impractical

approaches to people expecting that others will do the
job even if it is not monitored. They become too
dependable on others and this allows others to make
mistakes and at times costly ones are made. Few
employees will take undue advantage of a situation as
people based leadership is observed as naïve leaders.
There are many great leaders, and many different
ways to lead. One way to lead people is leading by
focusing on people. As a leader your people are your
most valuable asset, knowing this is a big step to being
a great leader.
A true leader find ways to help others to become
more. Leaders do not lead businesses they lead people.
People will work for organizations where they are
cared and appreciated. They will stick with you when
they feel you help them to be more than they thought
they could be.
In people oriented leadership, leaders create an
environment for every one in the organization to
perform at their highest potential. The focus is on
people performance.


Chapter Six
SYSTEM BASED
FUNCTIONAL LEADERSHIP
SYSTEM BASED
LEADERSHIP is a principle
centered leadership. It is functional
and it is based primarily on the
system and strategy. System based
leaders are excellent planners and
administrators who get the job done
by a collective effort of various
departments more than people. The
whole functions of performance is
expected from every individual and
they are systematized in this
leadership style. There is a unified
and harmonic operation between
departments. Leadership is exercised
through a cordial co-ordination of
activities of individuals and groups.
This leadership style can be
compared to the orchestra conductor
who skillfully conducts his orchestra
in co-ordination and harmony.
System based leaders are great
planners with long term vision.
They set priorities and assign the job
to various departments in an
organization to achieve goals that are
collectively formed.

Strategy orientation is the key behavioral skill of a
system based leadership. They look at business from a
strategic point of view and they define targets
according to timely executed plan. They make constant
analysis of past and current behavior and they devise
new strategies for winning customers, markets,
products and services. They have a visionary planning
method of looking at a future scenario. They make
decisions based on the issues that are likely to arise in
the future and they get their decisions managed by
their followers. This type of leadership may not take
the quantum leap of change like the action based
leaders, but they do re-engineer their organization
from time to time. Change is slow in this environment
due to high administrative entanglements. There will
be approval procedures from different department
before they make a decision. System leadership seeks
approval and collective leadership is the result of this
outcome.
System leaders are great innovators. They make
their recommendations from time to time. They
analyze, mull over the details before any decision is
made. There is also a time delay in decision making
compared to action based leaders due to the system in
place.
System leaders can manage tasks that are huge.
Collective and synchronized action is the key to
performance. There will be procedures to follow and
everyone abides to certain rules and protocols. This
leadership style is ideal for operations where large
departments are to be coherently administered.

System leadership has a major responsibility in being
the head and does all the thinking part for
organizational growth and stability. The process of
thinking is done primarily in three ways:
1) Information Search, 2) Concept formation and
3) Conceptual Flexibility.
The three behaviours in this cluster are crucial to
strategy formation, planning and the ability to see the
'‘bigger picture’. Whilst they make the highest
contribution to performance they are often the least
developed and least valued in most organizations.
Information Search means gathering many different
kinds of information by using a wide variety of sources
to build a rich informational environment in
preparation for decision-making in the organization.
Concept Formation is building frameworks or models,
forming concepts, hypotheses or ideas on the basis of
information. System leadership is acutely aware of
patterns, trends and cause / effect relations by linking
information from various departments.
Conceptual Flexibility means Identifying feasible
alternatives or multiple options in planning and
decision-making while holding options in focus
simultaneously and evaluating their pros and cons.
Once all the thinking is done, they evaluate the pros
and cons and decide up on the maximum upsides
versus many downsides of options. In this scenario
followers from various divisions and departments can
make valid suggestions based on the feedback they
receive from customers, employees and shareholders.


The successful behaviors of system based leadership
are:
1) Setting SMART performance goals.
Leadership is simply the ability to turn a dream or a
vision of a desired future state into a reality with and
through the cooperation of other people. To throw
your life into something worthwhile, your dream
must be worth pursuing. It all starts with a great
vision, something beyond your capabilities to keep
you challenged and motivated. The driving force of
any leadership course is an inspiring vision. A vision
gives you a sense of direction, gives you the ability to
look beyond what is to what should be and serves as a
goal motivation to bring about exciting results.
Forming vision is having a great emphasis on future
directions and moving people towards shared dreams.
It is very effective in giving cohesion to groups of
people by providing clear directions and objectives. It
is group centered behavior and requires better than
average communication skills. Having a vision is not
everything, translating a vision into a bundle of goals
and action list and getting the results means realistic
vision.


