Navy Performance Excellence

"In sum, the empirical results from the analyses support the notion that leadership plays a central role in influencing organizational operations and systems. In turn, while managing and developing human resources directly impacts the performance results outcome and implementing strategic quality plans directly impacts the customer focus outcome, managing quality processes is the one dimension that has a significant and meaningful relationship with both the leadership dimension (the driver) and both desired outcomes. The basic management tasks of leaders - gathering and utilizing information, planning strategically, effectively managing and developing organizational employees, and designing a well-oiled process for producing outcomes - create the critical outcomes related to the organization. The direct personal impact of the leader on key organizational outcomes - namely performance results and customer focus - is, by and large, FICTION. Unless leaders can influence the organization through its systems, they have little hope of affecting bottom-line results. Management in the trenches, it seems, more than management from the mountaintop is the key to quality outcomes."

"The Navy Performance Excellence Guidebook is designed to help foster this change. It provides leaders a management framework to guide their commands through a perpetual cycle of improvement, including a five-step strategic planning process with an easy-to-use performance excellence self-assessment. Though crafted “in house” by Navy experts, the Guidebook draws extensively from collaboration with outside agencies and organizations from whose own transformation initiatives we can learn."

Admiral Michael Mullen