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What does it take to get the best clients? We think you’ll be surprised at how simple the list can be. And how straightforward the actions are, as long as you commit to them and work at them.

In an economic squeeze, businesses naturally focus on driving revenue and reducing costs. But there’s plenty of evidence to demonstrate a strong link between high performance and a positive working environment.

What did Peter Drucker mean when he said this? You can have the best strategy in the world, but without the right culture you will not be able to deliver it. Equally, if you have the right culture, it will help to ensure you have the right strategy. The role of leaders is not to be responsible solely for strategy, but also to take careful responsibility for culture.

We loved this blog by Jessica Hagy, who uses simple visuals to tell stories, jokes, and truths. It’s a great charter for life and leadership!

According to research evidence, a high performing behaviour for managers is developing people. It should also of course be one for individuals, a willingness to invest in yourself and your own development. Unfortunately many don’t see it like that. However, to get the best out of people, it pays to attend to their development – and also to bolster confidence. So, encourage and motivate.

You want your team to be great and you understand that the effectiveness of your team depends on the effectiveness of your leadership. So why does it sometimes seem so hard to put into practice?

Your frustration is understandable. Sometimes the issue is that the environment or culture of the company, the economy or the world at large do not support great leadership. But great leadership does emerge in some pretty dismal environments. So blaming it on the environment doesn’t entirely explain why we can sometimes have so much difficulty doing the things we know we are supposed to do.

Creating high performance always sounds like a good idea. Right now, as we adjust to a world that is changing very fast around us, delivering high performance is probably more important but more challenging than ever. We are surrounded by negative news. Our British culture has a strong tendency to enjoy swapping anecdotes of how bad things are and we enjoy black humour as an art form.