"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality"
advises Warren Bennis, a world renowned authority
on leadership.
Once the vision is formed, vision is translated into
several outcomes or results. Then a list of goals is
formed along with several strategies to achieve that
outcome. Smart performance goals are set for others
to achieve. It is called SMART goals because these
goals are Specified, Manageable, Attainable, Result
focuses and Time bound.


2)Principle orientation
High Performance leadership in a system based
leadership is controlled by certain principles and
practices everyone abides by within the organization.
They are often called as best practices. Principles are
stressed on performance and it is the principles that
determine the collective outcome.
High performance leadership applies continuous
performance improvement as a core value of the
organization. Most of the high performance behavior
is motivated by core values of an individual, as the
individual strive to become the ideal. When you apply
continuous performance improvement you will be
doing things differently to achieve the result you want.
In any work environment people refuse to do things
differently. As every one is creatures of habits we all
learn certain way of functioning and exercising
responsibilities. When you don’t get the performance
you want ask yourself a question ‘What can I do now
differently to improve my performance?
Principle orientation is goal orientation with an
outcome in mind. Most of the outcomes they reach are
value enhancing for customers, employees and
shareholders. When principles are in place certain
benchmark of performance is already predetermined
by everyone and accepted as best practices. This
usually upgrade the homeostasis of the organization
rather than challenging them or changing them.
3) Ability to Conduct and Evaluate Research
On going review and research is vital in order to
keep on the cutting edge in business. Conducting and

evaluating research is an important way of planning
and being prepared for the future. Excellent leadership
is always pro active rather than reactive. Responsive
behavior is encouraged in system leadership.
Employees and followers are asked to evaluate and
asked to give suggestions and recommendations to do
things better.
4) Consideration: It is the extent to which a leader is
approachable and shows personal concern for
subordinates.
5) Reward Behavior: The extent to which a leader
provides his subordinates with compliments, tangible
benefits and desired specific treatment.
6) Punishment Behavior: The leader's use of
reprimands or unfavorable tasks assignments and
active with holding of rewards.


7) Monitor Employee Performance. Employee
performance needs to be monitored in mutually
accepted ways. Policies and procedures need to be
clear. Conferencing should be on a regular basis and
not just when there is a problem. Assessments and
evaluations should not be merely all formality or
viewed a necessary paperwork to be done and filed
away. Individual and group conferencing should be
undertaken not only to monitor performance, but with
the expectation of on going professional development
and support. There should be frequent encouragement
and clear criteria for on going goals both for the group
and individual.
8) Creativity. When vision drives action oriented
leaders it is creativity that drives system based leaders.


Creativity is a main hub in the ability of organizations
to maintain a competitive advantage. It looks at the
degree to which inhibitors such as organizational
designs as well as leadership style may positively or
negatively affect creativity in organizations.
For organizations to be empowered to survive
leaders and followers should seek after "creativity."
This is an individual's ability to conceive of or conjure
new ideas, which can benefit society. It is the center of
innovativeness, the momentum behind
organizational success. Failure to encourage and
embrace creativity within contemporary
organizations may be viewed as creating conditions
that are conducive to organizations failures.
9) Feedback. Leaders should be willing to evaluate
and implement employees' ideas; employees will very
likely feel valued, self-esteem will soar and self-
confidence will grow.
10) Brainstorm. Leaders should be willing to create
brainstorm workshops and seminars where employees
are free to verbalize and visualize their creative
endeavors. While it is important for leaders to be able
to find solutions to problems, they should also provide
employees the opportunity to problem-solve.
Roosevelt said it best, a good leaders picks good men to do
the job he wants done and self-restraint to keep from
meddling with them while they do it. It is also important
that leaders recognize employees' accomplishments,
because as the old adage goes "success breeds success.".
Success is celebrated together and blame is shouldered
as accountability singularly to the leader.

System based leadership is ideal for a large
organization which has several departments and
divisions. This is system developed by collective
owned enterprises where a board of directors has
stronger power over the CEO.
This system is effective in managing change rather
that creating change. The downside of this style is also
several. On a due course of time this system becomes
static in performance. Even though innovation is
advocated in this model, the actual realization of
change takes time due to delayed execution. There are
approval seeking behaviors and leaders often have to
sacrifice their staunch believes and decisions against
compromises. This is a shared authority situation,
where the system has more authority than the leader.
This leadership style has a democratic tone to it.
This is highly suitable for managing operations. It
is also ideal where integration is important in an
organization. Complex tasks are managed through a
systemized approach of chunking tasks. In a factory
environment where, design, production, distribution,
sales and management are involved a systemized
leadership is brought in to simplify operations.
But taken to the extreme system based leadership can
become a highly bureaucratic enterprise where you
hardly see the leader’s fingerprint anywhere.


