In my experience, these are the principles that a leader should use to be most successful:

1. Focus on the end customer, and your services to the customer. Identify and prioritize the services you deliver to the customer, then ensure you understand why the customer is satisfied (or not) with your service. Use the customer journey approach to improve, update, or overhaul your processes and systems to ensure you are offering the best service and value. Put yourself in the place of your customers and consider the customer implications of your decisions.
2. Set the bar high, aim for first quartile. Customers value strong performers. If you deliver mediocre service, you are one decision, one transaction away from not having a customer. Even more true for utility services such as IT or operations, it is important to strive for 1st quartile performance.  As a leader, define a compelling vision and a structure objectives to map out how to sustainably achieve your goals. Ensure your vision cascades from your corporate or business partner vision and that your goals enable your corporate or business partner goals.
3. Leverage metrics and closed loop learning. Utilize a quality management approach where continuous improvement is achieved based on operational metrics that through repeated use and analysis, allow you to eliminate defects and rework, enhance quality, and improve productivity and efficiency. As a leader you should be relentless ensuring your team have the metrics to understand your processes and problems so you can make better decisions and drive continuous improvements.
4. Be responsive and transparent. Strive first to be earnest and responsive. Look to assist your colleagues and peer units. Provide regular, insightful data on operational performance. Publish successes and failures, with root cause or success factors, so all can learn, and your entire team learns that transparency is the best course. Strive to make information a commodity within your organization — this enables your team to be better equipped with the right data to make better decisions.
5. Be familiar with industry best practices. You can’t achieve 1st quartile performance if you don’t know what is the state of practice in the industry. Be curious and willing to learn from how others in your industry — both regionally and globally — are applying or advancing the practice. Participate in forums and conferences, look to always learn something new. And when you have achieved results, look to contribute back.
6. Hold yourself and your team accountable. Of course when you set high goals, you must strive to meet them. Ensure you do all that is reasonable to meet your commitments. Have forthright discussions with individuals, teams or suppliers that do not meet their commitments. Direct and constructive conversations will ensure everyone is pulling hard towards the common goals. Further action may be necessary but crucial for fairness and performance. Be the fair leader who ensures proper contributions and effort from all.
7. Encourage collaboration, especially with the customer in mind. Within every large organization there can be conflicting agendas and priorities, but conflicts should melt away when the goal is to deliver for the customer. Remember the customer always views the company as one, and makes no distinctions for this department or that department. Look to collaborate and support your peers to provide the best customer experience.
8. Be a steward not just a manager. Always look to sharpen the saw in your area. Managers who do not look to improve their function on a regular basis are not high performance leaders.  The digital age drives change faster than ever, and as leaders we must regularly review our organizational structures to drive efficiencies and performance. Look to improve customer journeys and processes by integrating process steps and applying automation and quality measures. Consolidate and simplify your organizations and flows. By coupling this work with metrics and closed loop learning, you can achieve remarkable progress over the longer term through persistent small improvements. But remember, you (or your team) can’t do everything, ensure you prioritize and provide clear direction while improving.
9. Build high performing teams. Sustainable high performance teams are built not bought, especially in the digital age when there are global shortages of skilled talent. Aspire for your team to be a learning organization. Establish strong pipeline of junior talent and encourage the broad development of your staff. Invest in training and competency building. Utilize your juniors to become mid-level, and mid-level to become senior. Insist they learn and utilize best practices. Leverage a Global Team approach. You will know you are there when your team becomes a net exporter of talent, and your high potentials are most sought after within the firm. Your investments here will enable your team to outperform and give your firm critical competitive advantage.
10. Anticipate and be on the front foot. As change comes faster, key advantages are less permanent than ever. Markets, profit margins, customer channels will all come under attack from various competitors in new ways. Build and maintain your team’s ROI – risks, opportunities, and investments – so if you have additional funds or must find additional savings, you already have ideas and plans. In this ever-changing world, it is likely you will need them, and it is far better for you as a leader to put the pressure on your team to be ready and continually executing the next best option, than to be externally forced in a last minute exercise. Be the proactive leader and be prepared.

While these principles are key, at the same time you must show your care and compassion for your colleagues and team members. We are all human – thoughtfulness, humor, and camaraderie make the load lighter and help everyone work harder for joint goals. Little gestures that show care, and celebrating successes along the way make a big difference. I wish you all the best on becoming a high performing leader.

Jim