Jim Clemmer

Research on high-performing organizations that adapt rapidly to change increasingly points to the crucial role of middle and lower managers.

Many paths lead to higher performance. The high-performance route is individual and unique for every person, team and organization. 

As Mark Twain once remarked about the weather, there's a lot of talk about vision, but very few managers really do anything about it.

Everyone most clearly sees authentic leadership during the toughest times. This is when much-repeated claims like "our people are our most important assets" are proven true.

When we look back at the successful team or organization changes we've been involved in, most—and certainly all major ones—were driven by "monomaniacs with a mission." Sometimes the champion, a passionate person pushing hard for a change or improvement, had a powerful organizational sponsor and someone running interference for him or her. Other times, he or she was on his or her own at first and built a strong change coalition or team of change champions.

Ask any group of managers if they view themselves as an elite within their organization, and you can be sure they'll deny it. You'll hear comments such as, "I have an open-door policy" and "I take pride in always being accessible and approachable."