What I Love about Baldrige

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon

In just the last two days I have come across two blog posts on the three key characteristics of effective leaders. Of course the two posts did not (totally) agree with each other, although both raised good points. The first post by Bradley Owens and David Hekman says the top three effective leader traits are: admit mistakes, spotlight follower strengths, and model teachability. The authors say these three traits are the core of humility in leadership. These are also signs of leaders who want to grow and who are committed to their organization's growth, according to the authors. These leaders legitimize "becoming" rather than "pretending." Through these traits they are signaling to the organization that learning, growth, mistakes, uncertainty and false starts are normal and expected.

The second post is based on the new book by Jennifer Garvey Berger, entitled Changing on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World. Her three traits are: asking different questions, taking multiple perspectives, and looking at systems. The first two traits deal with listening, understanding the perspectives of others, and learning. So clearly learning and growth are common themes for these two sets of authors. What I particularly like about Berger's input is the realization that organizations are complex systems that defy our human desire to dis-aggregate and analyze.

What I love about the Baldrige Criteria is that they are a framework for excellence that ongoing research continues to reinforce. For the last several revisions of the Criteria we have been focusing on dealing with organizational complexity. A Systems Perspective is one of the 11 Baldrige core values and Item 1.1 of the Baldrige Criteria deals with senior leadership, including organizational and personal learning, frank two-way communication with employees, and engaging the entire workforce.

So, as you read about the practices of high-performing organizations, as you come across concepts, think of how they are already embedded in the Baldrige Criteria. And, if you come across a concept that is not in the Criteria (and you think it should be) please let me know!