Essential No. 6: It Takes a Dynamic Duo

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A culture of transparency down and across the organization builds a culture of interaction that drives effective teamwork.

Can Inside-Outside make a growth difference? HCL Technologies recently achieved a revenue growth rate that outperforms other leading outsourcing companies, and HCL was recently ranked in a recent Hewitt Associates study as India's best employer for creating a positive work experience for employees. Hewitt also ranked HCL as one of the top 30 employers in Asia to work for.

Inside-Outside Leadership is an essential secret to creating a great place to work that will propel your growth prospects.

Insights to Actions

Here are three questions to reflect on or engage with your team or potential other half:

• Whether you are running a company or in middle management, are you paired with a counterpart who complements your talents? If you don't think so, have you considered clarifying your roles with a trusted partner? Alternatively, are you competing with peers for survival or the next promotion? Can you have a team meeting to discuss values and culture?

• If you are a "Jack of All Trades" working operational and customer-facing initiatives: Can you achieve higher performance by focusing much more on either inside or outside initiatives—and then partnering with a trusted counterpart to do the other half of the equation?

• How well are your company's structure, management objectives, and incentives leveraging inside-outside management pairs? For example, do you think sharing the same objectives and incentives across inside and outside pairs is a productive approach?

Here are three actions you can take to leverage Inside-Outside Leadership to make your leadership journey so much more effective and enjoyable:

1. Apply Inside-Outside Leadership to Your Company

Here are some signs that indicate you may need an Inside-Outside Leadership pair. Ask yourself, do you feel guilty you are not visiting customers enough or need to be in the office to handle operations? When you ask others to identify the Inside and Outside Pair of your company, do they struggle to reply? Do you lack a trusted partner who complements you? If the answer is "yes" to any of these questions, follow in the footsteps of Apple or HCL Technologies to find your other half.

2. Build a High-Performance Culture Based on Trust

Inside-Outside pairs build a culture of open communications because they trust one another. If you are lacking your other half, build a complementary relationship with a peer or, if you have the option, recruit a peer to serve as your inside or outside complement.

3. Utilize Inside-Outside Leadership Throughout Your Company

Applying Inside-Outside Leadership principles is not just for the top two pair. It applies across a company and is a basis for organization design, metric alignment, and development. For example, HCL Technologies account executives (outside-facing) are paired up with a counterpart for delivery of outsourcing services (inside-facing). They share common metrics and objectives. There are more than 300 pairs throughout HCL globally.

David G. Thomson is the author of the bestseller Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth as well as a business advisor and keynote speaker. His next books, scheduled for publication in early 2010, are Mastering the 7 Essentials of High Growth Companies and The Next 800 Companies to Lead America's Growth

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