Peak Performance Culture

An innovative approach to driving maximum performance at all levels of an organization

Peak Performance Culture: The Five Metrics of Operational Excellence is a step-by-step roadmap to achieving optimal organizational development in your company or association. This practical guide helps you accurately evaluate the current state of your company and create a strategy that maximizes its future success. Author Dave Mitchell, building upon concepts introduced in his bestselling books The Power of Understanding People and The Power of Understanding, provides new applications, effective real-world tactics, powerful organizational assessment tools, and much more.

The book addresses the five critical factors for organizational success: vertical alignment, horizontal alignment, leadership ideology and corporate culture, employee experience, and customer experience. Each comprehensive chapter introduces a key component to peak performance culture — containing a detailed definition of the component, illustrative examples, expert insights, and practical considerations relevant to a diverse range of real-world situations. This must-have guide:

• Features exercises and assessments to identify organizational metrics drawn from 25 years of work with client organizations such as Allstate Insurance, Bank of America, Universal Studios, Hilton Worldwide, Walt Disney World, and hundreds more
• Explores best practices for implementing policies, procedures, and philosophies that align with an organization's mission, values, and strategy
• Discusses individual characteristics of high performers, how to enhance teamwork, the relationships between functional units within an organization, and employee recruitment, selection, and onboarding
• Addresses issues surrounding how employees responsible for customer satisfaction are experiencing their organizations
• Provides tools for continually evaluating and improving customer experience, including a pragmatic model that can be applied to any organization

Whether your company needs to correct performance problems, or is already successful but seeking even higher levels of success, Peak Performance Culture: The Five Metrics of Operational Excellence will prove to be an invaluable resource for any organization.

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

“Fat Enough, Happy Enough” Isn’t Enough 3

What You’ll Find in the Book 6

The Plan Requires Work 8

Chapter 1: A Foundation of Passion 11

True Passion is Rare 11

Desire Versus Passion 13

The Importance of Joy 14

Leading with Passion 16

Chapter 2: Horizontal Alignment 19

Success Scoreboard 20

Market Environment 29

Why Me? The Core Ideology 31

How Do You Identify Your Core Ideology? 37

The First Step of Alignment is Done 52

Chapter 3: Vertical Alignment 55

Vertical Alignment Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought 58

The Incredible Value of a Well-Designed Job Description 60

A Misaligned Brand 62

Digging Deeper into Alignment 64

The Misaligned Sales Process 66

Brand Statement and Vertical Alignment 69

The Fallacy of “Disruption” 70

Small Changes in Horizontal Alignment Create Big Changes in Vertical Alignment 71

Vertical Alignment at the Divisional/ Departmental Level 75

Passion is the Foundation, Alignment is the Infrastructure 79

Chapter 4: Leadership Ideology 81

The Problem with Values 82

The Importance of Behaviors 84

Internal Locus of Control 88

An Empowerment Culture 91

Intrinsic Needs Fulfillment 94

Dialectical Thinking 96

Zero-Based Thinking 101

Coaching and Counseling to Shift Responsibility 104

People Preventative Maintenance System 109

Seamwork 113

Leadership Toxicity 116

The Great Eight of Benevolent Accountability and Pragmatic Creativity 118

Chapter 5: The Customer Experience 121

Not All Customers are Alike 123

The Heart and Art of Service Excellence 126

Service Excellence and Organizational Ergonomics 128

Service Recovery 132

Customer Journey Mapping and the Power of Expectations 134

Chapter 6: The Employee Experience 155

Recruiting and Selection 158

New Hire Onboarding/Orientation 165

Skills Training 169

Continuous Coaching and Performance Feedback 170

Career Pathing 177

The Employee/Customer Link 178

Chapter 7: It’s Go Time! 181

Appendix: Peak Performance Culture: The Five Metrics of Organizational Excellence 185

Peak Performance Culture Assessment 186

Ongoing Enhancement 190

Horizontal Alignment Assessment 191

Vertical Alignment Assessment 193

Leadership Ideology Assessment 194

Customer Experience Assessment 195

Employee Experience Assessment 197

About the Author 199

Index 201

DAVE MITCHELL is founder of The Leadership Difference, where he has delivered training seminars to over 450,000 people at top organizations. Dave has received multiple Speaker of the Year awards and is author of three previous books: Live and Learn or Die Stupid!, The Power of Understanding People, and The Power of Understanding Yourself.

Businesses small and large are focusing too much on inspiration and not enough on execution. Although passion and desire to succeed are essential to achieving our full potential in business, they aren't adequate on their own. If efforts to motivate employees aren't supported by a firm groundwork of organizational success, the efforts will be short lived at best—like trying to hang paintings on the walls of a house with no foundation. In Peak Performance Culture: The Five Metrics of Organizational Excellence, Dave Mitchell teaches readers how to build the bones of achievement in any organization.

Through the course of his career as a leading corporate trainer, and drawing on research in cognitive psychology and other fields, Mitchell has uncovered five keys to success that form the framework of a Peak Performance Culture. Yet many top businesses are not exploiting these success factors, and are not performing at their highest potential. Implementing the techniques in this book in a systemic fashion will take readers from modest success (if they are lucky enough to have attained it) to truly stellar results.

With practical checklists, discussion ideas, and action steps, this book provides readers with a roadmap to implementing and monitoring the five keys to business success. Mitchell's unique framework breaks down high-level concepts like leadership ideology and customer experience into measurable actions that can be put into effect right away. By tracking these five metrics, organizations can begin to create a culture, not just of day-to-day accomplishment, but of excellence from top to bottom.

Praise for PEAK PERFORMANCE CULTURE

"Dave Mitchell's books are based on his world class experience as a speaker and organizational expert. If you are planning to buy one book this year, buy this one. It will truly have a lasting positive impact."
—Simon Nynens, CEO, New Jersey Innovation Institute, New Jersey Institute of Technology

"Dave Mitchell gets people, he understands us and knows how to engage us. We have had the pleasure of using Dave's material to engage our entire company and family members and the impact has been nothing short of amazing. If only people understood each other more the world would be a much better place!"
—Shea Kelly, CEO, CCR (Circle Computer Resources, Inc.)

"Over my years in senior leadership I have been exposed to many notable 'thought leaders'. However, Dave Mitchell presents a very unique and truly enjoyable approach to helping all levels of an organization understand core people and leadership skills. Dave and his teaching will be part of our playbook from now on."
—Michael Kamphaus, President and CEO, Peirone Produce Co.

"Dave Mitchell does it again! His take on corporate culture is real and relevant. Every business leader needs this book. Dave is our association's go-to guru for all manner of personal and business behavior."
—Alison Cody, Executive Director, Manufacturers' Agents Association for the Foodservice Industry (MAFSI)