As we face challenging economic conditions, many organisations are seeking to drive greater levels of performance and contribution. Here are some strategies to shift the construct of performance in your organisation.
- Focus on what matters most
Emphasising the aspects of performance that have the greatest value and impact for your organisation creates much greater clarity and focus than comprehensive expectations. Get clear on what matters most in your organisation and the types of mindsets and behaviours required to drive your strategy.
- Capture hearts and minds
You need an overarching narrative of high performance that sits above your more detailed criteria and inspires people to strive. Like your organisation’s values, your definition of high performance needs to live in people’s consciousness, guiding everyday actions and decisions. If your people can’t easily integrate your expectations into how they see their roles, you are unlikely to see any significant changes in performance.
- Address implicit messaging
While many organisations effectively integrate their high-performance criteria through their talent management framework, getting alignment between explicit and implicit messaging in your organisation can be much more challenging. Looking beyond your formal policies and processes to see what behaviours and contributions leaders are noticing and rewarding (or not) can help you address any contradictory messages that risk undermining your change agenda.
- Reframe feedback
While ‘constructive’ (usually interpreted as negative) feedback is sometimes required, research has shown they it doesn’t necessarily drive high performance. Shifting the emphasis from ‘giving feedback’ to ‘asking for feedback’ and helping leaders give quality praise and positive feedback can be powerful enablers of a high-performance culture.
How Success Profiles can help your high-performance strategy
Success ProfilesTM draw on the Neurolinguistic Principles (NLP) of the ‘model of excellence’ and ‘levels of learning’ to distil the common patterns of mindset and behaviour in an organisation so that those patterns can be made explicit and amplified across the organisation.
The methodology was developed by Head, Heart + Brain and offers a simple yet transformative process for resetting the construct of performance in organisations. Success ProfilesTMprovide a structured framework for amplifying the best of your organisation.
In three key steps – identifying role models; conducting interviews with role models to understand how they think about their roles and approach their work; and identifying the common patterns of mindset and behaviour – you can start to transform the performance in your organisation.
In contrast to my experience with competency frameworks, I have seen how Success ProfilesTM:
- re-set the construct of high performance for an entire organisation based on the strengths and attributes of existing role models;
- create a framework that people can engage with emotionally, intellectually and practically;
- help focus talent investments and decisions on the areas of greatest value and return; and
- surface insights about culture, capability and strategic alignment that add value across the organisational development agenda.
If you would like to talk more about driving high performance culture and our approach to Success ProfilesTM you can contact me through LinkedIn or via The Outlook Consulting Group.
Jane Lewis has more than 20 years’ experience in senior people and culture roles, including 11 years as Chief People Officer at top-tier law firm Allens. Jane is now a Principal at The Outlook Consulting Group supporting leaders and People and Culture teams with leadership development, strategy and culture change. Jane’s approach integrates insights from diverse disciplines including adult development, neuroscience and system dynamics with real-world executive experience in demanding environments.
