Cambridge Business Association
Thrive
Book

Thrive

The Leader's Guide to Building a High-Performance Culture

Andrew Freedman and Paul Elliott
Lioncrest Publishing, 2021
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Overview
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Consultant Andrew Freedman’s bestseller offers a useful overview of organizational leadership, change and innovation. Writing with fellow consultant Paul Elliott, Freedman explains how to help your company increase engagement, motivation and productivity. The book’s “Exemplary Performance System” delves into six corporate areas or “subsystems”: Improving the culture in your workplace, providing useful feedback, offering equitable rewards, making sure each person is a good fit for his or her job, upgrading skills and motivating your employees. The authors also cover managing change – which may well be necessary to accomplish these sweeping goals.  

Summary

Work through six crucial areas to enhance motivation and engagement: culture, feedback, rewards, job fit, upgraded skills and motivation.

People want to thrive and engage with their work, but companies often create barriers to employees’ fulfillment and sense of purpose. Among the 70% of US employees identified as disengaged, more than half are “sleepwalkers” who don’t commit to their organization’s goals, while 15% are “saboteurs” who actively work against their company’s mission. In contrast, engaged employees put their energy into their jobs and their companies.

Many leaders lack the skill to construct an engaging, high-performance culture. They may believe they know what to do, but they haven’t done the research to make sure their ideas will work. Managers often follow their “gut” rather than science. Instead, you can use the “Exemplary Performance System” (EPS) to help you take specific, tested steps to boost your employees’ engagement and performance. This system works through six “subsystems.” This is how they work:

1. Improving the culture – “Environments, systems and resources...

About the Authors

Andrew Freedman is the managing partner of SHIFT Consulting and an affiliate faculty member at the University of Baltimore. Paul Elliott, PhD is president and chief performance architect of Exemplary Performance, LLC. See www.thrive.shifttheworld.com for more information.

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