Chapter Seven
CREATING CHANGE IN
EVOLVING LANDSCAPES

CHANGE IS OFTEN viewed as
a dreaded word, as it means moving
out of a comfort zone, going into the
unknown, encountering challenges
and finding appropriate measures of
dealing with the challenges.
There are two types of belief
system and people act on either of
them. One is a law of permanence.
This states that nothing is going to
change and everything stays the
same forever.
The other is the law of change.
Everything is subjected to change
and change is constant. The latter
law is very true and individuals who
act up on this law succeed in any
environment.
What about the law of
permanence? That is total crap. I
made it up. There is nothing like the
law of permanence but sadly as a
matter of fact majority of people
blindly follow this.


Everything is subjected to change. What we
experience is a subjective experience of a reality that
is shifting every time we observe it. Change is a
natural process. In a changing environment leaders
must have the mind set to revise new information and
adapt to new behaviors. Flexibility and adaptation
has kept human beings on top of the food chain in the
evolutionary process through out several
millenniums. Organizations that constantly change,
adapt, revise, reframe and re-engineer their ways of
conducting business will eventually evolve and
become market leaders. The one that is resisting
change and being caught up in the indecision model of
red tapes will suffer and go extinct for their reluctance
to adhere nature's ruling principle of change.
Change is a challenge. We are all as humans resist
and fear change. Change is a threatening proposition
to any comfortable way of doing things. Our comfort
zones are not easy to break. The pattern has a strong
foot on our neuro- system. We are all creatures of
habits and any change is unwelcome by human
nature. Nature has devised this behavioral formation
in order to protect us from potential dangers.
Anything that is unknown is observed with fear and
opposed strongly. The very reason that change often
happens in slow motion in a rapidly changing world is
because of the fact that changes go through three
stages before it is actualized.
First anything that denotes change is violently
opposed, secondly they are ridiculed by everyone and
finally they are accepted by everyone else.

In the Middle Ages changes were slow. Change
picked up the pace after the Renaissance period. After
Industrial revolution, the speed of change increased it’s
tempo. After Information Revolution a faster pace is
set that many fail catch up to the changes and act
according to the times. Today change is more shocking
and faster than a man's ability to comprehend and
understand it. But today what is driving higher
performance is nothing but through change.
Change is everywhere. People are changing the way
they communicate and the way they do business.
Constant Innovation has become the key to
outperform competitions.
Successful change begins with leaders. They should
model the change the wish to see by being visionary,
persuasive and consistent examples. Once leaders are
change-ready, employees are likely to follow, the end
result -change becomes a team effort.
Leaders can tailor their styles by first modeling the
change they wish to see. How? Simple!
Provide opportunities for employees to become a part
of the decision-making process.


Change will continue to be a permanent fixture
presently and futuristically. Creativity and
innovation will continue to be the key driving forces
behind products and services, as organizations
continue to meet the demands of a novelty seeking
populace. The onus now resides with leaders; they
should identify obstacles to organizational success and
make serious inroads to remove these barriers.
Leaders are agents of change. Today everyone talks a
great deal about creating change and the challenge still
remains on how an effective change can be brought in.
Creating change involves various processes. The
major steps as follows:


Step one: Find out the reasons for change. There has
to be a major why behind changing anything. People
need reasons to change and if the reasons are not
compelling enough people are not willing to change.
People are willing to change when they feel they are
threatened. It is only major pain that can change
people in comparison to the pain of changing itself.
Most People are willing to change at the last minute,
often during the crisis when they hit an emotional
threshold. As a leader the challenge of leadership is to
make others realize the crisis ahead of times, if they are
not willing to change now. Create enough reasons why
change is imminent and very important. Once you get
this step clear and ready move to the next step
Step two: Paint a better scenario of the future.
This is creating a scenario, or a situation that through
change, everyone will embark on a better favorable
scenario or situation. The proposition of the vision or
the painted scenario must be better than the current
scenario you are trying to change. Everyone loves
growth, improvement and profits. The scenario you
propose must be better than the current statuesque.
This is attaching pleasure to an outcome. People are
willing to give up what is painful to embrace anything
that is pleasurable. That is a human nature. Once
vision is presented to people, obviously there will be
questions and judgments raised in contrast to what
you are proposing. Then you must deploy the next step
Step three: Tell them how
People will believe in any option or plans as long as
you have the best laid plans and strategies are

