Skip to main content

How To Discover What Your Top Performers Do Differently


The new book, The Star Factor, shows you a unique system for unlocking the wisdom of your stellar performers and transforming that knowledge into actionable steps to help other employees internalize these new attitudes and behaviors.

The system and methodology is called affirmative leadership. In the book, authors William Seidman and Richard Grbavac, explain the science, specifically the neuroscience, behind affirmative leadership.



They also outline the four phases of affirmative leadership:

  1. Discover - identifying your stars.
  2. Prepare - creating a learning program.
  3. Launch - using coaches to lead learning groups.
  4. Guided Practice - completing weekly practice exercises four to six months into the process.
Affirmative leadership can be used with a small group or globally for thousands of employees.

And just what is it that makes a star performer? Star performers:
  • Take advantage of every opportunity to learn.
  • Are skilled at filtering out what's irrelevant, and focusing on what will improve their performance.
  • Focus in on specific high-value information and resources and ignore the rest.
  • Instill their purpose in their people, creating a buzz of excitement and greater efficiency.
To help you identify your stars, including those less immediately obvious, the authors recommend you ask yourself these three questions:
  1. Who are the people you most respect for their ability to perform some or all of the functions associated with the initiative, program, or project?
  2. Are these the people you would go to if you needed to solve a critical problem or identify leadership for a new initiative, program, or project dealing with this function or area of expertise?
  3. If these people told you how to do something would you (a) believe them and (b) do whatever they said to do, without question?
Affirmative Leadership programs immerse participants in a new way of learning and leading that gradually, seamlessly, and very naturally becomes the new way of being.


William Seidman

Richard Grbavac

Thanks to the book publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"Great Places To Work" Employee Perks

StLouis magazine is featuring in its January issue 60 companies that they deemed "great places to work". Helping those companies to earn that honor are the perks they give their employees, some of which you might want to consider for 2011. Here's a sampling of the perks that cover the vast range offered by the 60 companies: ARCO Construction Company -- Paid sabbaticals after every five years with the company Armstrong Teasdale -- Women's career-coaching program Bryan Cave -- Backup day-care/elder-care services Build-A-Bear Workshop -- Health Insurance for part-time employees Boeing -- Continuing education tuition support Centene Corporation -- Dry-cleaning pick-up/delivery; on-site car washes and oil changes HOK -- Paid paternity leave LarsonAllen -- Development coaches for employees Maritz -- Health fair Monsanto -- Lactation rooms Nestle Purina PetCare Company -- On-site tailor Ralcorp Holdings -- New jobs listed internally first Scottrad...

Experts Offer Advice For How To Lead During 2021

  Today, the following expert business and leadership book authors shared their advice for how to effectively lead during 2021 . My question to them was:   What is your advice for leaders as we enter what is surely to be a challenging 2021 for most businesses? Fred Dust -- Author of   Making Conversation: Seven Elements of Meaningful Communication “There’s been a surprisingly joyful outcome of 2020—quite simply, leaders are seeing those they lead as humans. They’ve seen them wrestling with children, in trying to manage personal and professional challenges at home, more Zoom gaffes than we can count, etc., which has given employers a deeply humanistic view of those they manage.  “The converse is also true. Mangers, leaders, and CEOs are grappling with the same—noisy toddlers, spouses who are also navigating unprecedented schedules, faulty technology, etc. This recognition of humanity is significant—I myself paused a team meeting yesterday when ...

Top Five Factors That Drive Employee Loyalty

A 2010 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management shows that job security is what matters most to employees. And, having that job security helps to keep employees loyal.  Okay, that's really not too surprising during these times of high unemployment. Next on the list is benefits . The unstable economy, coupled with rising health care costs, make employer offered benefits more important than ever. Third on the top five list is an employee's opportunity to use his/her skills . When employees feel good about their jobs and their abilities, and clearly know they are contributing to their organization they remain engaged and loyal.  In fourth place is an organization's financial stability . Compensation came in fifth on the top five list. Employee pay often is not the most important driver for employee retention.  Despite study after study that shows pay is not the top reason employees stay with a company, research results like these often surpris...

