Key Elements of a High Performing Culture

In any organisation the demand for ever increasing performance is ongoing.

Early in my career I had the experience of allowing an under-performing sales person "to be successful somewhere else". After the individual had left other team members in the office where surprised as "he was a nice guy" and "he was doing okay wasn't he?"

A light bulb went off for me immediately. If there was no visibility of performance how can a continue improvement process be put in place to identify and rectify off track performance?

The foundation of high performing culture is based on massively visible performance metrics and clear communication of performance against expectations.

Put another way nobody should ever have to ask "am I doing a good job"? Visibility of performance across the entire business is a crucial element of a high performing culture.

When communication in the workplace is discussed some people's minds immediately go to a semi social setting and taking an interest in the life and well-being of co-workers and team members. Whilst this is important and there's a place for it, communication in a high performing environment or organisational culture must first and foremost focus on communication of performance versus expectation. Communicating clearly regarding performance is the first step and a crucial ongoing step process in terms of ensuring high-performance.

Another element of a sustainable culture of high-performance recognises that any team is made up of people and as a consequence compassion and respect, especially when dealing with under-performance, are an absolute requirement.

High performance does not happen by accident.