convincingly presented to support them. People get
rational and question about an abstract vision.
Strategy and action plan must be presented in cogent
manner for people to accept that the proposition you
offer for change is achievable. Vision without plan of
action is mere hallucination. Once people believe in
your ability to create change, take the support of
followers to the next step
Step Four: Decisions and making change happen.
Once you decide to create the change you desire, you
can begin to manage your decisions by others.
Remember people need enough reasons to change their
behaviors and once you propose a new set of behaviors,
they are willing to substitute with new set of
behaviors. Once people experience results their
conviction is reinforced and they will move as force to
create the change together.
Step five: Manage change
Change requires constant revisions and adjustments.
They need to be managed. It is important to reinforce
the behavior and conditioned patterns in people. There
is always a possibility to snap back to an old pattern of
thinking, feeling and doing. When you manage change
you focus on constant reinforcement of change in
every area of management. Change can not persist if it
only takes place on peripheral levels. It must get deeper
and function at all levels.
Every change commands a new belief system, a new
set of behaviors and new set of practices that deliver
results better and faster than ever before.


One of the finest ways to implement change is re-
engineering the conditioned believes and practices in
work environment. People have been conditioned to
do certain things over several years and certain
practices over centuries altogether.
An interesting finding in human psychology in
context to performance is that- people behave in
accordance to their belief system. We all do
everything to prove that we are right according to our
belief system. Any major change in transformational
leadership is the change in beliefs.
Every belief we have is supported by facts. We have
acquired these facts whether they are true or false over
the time of upbringing. We think, feel and act in
certain way in consistency with our beliefs whether it
is true or not.


Our beliefs have already created a preset point for our
performance. We behave and perform in a manner
that is predictable by these preset points. All of us have
a preset point. This point is like a thermostat for an air
conditioner. A thermostat has a preset temperature
setting and any changes in temperature is reinstated
by the thermostat. Thermostat works in consistency
with the preset temperature point. Any changes in
temperature in a room is consistently readjusted by its
thermostat. Human behaviors are more or less the
same, always getting readjusted when change is
encountered.
We have certain pre set points to everything we
believe. We have a preset point that tells how much we
can eat, how much we can earn, how much tasks we
can accomplish everyday or what we are capable of
and what is possible by us. Since these predicaments
and self concepts are preset, the challenge of any
change in leadership is pushing the bar of performance
or changing the preset points of performance.


In high performance leadership, the first challenge
lies in assessing the current behaviors and measuring
results and outcome it produces. Secondly to achieve a
desired outcome, one must change the thermostat of
every individual performance including one's own to a
level of achievable goal and vision. Before evolution
takes place in external circumstances, involution must
be imposed within the frame of references.
Change occurs first in the human mind and then it
happens in reality. Making that shift in the mind is a
challenge, but it is possible if you know where
performance is currently set.
Change in any nature is an expansion of mind.
There are limiting set points for performance and
achievements. Once those limitations are substituted
with new set of beliefs, people are driven to achieve
more.
Ultimately high performance is a shift of believes.
New set of believes override the limiting ones and
new behaviours are installed to deliver results.
Today’s evolutionary leadership looks for major
shifts and outcomes. It is not about doing better than
others in a competitive environment. It is doing it
better than the way it was done earlier. The only
challenge is constant improvement ie, competing with
one own earlier preset performance. Imagine if we
could improve 1% everyday in what we do, that is 365%
performance growth in a year. The real analysis is in
one’s own productive behaviors more than analyzing
the competition. When you tend to do better than


your completion, later they will also out beat you by
doing it better. When you out beat your performance
to a new quantum level, you not only set a standard but
also a bench mark, hard to be imitated by your
competition.
Supremacy is built through out performance, by
raising your level of performance in a consistent
manner. In this case you not only become the agent of
change, you also become the change itself.
Change results are manifested in the future but the
process of change is in the present. People tend to do
crazy things under pressure. Their behavior becomes
irrational under pressure. A chaotic time will demand
change but people tend to make wrong decisions under
pressure. The best way to avoid that is to perceive
future chaos and take a preparatory step by arming
your organization with right strategies and decisions
before the unfortunate event takes place.Today
companies must perceive change well in advance even
before they appear.


