To create a true high performance environment, leaders must maintain a narrow range of acceptable performance standards.
This leadership development principle has come from studying high performance environments for over 20 years. In any organization, industry, or market there is a “range of performance standards” that distinguishes the top from the bottom performers.
In organizations that strive for high performance, explicit positive pressure toward improved performance is created by a clear and fair range of acceptable standards.
That positive performance pressure is significantly deflated if substandard performance becomes acceptable within that environment. If low-range performers are allowed to remain on the job, the negative effects can be far reaching. Take a look at the following effects likely to occur if a performer rated 5/10 is allowed to remain at a 5/10 performance level:
- Those who are rated a 6/10 feel relatively comfortable with their current performance and do not strive to improve
- Those that are rated 9/10 can feel extraordinary in comparison and may become complacent or leave to work with other 9’s
- Others at 5/10 can hide and feel safety in numbers
- New arrivals to the environment with expectations of a high performance culture can feel cheated by an ‘undelivered promise’ when they interact with those at 5/10
As a leader, your success depends upon the success of others.
While there are many components that must be effectively led and managed to succeed, there are two areas that must be clear and effective to get consistent results: Measurement and Rewards. Both have a major impact on your ability to increase performance and should be highlighted in any action learning leadership development efforts.
Measurement
Problems or frustrations with performance reviews are often due to performance measurement systems that do not meet the following six criteria required for them to be effective: Trusted, Fair, Accurate, Providing a useful comparison, Timely, and Transparent.
Rewards
For more powerful reward and compensation systems, be sure that the rewards that are used to motivate the pursuit of objectives meet all of the following effectiveness criteria:
- Emotionally felt
- Relevant
- Meaningful to the target audience
- Timely
- Directly linked to achievement
As a leader, you are responsible for putting the pieces in place to build a High Performance Organization that will fire on all cylinders in both the short- and long-term.
To ensure that your leadership development programs are setting leaders up to succeed, make sure that your action learning components include projects and skills that include these five key leadership capabilities:
- Ability to Manage for Two Outcomes — Achievement and Failure. This includes unifying and aligning the organization on key objectives and strategy (definition of organizational success), articulating clearly what represents failure (low performance), and improving the quality of individual performance measures (achievement).
- Creation of Meaning. Ensure that your people have strong and compelling reasons to remain with the organization during times of uncertainty and change.
- Clear Performance Standards. Maintain a narrow, fair, and trusted range of acceptable performance standards.
- Differentiated Performance. Make certain that high performers are receiving the greater share of available rewards in concert with their contributions.
- Improve or Out. Deal with low performers by providing support and high expectations for improvement if they are to remain with the team.
