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The Business of Excellence: Building high-performance teams and organizations
The Business of Excellence uses first-hand experiences from high-performance operations to provide invaluable leadership lessons, as well as offering clear, accessible and practical insights on managing teams in any business environment.
The Business of Excellence offers a unique and compelling perspective on the drivers of excellence in teams and organizations. The author, Justin Hughes, brings an unusual mix of experience and insight, having worked as a management consultant to some of the world’s most successful organizations, in addition to having served for 12 years as a military fighter pilot, where he became Executive Officer on the RAF Red Arrows.
The challenges of high performance and leadership are explored in depth, and are illustrated with insights, interviews and case studies from the military, sporting and corporate worlds. The material includes a proprietary performance model that can be applied to a wide spectrum of organizations, focusing
· the primacy of attitude over skills
· building alignment before setting people free
· a process to close the gap between desired and actual outcomes
· how to accelerate performance in real time
· exhibiting a set of behaviours such that others choose to follow
· avoiding the victory of compliance over outcomes.
In The Business of Excellence , Justin deconstructs the drivers of high performance with a rare clarity, insight and accessibility, to illustrate and explain tangible tools and methods, all of which can be applied by readers in their own teams and organizations.
The Business of Excellence offers a unique and compelling perspective on the drivers of excellence in teams and organizations. The author, Justin Hughes, brings an unusual mix of experience and insight, having worked as a management consultant to some of the world’s most successful organizations, in addition to having served for 12 years as a military fighter pilot, where he became Executive Officer on the RAF Red Arrows.
The challenges of high performance and leadership are explored in depth, and are illustrated with insights, interviews and case studies from the military, sporting and corporate worlds. The material includes a proprietary performance model that can be applied to a wide spectrum of organizations, focusing
· the primacy of attitude over skills
· building alignment before setting people free
· a process to close the gap between desired and actual outcomes
· how to accelerate performance in real time
· exhibiting a set of behaviours such that others choose to follow
· avoiding the victory of compliance over outcomes.
In The Business of Excellence , Justin deconstructs the drivers of high performance with a rare clarity, insight and accessibility, to illustrate and explain tangible tools and methods, all of which can be applied by readers in their own teams and organizations.
360 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2018
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 23, 2016
Bottom Line Up Front: “The Business of Excellence” is a relevant and valuable read that I highly recommend for anyone seeking to assemble, maintain and enhance, or contribute to, a high performing team in any environment.
The author provides guidance through fascinating examples drawn from his experiences not only as one of the top fighter pilots in the British Royal Air Force (as proven through his selection to one of the elite aerial display teams, the Red Arrows, in the world) but also through his experiences directly in the corporate world as well as the knowledge he has procured working with clients in his current career running a consulting firm, Mission Excellence, that specializes in organizational and team performance. He draws examples from historical and modern day thought leaders, as well as Fortune 500 companies, world class athletics teams, Government run agencies, NGOs, and his experiences in the military and working with militaries from around the world.
This is a valuable read for people in traditional roles of leadership, however, it illustrates just how people in any role can lead, even if not traditionally a leadership or management role. As anyone who has worked in a professional environment knows, being a manager does not always correlate with being a leader.
Anyone who reads this highly engaging book will immediately be able to apply it to his or her profession. It forces you to reflect not only on the work environment that you operate in, but also to make an honest assessment of how you operate and perform and what impression that leaves on those around you (and above and below you on the org chart).
Working in a test lead role within an extensive team and vast and varying stakeholders, I immediately was able to draw examples from my own career where I would have benefitted from having read this book when I was first starting out 13 years ago. That said, even with more than a decade under my belt, I will still be bringing ample lessons and guidance instilled through the book back to the office with me on Monday. I recommend this book to everyone. I know, not very specific, but it is rare in this day and age that anyone can work completely independently. Whether it is direct reports or contractors or clients, the lessons Mr. Hughes provides are extremely important to working with others and forming high performance teams (even if you, like me, only get to fly a high performance laptop and not a $20+ million dollar fighter jet…).
One of my favorite insights from the book is that Excellence is a habit. You have the control in your own day to day work, your career and even your own life to make excellence routine. No one else can do that for you.
The author systematically and strategically takes you through his high performance model elaborating on the aspects of “People,” “Capability,” and “Delivery” that are valued and exemplified throughout the corporate, military, and government worlds. And we are all the beneficiaries of his clarity of thought and well informed guidance. Read this book!
The author provides guidance through fascinating examples drawn from his experiences not only as one of the top fighter pilots in the British Royal Air Force (as proven through his selection to one of the elite aerial display teams, the Red Arrows, in the world) but also through his experiences directly in the corporate world as well as the knowledge he has procured working with clients in his current career running a consulting firm, Mission Excellence, that specializes in organizational and team performance. He draws examples from historical and modern day thought leaders, as well as Fortune 500 companies, world class athletics teams, Government run agencies, NGOs, and his experiences in the military and working with militaries from around the world.
This is a valuable read for people in traditional roles of leadership, however, it illustrates just how people in any role can lead, even if not traditionally a leadership or management role. As anyone who has worked in a professional environment knows, being a manager does not always correlate with being a leader.
Anyone who reads this highly engaging book will immediately be able to apply it to his or her profession. It forces you to reflect not only on the work environment that you operate in, but also to make an honest assessment of how you operate and perform and what impression that leaves on those around you (and above and below you on the org chart).
Working in a test lead role within an extensive team and vast and varying stakeholders, I immediately was able to draw examples from my own career where I would have benefitted from having read this book when I was first starting out 13 years ago. That said, even with more than a decade under my belt, I will still be bringing ample lessons and guidance instilled through the book back to the office with me on Monday. I recommend this book to everyone. I know, not very specific, but it is rare in this day and age that anyone can work completely independently. Whether it is direct reports or contractors or clients, the lessons Mr. Hughes provides are extremely important to working with others and forming high performance teams (even if you, like me, only get to fly a high performance laptop and not a $20+ million dollar fighter jet…).
One of my favorite insights from the book is that Excellence is a habit. You have the control in your own day to day work, your career and even your own life to make excellence routine. No one else can do that for you.
The author systematically and strategically takes you through his high performance model elaborating on the aspects of “People,” “Capability,” and “Delivery” that are valued and exemplified throughout the corporate, military, and government worlds. And we are all the beneficiaries of his clarity of thought and well informed guidance. Read this book!
Displaying 1 of 1 review