The business operating environment, particularly in Zimbabwe, is punctuated with a plethora of challenges that threaten the sustainability of many organisations. It is an ill wind blowing in no one’s favour; both businesses and employees are on the receiving end.
Organisations that are not well capacitated in terms of overall performance will find it difficult to pull through the turbulent environment. In fact, businesses with weak performance management systems will eventually be exposed to the vagaries of this volatile environment. Thus, the importance of having a buttressed high-performance culture within an organisation cannot be overemphasised.
The only mistake that an organisation can make is to treat high-performance culture as a secondary aspect of strategic goals in this fluid business operating environment.
Have you wondered why some organisations and even economies are perennial underperformers regardless of the abundancy of resources and talent at their disposal? Have you noted why some large entities, despite having plenty of resources, still fail to perform? There could be several reasons, but chief among them is a poor performance management culture. This article seeks to offer a few insights that an organisation can explore in pursuit of a high-performance culture.
First things first, having the right people in the right positions is the first step towards building a high-performance-driven culture. Shared values and beliefs regarding high performance should be entrenched in the blood of the right people. Business leaders, together with the human resources function, ought to make deliberate efforts to ensure the right people are placed in the right positions.
The use of scientifically-proven selection methods in assessing the traits or suitability of the candidates is the linchpin in building a high-performance culture. There is no space for mediocrity in this operating environment. It is common knowledge that poor recruitment is followed by poor performance. It’s a matter of garbage in, garbage out. Of course, such selection methods require more time and resources, and sometimes they put a stop to hiring friends or relatives, which makes them not a priority for most business leaders. But research suggests the use of hiring methods with increased predictive validity which leads to substantial increases in employee performance as measured in percentage output.
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To ensure that a high-performance culture is instilled in everyone in the organisation, effective communication must be at the centre of organisational culture. The HR function must do its best to ensure that it closes information gaps so that everyone will pull in one direction. Clear communication starts with clearly articulated key performance indicators that make employees ready to achieve individual, team, and organisational targets.
A culture that values open and honest communication can help create a more effective performance management system. Managers, who can give and receive feedback openly and constructively, can help employees improve their performance, and a culture that values this type of communication can help ensure that performance management is viewed as a positive and necessary process. The communication process in terms of building a high-performance culture includes clarifying expectations, setting objectives, classifying goals, providing feedback, and reviewing performance.
Have you ever received performance feedback too late, which makes it totally irrelevant? One of the leading psychologists, Adam Grant, once opined that if you were surprised by the performance feedback from your superior, they would have failed. This entails the significance of giving prompt performance feedback towards building a strong performance culture. Leaders or managers should not wait for formal assessment platforms to improve their performance; they must make it an everyday priority.
Tiny Pulse research has shown that 59% of employees feel organisational performance systems are not effective simply because feedback is always delayed or not given. The same problem was unearthed by a research conducted by Google where it was noted that annual performance reviews are not effective as they allow fundamental error accumulation.
Vincent Willem van Gogh posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history, but during his time, he only sold two paintings before he succumbed to depression. Business leaders should not respond at the 11th hour in terms of recognising people's performance, whether good or bad. Appropriate consequences should be faced by the respective teams or individuals. Instead of waiting for biannual or annual performance reviews, it is important to have frequent check-ins with employees. This gives both the employees and the organisation an opportunity to see whether they are on track to meet their key performance goals and make necessary adjustments before it is too late. Regular performance reviews allow issues (good or bad) to be identified and dealt within the appropriate timeframe. To this end, checking in more frequently not only helps with performance improvement but also shows respect, and it helps in establishing trust with your employees, a key ingredient towards building a sustainable high-performance culture.
To build a unified and strong high-performance culture, business leaders and the human resources function should intentionally and thoughtfully design a work environment that enables talent to flourish to its full potential. Henry Ford once opined that "coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is success.” Working together is a common trait of a conducive working environment.
A conducive workspace is underpinned by physical safety. According to Professor Amy Edmonson, this kind of work environment ensures that employees feel safe and supported by management, and they are not afraid to try new things and make mistakes. Laszlo Bock, the then senior vice-president of people operations at Google, was right when he stated, "All it takes is a belief that people are fundamentally good and enough courage to treat your people like owners instead of machines." It is often said that employees leave managers, not organisations.
Research suggests that a conducive work environment and employee performance are inextricably linked. According to the Harvard Business Review article, studies show that an enabling company environment makes employees feel more valued and supported, which is important not only for the employee’s wellbeing but for overall business performance. Google is a prominent example of a company that focuses on the importance of psychological safety in cultivating a high-performance culture. It is not only important but sustainable for organisations to invest in understanding the feelings, values and social issues of their employees.
A high-performance culture cannot be built overnight; it takes serious commitment and priority from senior management. One of the chief pitfalls of performance management is treating it as a secondary aspect of leadership. In the business world, how leaders act and what they do fundamentally affect organisational performance. Businesses that prioritise performance management get it right and become formidable competitive machines. Research suggests that, in many companies, performance management systems are not a priority even for senior business leaders; hence, they are very slow, wobbly, and in most cases, downright broken. The underlying principle of performance management is that "if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it".
The ideal system for cultivating a high-performance culture starts with setting a very clear vision regarding organisational performance. The Forbes Business Council stated that nothing uplifts an employee’s potential more than a well-articulated, wealthy, and inspiring vision. Employees are the key enablers of transformation who translate organisational vision into practice. However, they are often left in the cold or information reaches them too late. Business leaders often go too fast, setting performance targets without taking time to explain and equip employees with the requisite skills and capabilities.
A shared and clear performance vision aligned with a business performance culture creates strong connectivity among team members, a linchpin for a thriving performance culture. To this end, the HR function should systematically and methodically share the performance vision to raise awareness and willingness among employees. This can be influenced and cemented by the alignment of all HR policies to a high-performance culture because, at the end of the day, businesses exist to perform.
A performance culture that values performance-based incentives is key to cultivating a culture of high performance in the workplace. Basic motivation principles entail that aligning incentives and any other performance recognition programmes is a critical channel towards increasing employee performance. A well-crafted financial and non-financial incentive strategy creates a higher level of energy and motivation that boosts discretionary efforts. In simple terms, a total rewards system is increasingly important given the dynamics of the social and cultural context of the business world. High-performance culture requires management to holistically rethink the reward philosophy.
The volatility of the business operating environment requires a robust skills development approach that adequately responds to both internal and external business realities. It then follows that the reskilling and upskilling of employees cannot be negated in building the aggressive teams required for optimal performance.
Navigating through the choppy waters of Zimbabwe's disruptive workspace requires a new set of skills that are prerequisites to building a high-performance culture. Inculcating a high-performance culture during a disruptive period calls for leadership's deliberate efforts at employee development to face reality. That salient fact remains the same: the success of an organisation is hinged upon the people working for it. Much of the successful transformation of General Electric under Jack Welch was attributed to his ability to invest in employees’ development and ensure they pulled together to the best of their abilities. To reinforce high-performance enabling behaviours such as collaboration, problem solving, and customer focus, team leaders and their ilk ought to be trained in coaching and mentoring techniques.
In the corporate world, you either swim or you sick simply because success is not for the swift, competition is for the strong, and wealth is for the corrupt, but all follow the high performers. Organisations that have a strong inclination towards building a sustainable competitive edge have their business philosophy rooted in well-crafted, high-performance work systems that attract and retain the talent required now and in the future.