The Bridge to Growth
Today we are pleased to share a post from Jude Rake. Jude is the founder and CEO of JDR Partners and author of The Bridge to Growth: How Servant Leaders Achieve Better Results and Why It Matters Now More Than Ever
The premise of The Bridge to Growth is a twist on an age-old debate in the business world. What’s more important, strategy or execution? I believe both are critical. But what if something else is just as important? There is a third ingredient to business success, one that many companies undervalue: servant leadership.
Informed by my 35+ years of leading high-performance teams and over a decade as a CEO, The Bridge to Growth reveals how servant leaders bridge strategy into exceptional execution by elevating the commitment and performance of the people they lead.
The cadence between strategy and execution is compressing, making the integration of the two more important than ever. But too many workers are being left out of this equation. Research shows that more and more people are disconnected from their company's goals, even though they are satisfied with their job. A Global Workforce Survey conducted by Towers Perrin revealed that a mere 21 percent of workers are truly committed to their company's success, even though 86 percent like their jobs. Is this reflective of a failure of leadership, a shift in the attitudes of today's workers, or both?
Curiously, many people are settling for a job that both satisfies their basic needs and denies them a motivating answer to the question "how does my work connect to my company's goals?" Unfortunately, their leaders have not fully engaged them in either the development or execution of their company’s mission, goals, and ultimately its success or failure. Too often these people are being over-managed and under-led. I believe this "commitment gap" represents the largest source of untapped potential in our economy today.
How can leaders close the commitment gap and capitalize on this opportunity to create economic value? The Bridge to Growth provides leaders, emerging leaders, stakeholders, and Board members a blueprint of nine proven leadership principles I've used to improve the performance of several businesses by moving workforces from satisfactorily disengaged to enthusiastically committed to winning. It's packed with useful tips and tools, and each leadership principle is articulated using real-world success models that bring the principles to life.
Jude Rake is a veteran CEO with a 35+ year track record of building businesses to create economic value, from well known consumer packaged goods companies such as The Clorox Company, PepsiCo, and SC Johnson, to smaller family owned and private equity backed businesses. He founded JDR Growth Partners to help other leaders achieve growth.
