Pathways to Performance: A Guide to Transforming Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization

There is an ancient story that has enjoyed endless variations. The one I know involves three wise but sightless men who chance upon an elephant. The first wise man gets hold of one of the elephant's legs and cries out, "Why, it's a magnificent mansion with huge columns!" The next wise man, feeling the elephant's tail, retorts derisively, "It's nothing of the kind. This is but a very strong rope." The last wise man, feeling one of the elephant's tusks, says with equal certainty, "You are both wrong. What we have here are some of the most fearsome sabers you can ever imagine."

I tell you this story because it reminds me of the endless discussions concerning how to build a successful company. There are those who insist that successful organizations come out of personal effectiveness if your people are effective, then your company will also be. Others insist that it is simply a matter of good leadership with the right leader, any organization will thrive. Others, however, swear with equal fervor that the measure of a successful company lies in the effectiveness of its organizational structure.

Like the experiences of the three wise men, each of these points of view is right in a limited way and wrong in its incompleteness as a total philosophy for corporate improvement. The truth lies in the fact that these three views combined create the necessary vision to build a successful organization. Here, paradox becomes paradigm! Jim Clemmer's Pathways to Performance is the first book I have read that successfully weaves the high-performance rope out of the strands of organizational improvement, leadership development, and personal effectiveness. Here you'll find no quick fixes; Clemmer correctly believes there are none. Rather, he demonstrates what has taken him years of experience to learn, both as a successful entrepreneur (as you will soon read) and as one of the most brilliant and sought-after consultants in North America.

This is no dry tome. Jim's understated humor permeates every part of this book. The style is breezy and accessible. Yet, he is dead-on accurate in pointing out some of the amazing inanities that underlie the way we go about trying to effect change. He may irritate you, and I know he will challenge and perhaps even madden you. But he will make you think!

So, keep your mind open and your ego in check. You'll be richly rewarded!