Often time’s leaders experience their major
opposition to change from their managers. This is
because of the core managerial function. Managers
preserve the statusquo that leaders are changing.
Change is an emotional event. When you talk about
change everyone in the organization tend to go panic
at first. If you make a statement like ‘there is going to
be some changes around here!’, what is immediately
understood by others could be lay offs.
Every time when leaders apply a new vision in their
organization they are creating a change. Vision is the
picture of the future. Change is the medium to take
that picture into a reality. High Performance
Leadership is about creating the change to increase
performance standards of individuals and
organizations.


Chapter Eight
LEADERSHIP IS DEVELOPED
‘To be a leader is to be a beginner’
-DENNIS WAITELEY
World’s foremost authority in
human potential development.

TO BECOME A leader, you have
to be able to work with others, able to
influence others, have an effective
communication line with others so
that you can achieve all of your vision
and goals. Although this may sound
easy, it actually isn't.
I do not say that it is impossible
too!. Anyone can become an effective
leader. That is what leadership
development is about. Anyone can.
We are a bundle of limitless
potential, when harnessed and
channeled for anything, we become a
possibility. We can be anything we
want to be. That is the privilege of
being human. A tree can become
nothing but a tree, a bear can become
nothing but a grown up bear, but man
can become anything. That is the
privilege the nature has designed for
us. Then why not use it..


In order to become or evolve into being something, the
first step is to have a deep understanding of oneself.
Becoming aware of your strong and weak areas are key
points in leadership development. By knowing your
weak points, you can start working on them so that you
could either get rid of them or turn them into positive
characteristics. If you have difficulty working on your
weak points then you must seek out partnership with
someone who can complement you on areas that you
are weak and work with them as a team.
This also goes the same for your strengths. You can
complement your expertise where it is wanted.
Today leadership is not about singularity of
objectives and goals. It is more about collective action
through partnership and synergy to accomplish a
common objective. Leadership is about working
together, and the major challenge is in relating with
various kinds of people with diverse interests and
culture. As a leader you need to influence other people,
directing their efforts to the attainment of the shared
vision. To influence others first you must know what
is already influencing them. To understand what is
already influencing them, you must relate with them
and connect with them. Having a great rapport with
other people give you a peek into their world and the
values they have been raised and the principles they are
holding on to. Once you understand and appreciate
their world, you will eventually learn to use the
leverage of changing their behaviors.
Leaders tend to have an effect on other people and at
the same time they are affected by others. It is a two

way street. There is so much of giving and taking.
There are transactions and deals made. Relationships
are built by mutual respect and faith. Most of the
decisions are emotionally driven as people choose to
trust in a leader’s ability and vision.
The whole impact of leadership is controlled by
several emotional states of mind. What distinguishes
an effective leader from the rest of the pack is their
right psychology of mind- energy. Leaders are high
energy people. Followers are attracted to high energy.
Enthusiasm is the nature of High Performance
Leaders. Charisma is often attributed to their dialect of
influencing others with their words. Emotional
intelligence give them an edge over everyone to truly
connect with people form different backgrounds and
differences.
An outstanding communication skill is often the
common attribute to great leadership. Having good
communication with your team mates is the key to get


through each other and achieve optimum project
results at a faster rate. With this kind of attribute, you,
as a leader, will be able to avoid and resolve issues
before they even occur.
Sometimes, in order to achieve good leadership
development, you have to hear professional opinions
about how you lead or work with other people.
Feedbacks are essential. Feed backs tell you where you
are currently performing as a leader. If you know
where you are- you will surely can navigate your way
to where you want to be.
Of course, you can't just be a leader in an instant.
You have to find it in your heart the urge to be one.
People who are being looked up by others should
consider this as an opportunity and honor to step into
the shoes of a leaders.
There are leadership development programs, go
and attend seminars and workshops about leadership.
Read as much as you can. Great leaders are great
readers. Leadership is about quality communication.
To improve your communication, you must improve
the content of your communication. Great contents
are delivered from great minds. Learn and grow.
Education is a never ending process. Leaders need
to be revised and updated on time. Decision making is
done through the maximum analysis of data available
and after plunging into information, leaders decide.
Decide to be a high performance leader.


High Performance Leadership

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