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Recent Articles from Bob Vanourek
Exploring servant leadership
The leader serves? The power is with the followers to determine whom they choose to follow willingly? It was a mind-flip that has stayed with me to this day. Directing people results in begrudging compliance. There is little commitment or engagement from them. Serving people leads to willing follo...
Organizing your team for high performance
Most organizations reorganize fairly frequently, trying to find the optimal structure, only to reorganize again a few years later. It’s a major source of frustration. But the formal structure is not the most important element of how to organize. High-performance organizations often employ temporar...
Top 10 goal-setting mistakes
Most managers fall short in their goal-setting process. Consequently, their teams are much less likely to achieve their goals. Here are 10 common goal-setting mistakes and how you can rectify them. Imposed: The command-and-control manager shoves goals downward, not trusting the employee to draft g...
Top 10 steps to align your company for high performance
Many organizations today are dysfunctional. They may have good people, attractive products, valuable services, and even smart strategies, but the various aspects of their organizations do not cohere. They have conflicting priorities. Different departments work at cross-purposes. Goals and strategi...
Unleash your latent leaders
For decades, leadership observers have known that the quest for a brilliant or heroic leader to save our organizations is a false search destined to disappoint. Yet we continue to await such saviors. We focus too much on the traits and skills of the people at the top and their leadership style, w...
The hard and soft edges of leadership
Say you’re the leader of an organization, or manager of a department, that is struggling, and you know you need to take your leadership to the next level. You’ve read lots of books, listened to TED talks, received 360-degree feedback from colleagues, and been to off-site trainings, but you can’t s...
Hire and promote for head and heart
The way most leaders go about identifying and promoting talent is utterly insufficient for what is needed to create a great organization. They focus mostly on the head and neglect […]
Whose vision is it, anyway?
Most of us are not founders or visionary virtuosos. We need a vision to inspire our colleagues, but whose vision? Is it the CEO’s vision? In Fortune 500 companies, the average tenure of CEOs is reported to be about 4.6 years. Does the organization get a new vision with every new CEO, just when the...
The secret to creating a high-performing team
To develop a high-performing team, above all else, develop shared values. Above all else? Isn’t that a stretch? Based on our own experience and interviews with leaders worldwide, we say no, it’s not a stretch. In fact, it’s the key. No doubt, the creation of any high-performing team results from...
Trash that mission statement
Most mission statements are terrible. They are vapid, unmemorable, uninspiring--platitudes that generate cynicism among employees. Example: “We are committed to achieving new standards of excellence by providing superior human capital management services and maximizing the potential of all stakeho...
How to select winners
Many organizations are recruiting and selecting new talent using wholly inadequate criteria. They further compound the problem by developing and rewarding the wrong people and in the wrong ways. These errors often result in future problems, including painful personnel changes and all the associate...
Lead yourself first
Self-leadership starts with having a clear sense of personal purpose. Your purpose is your reason for being, what gives your life meaning and significance. It answers: Why am I here? It’s not about what you do; rather, it’s about why you do it. Your purpose statement should be short, authentic, lo...
