Prove It!

Prove It!

by Stacey Barr
Released June 2017
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780730336228

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Inspire performance and prove your leadership impact

Prove It! is the executive guide to improving organisational performance through the practice of evidence-based leadership. More than ever before, the world is demanding transparency and accountability from organisational leaders, and there is a growing push to hold leaders responsible for the performance of their organisation. Many executives panic at the thought of what transparency might reveal and how they might be held accountable, but others relish the opportunity to showcase their organisation's performance. The difference is in the leadership methodology. The best leaders already know how their organisation is performing, and that it has improved during their tenure – and they can prove it because they practise evidence-based leadership. This book offers a clear blueprint for building on your existing skills and performance management systems to build a truly high performance organisation.

Just three personal leadership habits and three organisation-wide habits can transform your organisation into the powerhouse you know it can be. With a simple methodology and a focus on practical results, this book can help you:

  • Set a strategic direction that really does inspire organisational excellence
  • Gain a true picture of your organisation's performance
  • Master the habits that help you lead a high-performance culture
  • Improve your organisation objectively, measurably and quickly

If an organisation can only be as good as its leadership, it's reasonable to place the burden of performance responsibility on those who make the decisions. A leader's job is to inspire, motivate and guide, and those who do it well are already raising the bar. Prove It! gives you a practical model for measurable, real-world results, starting today.

Table of contents

  1. About the author
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Preface
  4. Part I What are you trying to prove?
    1. Chapter 1 The territory of high performance
      1. It starts with purpose
      2. The importance of clarity
      3. The high-performance organisation
    2. Chapter 2 Evidence-based leadership
      1. The rise of evidence-based management
      2. Leaders hold the space for high performance
    3. Chapter 3 Knowing is a double-edged sword
      1. Evidence cuts both ways
      2. Transparency, accountability, impotence
    4. Chapter 4 How to become an evidence-based leader
      1. The foundation of high performance is measurement
      2. The habits of evidence-based leadership
      3. The mindsets of evidence-based leadership
    5. Part I In summary
  5. Part II Habits of evidence-based leadership
    1. Chapter 5 Direction: Make it understood and it will be measurable
      1. Direction means strategy
      2. Results, not actions
      3. No weasel words
      4. Be ruthless
    2. Chapter 6 Evidence: Anything that matters can be measured
      1. Evidence means measuring
      2. Learning, not judging
      3. Evidence before measures
      4. Measure what matters
    3. Chapter 7 Execution: Implementing your strategy must deliver a high ROI
      1. Execution means improvement
      2. Leverage, not force
      3. Patterns, not points
      4. Processes, not people
    4. Part II In summary
  6. Part III Organisational habits of evidence-based leadership
    1. Chapter 8 Decision: They want to work for something bigger than themselves
      1. Decision means focus
      2. Cascade, don't fragment
      3. Buy-in, not sign-off
      4. Work on, not just in
    2. Chapter 9 Action: Reaching for intrinsically rewarding targets
      1. Action means closing performance gaps
      2. Causes, not symptoms
      3. Practical, not perfect
      4. Collaboration, not competition
    3. Chapter 10 Learning: Success loves speed
      1. Learning means course correcting
      2. Experiments, not assumptions
      3. No failure, only feedback
      4. Iterate, don't procrastinate
    4. Chapter 11 Start now: Evidence-based leadership starts at the top
      1. A high-performance culture is an output, not an input
      2. The first iteration of evidence-based leadership
      3. Will you start?
  7. Appendix: XmR charts give us three signals
    1. Signal 1: Outlier or special cause
    2. Signal 2: Long run
    3. Signal 3: Short run
  8. Index
  9. Did this book help you? I'd love to know.
  10. EULA

Product information

  • Title: Prove It!
  • Author(s): Stacey Barr
  • Release date: June 2017
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780730336228