Lee: Yes. Well this one we didn’t save the best for last but without this one, just like the others it’s all very, very important. So best practice five is an equal anchor to best practice one, the Holder of Vision and Values. I often think about this one in terms of you may have heard that old saying, “A watched pot never boils.” Well there’s a flip side of that which is that if – that a pot could boil over if not watched and then you’d really have trouble.”
There’s a flip side of that. I mention that because that’s where a calibrator really comes into play. As you know execution and results must happen for the vision to be reached and values lived by. If there’s no one minding the pot or in this case calibrating production and results, then desired outcomes may not be reached. This is one of the practices that gets missed in the grander scheme of things. We want you to know that it has equal weight.
One of the companies that we used this model with early on in our work was a startup company with four founding members. Our assessments showed that three of them were all about visioning and innovation. Another was strong at influencing internally and in the community, in the market but none of them were strong in accountability and getting the product out the door. They could get sales, but they couldn’t get delivery to the customer. They were in a quandary and the reason that we were brought in.
So during our work together they added the right people and skills and realized that this accountability factor had been missed ever since they had started and that that was a big missing in the total of their leadership. As they worked along and they began to experience results, getting the product out the door. The accountabilities are so important that we stress them over and over again. Watching the pot means calibrating responsibility and accountabilities and constantly doing this in order to reach desired results.
When you put all five of these together you have a very comprehensive and complete model. Once learned, it’s easy to practice and becomes simple to orchestrate in our lives. I know Jeannine and I use it for everything that we do. We believe that in using it we’ve found that it’s simple. Most people can remember five major things. One that is elegant and sophisticated in reality.
Brenda: Simple, elegant and sophisticated. Thank you, Lee. As I heard you speak at the beginning of the introduction of this best practice, Lee, about it perhaps not being the best till last or whatever I do recall that this best practice was one of the things that attracted you and Jeannine to building this model because it was the piece that seemed to be missing in many leadership practice approaches.
Lee: Absolutely.
Jeannine: Yes. That’s right. We find it more and more every day. It is the most missed area I believe in leadership.
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