How High Performance Behaviours Drive Mission Leadership

My regular audience will know how much I talk about high performance behaviours and how I'm passionate about helping organisations and individuals to achieve more.

In this article, I'm going to touch on how I see high performance behaviours as a one of the keystones in our mission leadership concept. I'll look at what this means, whether it's how you seek to develop yourself and your own capabilities, or whether you want to drive the capabilities of an entire organisation.

First, let's look again at Mission Leadership:

When we look at high performing organisations, we tend to see these factors combining into organisational performance:

1. Purpose and Values: The organisation can tell you WHY it exists and HOW it does its business. People in the business from top to bottom truly believe in this purpose and live the values.
2. Vision and Mission: The organisation has a clear idea of where it wants to be in a finite period of time (we normally look at 5 years) and have broken that down into manageable missions (fixed tasks with a purpose).
3. Inspiring Leadership and Selfless Followership. People are equipped with the skills and the mindset to lead and to follow well. They are supportive of each other.
4. Focused Mission Execution. Because of all of the other elements above, people understand what they need to achieve, how that fits in with the plan and who else they need to support. Time and effort isn't unduly wasted on things that don't get you closer to the vision and aren't required to keep you legal or compliant.

High Performing Individuals.

Organisations are made up of individuals. If you have an organisation where people display a greater degree of the traits of high performers then the organisation itself will become more highly performing. That makes sense. Easier to say than do though isn't it?!

So let's explore first how as an individual you could set yourself off on a path to become more highly performing:

High Performance Habits: Meta-Habits for Sustained Success

High Performance Habits are meta-habits – foundational practices that drive lasting achievement, deeper satisfaction, and growth in every area of life. Each habit reinforces the other, and together, they create a framework for reaching your fullest potential with a focus on service and impact.

1.Clarity Define who you are, what you want, and how to serve others effectively. Clarity fosters purpose, direction, and confidence in daily decisions.

2.Energy Cultivate physical and mental energy to sustain high performance. Focus on health, rest, and well-being as vital to showing up at your best.

3.Necessity Connect your goals to a greater sense of duty. Embrace personal and professional reasons that make your pursuits non-negotiable.

4.Productivity Prioritise and focus on what truly moves you forward. Develop disciplined practices to avoid distraction and maximise meaningful output.

5.Influence Build trust, inspire, and support those around you. High performance includes lifting others and fostering an environment of service and collaboration.

6.Courage Take bold actions aligned with your values, even when challenging. Courage strengthens resilience and reinforces a commitment to growth and contribution.

These habits support both personal achievement and a life of service, positioning you not only for success but for making a meaningful impact on others. Credit to Brendon Burchard for these.

But how do you actually adopt these habits?

I work with groups over a 4 month period to really drive the adoption of high performance behaviours in a way that is meaningful to the individuals.

Step One: Develop a really compelling vision for who you want to BE and how you want to FEEL. You can do this with a HAVE DO BE exercise. This raises clarity and can drive necessity.

Step Two: Break the vision into different factors, like health, wealth, relationships etc. The pick 2-3 tactical goals that you want to achieve

Step Three: For each goal, write down the 'tactics' that you need to be doing regularly (ie weekly) to get to your goals.

Step Four: Execute your tactical plan and measure your performance against it.

Step Five: At the end of the plan, evaluate, adjust and go again with three more goals that get you closer to the vision.

Want to supercharge that process?

If you really want to be effective in driving that process of adopting high performance habits, there are a few extra things you can do:

Get a group of like minded people on a similar journey - this builds accountability and support. If you feel accountable, you are more likely to perform.

Declare your intent publicly - you then feel doubly accountable for performance.

Get 1:1 support from a coach and mentor who will be a sounding board for your progress, your planning and your success.

It's this process that we have built our High Performance Accelerator Programme around. It runs for four months and seeks to provide people with a community, one to one support and all of the materials that they need to build and adopt high performance behaviours. I think it's an incredibly powerful concept.

As a side not, if you'd like to know more, either send me a DM on LinkedIn or reach out to [email protected]

So, when I'm looking at an organisation and I want to assess how an organisation is set up to succeed, I'm looking at a number of factors. And one of the major factors is whether the individuals in that organisation display high performance habits. It's a key building block alongside the other factors of Mission Leadership that can set them up for success.

High performance behaviours are a strategic imperative for organisations striving for sustained success. As we’ve explored, these behaviours form a core element of our Mission Leadership model, offering a pathway for individuals to enhance their own capabilities and, in turn, elevate the collective potential of the organisation. By fostering clarity, energy, productivity, and influence, high performance habits drive a workforce that’s not only more resilient and effective but also deeply connected to the organisation's mission and purpose.

Through our High Performance Accelerator Programme, we aim to guide individuals in developing these behaviours, combining group accountability, personal coaching, and a structured approach to goal achievement. This process equips people to lead with purpose and contribute meaningfully to their organisation's mission. When individuals embody high performance habits, organisations become more agile, focused, and purpose-driven—a true testament to the power of Mission Leadership in action.

For those ready to explore this journey further, I'm here to support you every step of the way. Because if you want to be an asset to your organisation, or you're driving your own organisation - I'm passionate about helping people reach high performance.