Performance Leadership

 

Why do so many scorecard projects fail?

Why do managers treat information as a source of power to be protected, instead of an asset to be exploited?

Why are there so many political budget games?

Clearly there has to be a better way of performance management. After witnessing countless initiatives fail, thought leader and former Gartner analyst Frank Buytendijk challenges conventional wisdom on the best practices of performance management and describes a new framework that predicts and improves organizational behavior—which in turn maximizes business performance both inside and outside an organization.

 

In Performance Leadership, Buytendijk takes a breakthrough approach that focuses on people’s behaviors both within and outside of the organization. He presents the “next practices” of performance management, revealing that the trick is to focus on human behaviors to create strategic alignment across the organization. After reviewing the most popular methodologies today, Frank shows how predicting and correcting human behaviors is the key to achieving your desired results.

 

 Praise

 

'Performance Management', Organizational Behavior', and 'Stakeholder Management' are well established in the academic world as well as in business practice. Frank integrated these principles into a comprehensive 'Performance Leadership' approach. By doing so, he conveys a lively coverage  of essential ideas and examples of ways to improve performance.

           - Dr. Frank Jaenicke, Group Vice President MIS, Group Planning and Controlling, ABB

 

Management also has a "dark side". Insufficient attention to the behavioral aspects of measurement systems will create all sorts of unintended consequences, often actually damaging to the business, leaving well-meaning managers in confusion or frustration. Building on a comprehensive theoretical foundation, combined with illustrative real-life examples, Frank Buytendijk provides an innovative approach that combines the "numbers" and the "people" aspects into true "Performance Leadership".

           - Torsten Ecke, Chief Information Officer, E.ON AG

 

Moving beyond performance management to performance leadership – Frank Buytendijk’s book clearly articulates the role of and need for performance leadership. An incredibly useful guide to improving your organisation’s performance.

           – Professor Andy Neely, Director of Research, Cranfield School of Management,

              Author of The Performance Prism  

 

 This is not a book about the traditional top down performance management. Performance Leadership takes a more horizontal, process-oriented approach. This really drives the improvement of the performance of companies. What you measure is what you get.  Therefore Frank proposes to measure collaboration between the silos in companies. I love it! From my point of view an unconventional approach and a must read for Business Managers, CFO's and CIO's!

          - Gerben Otter, SVP and CIO of the adidas Group

 

Frank Buytendijk has written something important. Not only has he established the methodology for successful performance leadership but he’s established the measurements that are part and parcel of a truly authentic organization. Authenticity is the contemporary basis for customer trust and building that kind of organization is a vital must-do in the 21st century world of business. Frank Buytendijk has written the organizational blueprint for doing just that.

           - Paul Greenberg, President of The 56 Group, Executive Vice President for the CRM

              Association, Author of CRM at the Speed of Light

 

In order to succeed in the future there is one criteria that overshadows everything else: Understanding people! It is daring and challenging to thrust oneself into the jungle of human behaviour in the modern organisation. Frank shows us how to grow from just knowing where to go, to how to do the right thing. Through this approach Frank gives us the most fundamental quality, which a leader of today must possess: A vision for a new common sense of what the future will bring, the tools to find our shared mindset, and ability to build what the World demands the most today - a better and more meaningful tomorrow.

           - Anne Skare Nielsen, Chief Futurist & Partner, Future Navigator

 

Unlike anyone else I know, Frank approaches performance management with a fresh and unique perspective. His genuine connection with people and his sincere desire to show them a “better way”, make this book especially valuable.  Unlike most books on the subject, Frank doesn’t try to reaffirm all that came before. He’s willing to speak the “truth” and challenge “conventional wisdom”. He does all of this with a style that is readable, witty and entertaining. I recommend reading Frank’s book first – before all other books on the subject – to put them in the right context.

           - Howard Dresner, Father of "business intelligence”, Industry Consultant and Author

              of The Performance Management Revolution

 

Early prospectors in Wild West would say "Thar's gold in them hills" and then had the pioneering courage to exploit and lay foundations for a new world.  Frank Buytendijk has clearly done a lot of prospecting research. Performance Leadership provides business leaders a map and compass to help us ensure we are in the right hills, with a strong chance of finding those essential nuggets.

           - Mandeep Hansra, Head of BI Strategy and Systems, BT Group Finance