Performance Chiropractics: Proper Adjustments Optimize Performance
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Larry Fehd
Larry Fehd is CEO and founder of Human Performance
Strategies, LLC. Please see
bio for professional background and experience.
Contact Information
Phone: 512-415-0748
Email: lfehd@hp-strategies.com
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Change can mean different things to different people. Change can
also be experienced differently by different people. Regardless
of meaning or experience, change remains a constant in today's organizations.
One example of change was popularized by the term re-engineering
and encouraged by many best-selling business books and periodicals.
The merits of change as a result of re-engineering and the corresponding
impact on human performance improvement and business results would
make an interesting topic for discussion.
Our intent is not to debate the merits of various prescriptions
for change but rather to suggest that change without anticipating
the impact and making "proper adjustments" within your
organization often impedes individual, team, and organizational
effectiveness.
To better understand the significance of change in relation to
the title of this article, Performance Chiropractics™, please
see The
HPS Mobile Enterprise™: Aligning Resources for Optimal Business
Results.
I would like to share a personal experience which was the catalyst
for our use of the term Performance Chiropractics™. In case
you're wondering, this is a true story which describes yet another
unique characteristic of exemplary leadership.
I boarded the redeye and was looking forward to some quiet time
and a little shuteye during my three-hour flight home to Austin.
The passenger seated next to me that evening was energized, fully
awake, and eager to share his life history. Perhaps some of you
can relate to having met some rather interesting fellow passengers
over the years. Despite several polite gestures regarding my preference
for quiet time, he continued our one-way dialogue until the plane
landed several hours later and we were waiting for the familiar
captain's command "Flight attendants prepare for arrival."
He asked, "Oh…now what is it that you do exactly?"
I smiled and replied, "Well, if we were still at 30,000 feet
I could tell you more, but basically I'm a performance chiropractor."
He looked at me and said, "Hmmm, you mentioned something earlier
about working with leaders and helping them to inspire the best
from their people." I nodded, and he then said, "So, you
help them make adjustments to eliminate pain and get things back
into proper alignment." I replied, "Yes, something like
that…." The next day I thought more about my response.
I realized that every leader is at least to some extent a performance
chiropractor.
Imagine business leaders as performance chiropractors and organizations
as analogous to the human body. Exemplary leaders consistently and
successfully navigate change and, as a result, fine-tune the organizational
"body" to keep it healthy, vibrant, and performing at
its best. Exemplary leaders, functioning as performance chiropractors,
understand the significance of change and know when and how to make
"proper adjustments." Fine tuning can often improve individual,
team, and organizational performance and bottom-line business results.
To better understand and more fully appreciate the role of chiropractics
in relation to leadership effectiveness, consider the following
characteristics of exemplary leaders:
- Exemplary leaders are agile and respond to change as a normal
course of business.
- Exemplary leaders remain steady at the helm and set a course
for the organization which optimizes resource utilization and
business performance.
- Exemplary leaders do not fear the winds of adversity for they
know that a kite rises against the wind rather than with it.
- Exemplary leaders harness the wind and use it to improve performance
at the individual, team, and organizational level.
Exemplary leaders also carefully consider the impact of their actions
prior to making any adjustments. Specifically, performance chiropractors:
- Understand that individual parts of the organizational "body"
comprise an interdependent system.
- Understand that any adjustment to the organizational "body,"
no matter how slight, will impact the organization either immediately
or at some point in the future.
- Understand that no organization exists in a vacuum and that
change is constant (e.g. market conditions, economic circumstances,
competition, customer demand, etc.).
One way to remember the impact of change is the simple phrase,
cause and effect. Exemplary leaders take deliberate actions with
specific cause and desired effect in mind. As Stephen Covey said,
"Begin with the end in mind."
Remember that there are three components which must be present
for successful change to occur and be sustained over time. These
components are opportunity, motivation, and capacity. If any of
these components is missing at the individual, team, or organizational
level, you may be wise to consider delaying any action until you
are sure of your desired effect.
The next time you contemplate making any adjustments in your organization,
I hope you will remember cause and effect and that you, too, are
a performance chiropractor. The best chiropractors maintain "proper
alignment" and strive to keep the organizational "body"
healthy, vibrant, and performing at its best.
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