FIVE TIPS FOR DEVELOPING A HIGH PERFORMANCE CULTURE

In my role as Regional Director for the company I represent, I often hear that businesses are looking to change the culture of the organization. My first question to that is ‘why?’, closely followed by ‘what is the culture now?’ 

Often the latter is met with a puzzled look, because the client has concluded that ‘something has to change’, before identifying the current culture. 

You may well have heard the phrase ‘a rising tide lifts all ships’, and this is true of a high performing organizational culture. A high performing company culture has a significant positive impact on all aspects of an organization. 

Is the culture of your organisation taking you closer to your goals, or holding you back? In this post, I share with you a number of pointers to help you towards developing a high-performance culture in your organisation. 

What Is a Company Culture?

In simplistic terms, an organizational culture is a set of behaviours and values that are mirrored by the individuals in the team. The culture determines how the organization operates and, just as importantly, how your business in perceived by the outside world.

Tip 1. Employee Engagement.

Research of various successful organizations suggests that a culture cannot be forced upon a workforce. Therefore, employee engagement is critical at the first stage of developing a high-performance culture. 

Determining the framework of the culture you envision will help establish and set the tone for the behaviour you want to see be seen displaying. 

Leaders lose credibility and respect when they do not display behaviour expected of employees – you can’t have one rule for your staff and another for yourself, otherwise you’re essentially saying to them that you’re above them; they’re not your equal. 

In 2003, Sir Clive Woodward coached the England rugby team to winning the World Cup. At the outset, he got buy in from his squad of players as to acceptable behaviours, geared towards developing a high performing culture. He didn’t force rules on them, but instead got the team to shape the winning culture. It’s important that the team has a voice and that each individual’s opinion matters – this goes a long way to developing a high performance culture; making individuals feel included and important to the organisation. Woodward refers to this as ‘teamship’, and such a policy can be as successful in business, just as it is in sport. 

Tip 2. Shared, agreed and measurable goals.

Just as it’s not a good idea to try to force a culture on a team, the same is true for the setting of targets. My experience, and research, suggests that goals should be agreed, and shared with the team. Of course, there’s little point in setting targets that are simply unattainable; that path leads to the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve: demotivation and under-performance. A degree of planning needs to go into goal setting, and a road map agreed as to how to achieve those goals. Similarly, we need to consider how we measure success against our road map throughout a given time frame. By collaboratively setting these parameters, employees will focus on their own input into ‘the big picture’ and concentrate on their own performance without feeling a sense of defeat before they’ve even begun. 

Tip 3. Allow employees breathing space.

Employees perform better when they have the autonomy to be independent in their decision-making and the carrying out of tasks; nobody likes to be constantly watched over and monitored. Obviously, there is a need, as in any organization, for a hierarchical structure and staff should be accountable for their actions, but this shouldn’t stifle a team members enthusiasm, energy or creativity.  

Tip 4.  Take time to reflect, and challenge.

Agreeing a vision and the values for the company, as well as agreeing measurable and attainable goals is all very well, but my belief is that isn’t enough. Whether things are going well or whether they’re not, it is important for leaders to take the time to reflect on performance and always challenge yourself and your teams. We can learn just as much (sometimes more) from a poor performance, as a good one. So, my advice is whatever the result of a certain job or assignment, challenge yourself with the same question: ‘How could we improve on that performance?’. 

Simply put, we can, and should always strive to improve performance. The organisation that stands still is, in reality, not growing and therefore stagnating: a red flag for any organization. 

Tip 5. Recognize ‘the good stuff’.

In some of my past roles, I’ve worked in environments where the only recognition was negative recognition. This is a danger to any organization, and certainly doesn’t sow the seeds of a high-performance culture! The carrot and stick approach has been used for years, but sadly I see too many managers not only beat their team with the stick, but hit them with the carrot as well! In a high performing culture, it’s vital to recognize and commend people’s efforts, and success, as constantly focusing on what they could have done better, or telling them to improve every piece of work, leads to employees feeling resentful and in turn questioning their own competency. 

So, for a company to employ and demonstrate a high performing culture, there has to be full engagement, shared and agreed goals, space for your team to make decisions and demonstrate value, a time for reflection and of course positive recognition. Throughout these tips there is a strand running through them all – the need to be consistent. A culture will not change overnight, it’s something that over time becomes part of the fabric of an organisation, and as you work towards a high performing corporate culture, there’ll be challenges along the way, so it’s vital to be consistent, and constantly remind yourself what you’re seeking to achieve.

If you’d like to discuss the subject of developing a high performing corporate culture, or any other aspect of leadership, please feel free to contact me.

–John Cartmell

E: [email protected]

T:+44 (0)7595 897272