Episode 41: Why leader self-improvement matters so much the the team’s performance with Rohan Horsley

Leadership Amplified by Dr Karen Morley

It was an interesting way to end the latest conversation on Leadership Amplified: getting great performance from others starts with you, the leader, taking accountability for your own performance and self-improvement. Rohan Horsley made this conclusion after we’d discussed the often-times tricky challenge of team performance and its successful measurement. I enjoyed Rohan’s take on performance and its measurement: it alternately seems to be pretty obvious and yet is at times – usually the tough ones- a delicate balancing act. He starts with the foundation assumption that people want to perform well – a very good place to start! The object is for people to have ownership of their measures, to be clear about what success is, and for their individual measures to be aligned with the team’s and the organisation’s. When people take ownership they naturally achieve and perform. We agreed that this is something both important and challenging, and that it takes time too. It’s so easy, Rohan says, to pick up the old measures and roll them forward; they might no longer apply, might not be the best (just the easiest) to measure and probably won’t be terribly inspiring. He also counsels the importance of trialling measures, as long as you are super-clear that is what you are doing. When the team can trial some measures and get involved in identifying whether or how well they work it inspires creativity and engagement in the measures. It’s important to avoid a blame mentality within the team. You should do a root cause analysis of both success and failure; it might be system or process that’s not right. A lot of relationships and a lot of careers don’t progress as they should because of misunderstandings. What’s key for the team: 📌 Understand the individuals 📌 Lead them in a way that suits their style 📌 Allow them to contribute to the team in ways they can with the skills they have strength in 📌 Where they want to grow give them opportunities People want their contribution to be valued and respected. If you make people compete they’ll find a way to win – that may be within the rules and it may not be, and can have unintended consequences. ✅ Most importantly, measuring performance starts with the leader, with their accountability for the team’s performance, seeking and listening to feedback, and improving their own performance. #motivation #Personaldevelopment #careers #Productivity #performance