Resolve To Find A Mentor In 2011

Having a mentor is one of the best things you can do to advance your career as a leader. So, decide today to secure a mentor who will work with you during 2011. Make that one of your New Year’s resolutions. A mentor can benefit leaders new to their leadership role and they can benefit experienced and seasoned leaders, as well. A strong mentoring relationship allows the mentor and the mentee to develop new skills and talents, to build confidence, and to build self-awareness. Proper mentoring takes a commitment from both parties and it takes time to develop and to reap the rewards of the relationship. Plan to work with your mentor for no less than three months, and ideally for six months or longer. When seeking out a mentor, think about these questions: 1.  Will the relationship have good personal chemistry? 2.  Can this person guide me, particularly in the areas where I am weakest? 3.  Will this person take a genuine interest in me? 4.  Does this person ha...

Great Business Quote

Here's a great quote from author and speaker Harvey Mackay : "When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with the experience ends up with the money, and the person with the money ends up with the experience."

5 Tips For Generating Ideas From Employees

Your employees have lots of ideas.  So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you.  Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well. And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips: Encourage ALL ideas.  Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested. Ask for wild ideas.  Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful. Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming. Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.

Use A Board Of Advisors

David Burkus often provides valuable comments to my various Blog postings, and he's a person who effectively uses a board of advisors, instead of mentors, to help him achieve success. "I've found that in my life, it was easier and more effective to set up a board of advisors," said Burkus, the editor of LeaderLab . "This is a group of people, three to five, that have rotated into my life at various times and that speak into it and help me grow. I benefit from the variety of experience these people have." LeaderLab is an online community of resources dedicated to promoting the practice of leadership theory. Its contributors include consultants and professors who present leadership theory in a practitioner-friendly format that provides easy-to-follow explanations on how to apply the best of leadership theory. Community users can download a variety of research reports and presentations about leadership and leadership versus management. For example, a pr...

Reach Communications & Leadership Expert David Grossman Via His New App

If you haven't engaged with David Grossman's website, Blog and incredibly useful eBooks, make a point of checking them all out at his website for The Grossman Group. David just launched his new App, called " Ask David ."  Via the App, David promises to bring his communications industry expert advice and wisdom right to your fingertips. Topics covered include: Employee engagement Internal communications Change management Leadership effectiveness Crisis messaging Diversity and inclusion

Do You See The World Through Marketing-tinted Glasses? Debbie Laskey Does!

For the past 15 years, I have relied on Debbie Laskey's Blog for expert leadership guidance and always interesting insights into marketing best practices and recaps of marketing trends.   Fortunately, through the years, Debbie has also shared her expertise through a variety of postings on my blog and I'm honored again today to feature Debbie via the following Q&A's:   Question: What inspired you to become so passionate about marketing?   DEBBIE LASKEY : When I started graduate school, I thought I would travel the typical MBA journey by studying finance, management, and organizational behavior. However, from the first moment in my first marketing course, I found my calling.  My assignment was to choose a product or service in order to write a classic 30-page marketing plan. I considered a famous retailer (Nordstrom) and the city of San Francisco, but I wanted to make substantive recommendations upon the completion of the project, so I chose EuroDisney, beca...

Find The Ideal Tone For Your Emails

Can't quite master the ideal tone for the emails you send employees and customers?  Or, do you have employees whole struggle with the tone of their emails?  You might want to check out ToneCheck. ToneCheck , a software program that works with Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010, helps to ensure your tone is clearly communicated and understood. It acts somewhat similar to an email spell checker, and you can select the suggested alternatives or ignore the advice. The program evaluates words and phrases for the intensity of eight primary emotions, allowing you to adjust the overall tone before you send your message. ToneCheck scans your messages for terms that may be inadvertently conveying: • Affection • Friendliness • Amusement • Excitement • Sadness • Grief • Fear • Uneasiness • Anger • Shame Over 165 billion email messages are sent worldwide each day. The average worker will spend 10 years of their work life dealing with email. And, sometimes, perhaps all t...