Creating conditions for high performance: back to basics Persis Mathias

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1 Inspiring leaders to improve children's lives National College for School Leadership Schools and academies Creating conditions for high performance: back to basics Persis Mathias Opinion piece

2 Creating conditions for high performance: back to basics 1 Persis Mathias, Deloitte Having worked with organisations across the globe in growth economies across Asia, in the development sector in parts of Africa and in advanced economies like the UK, I have realised that whatever the industry, wherever the organisation, achieving high standards of performance is a continuous quest for every organisation, for every individual. Though high performance is a complex and individual topic, there are some simple basics. If you do not believe in what you do and you do not know what good looks like, then you are highly unlikely to be able to perform well. So, here is what high performing organisations do in order to keep the passion alive in individuals and to ensure that they are clear on what good looks like. These are the prerequisites, although usually other business-specific factors will also play a role. But focus on these two things and perhaps you can afford to let your people work it out from there. Define what good looks like for the organisation and the individual High performing organisations have a strong sense of purpose, a vision for the future. They have a clear idea of what good looks like. To help align everyone in the organisation towards their common goal, they work hard at communicating and aligning priorities. Everyone has a common understanding of the organisation s values, goals and objectives and is also very clear how one s work contributes to the overall success of the organisation. Individuals understand what is expected of them and because they are able to see a clear alignment they find meaning in what they do. According to an Aberdeen 2010 study 1, organisations who follow a clear approach to goals management (linking strategy to individual goals) are 72 per cent more likely to achieve best-in-class status 2 compared to those that do not. At Virgin for example, there is a leadership-led process for performance management where broader objectives are cascaded and linked to individual objectives. All objectives derive from strategy and performance against these is rolled up into business performance reporting. People can, however, become too focused on an extrinsic goal at the expense of the task at hand and this can drive the wrong behaviours. In defining what good looks like and in ensuring that employees have a clear idea of what is really valued, high performing organisations clarify strategic outcomes and define a rounded range of measures that constitute performance. It is important for them to measure the how, not just the what placing a clear emphasis on the right behaviours as well as outcomes. There are a variety of ways to measure the how ranging from organisational values to detailed competencies that define employee behaviours. Often multiple sources of feedback are sought to evaluate holistic performance. Approaches vary depending on industry and/or workforce characteristics. Performance management at GE emphasises growth values. All employees across the organisation are placed on a 9-block grid charting their performance against values. Therefore it is perfectly possible that an individual who has done remarkably well in earning revenues for the organisation will not be considered as high performing unless he/she has scored well against the core values of the organisation. How can you as a school leader ensure that teachers you are responsible for are clear about what good looks like in terms of values, behaviours and outcomes? 1 Aberdeen Group, 2010, Employee Performance Management 2 Best in class = 81% employee engagement and 22% improvement in customer satisfaction; average industry = 68% employee engagement and 6% improvement in customer satisfaction

3 2 Create the right environment to drive employee engagement so that people believe in what they do Having defined what good looks like, high performing organisations invest in ensuring that their employees are intrinsically motivated, are passionate and truly believe in what they need to achieve. They invest in understanding their people requirements and then focus on creating the right conditions conditions that will instil in employees a sense of pride in being part of the organisation, a sense of aligned purpose that will help everyone work together to achieve the common goal and a positive ambition that will drive the employees to go the extra mile. High performing organisations know that investing in building an engaging workforce makes good business sense as organisations with engaged employees achieve, on average, 18 per cent more productivity, 12 per cent higher profitability, 12 per cent higher levels of customer satisfaction and 51 per cent less employee turnover than competitors 3. The highly engaged are more than twice as likely to be top performers almost 60 per cent of them exceed or far exceed expectations for performance. Moreover, the highly engaged missed 43 per cent fewer days of work due to illness 4. What can we learn from organisations that instil the right passion in their employees? It is back to the basics of motivation. The things that motivate employees are very different from the things that make them dissatisfied. If you ask employees what makes them unhappy at work, you will hear stories about bad bosses, low salaries and unfavourable working environments. While these are often factors that can certainly be demotivating, if managed well they do not necessarily drive employees to work harder and/or smarter. Interesting and meaningful work, challenge, development and increasing responsibilities are most often the things that drive employees to be high performing. For Google, performance management starts long before an employee enters the organisation. Their recruitment process is intense in order to ensure that the individual is a right fit for the organisation. Once part of the organisation, Google invests in ensuring that their people are constantly challenged. The key element of changing the work so that the work itself becomes a critical driver of innovation, motivation and high performance is what Google calls 20 per cent work. For professional jobs it means that the employee works the equivalent of one day a week on their own researching individually selected projects that the company funds and supports. Both Google Groups and Google News products are reported to have started as a result of personal 20 per cent time projects. What can school leaders do to help keep the passion alive? What are those levers that will really drive high engagement? 3 Rutgers University; Series of studies conducted among 1,000-4,000 public U.S. companies with over 100 employees analyzing financial data, skills, motivation. 4 Watson Wyatt,

4 3 The critical role of line managers and managing underperformance The glue that holds this all together is the line manager. Line managers play a critical role in helping individuals understand what good looks like and in driving engagement. They are instrumental in translating the strategic goals into something meaningful for the individual. The line manager needs to understand the individual (his/her values, passions and performance) and through effective monitoring, coaching and evaluation enables the individual to be truly high performing. So you may ask is there a difference between driving high performance and managing underperformance? While the same basics apply, line managers need to change their approach and style based on the situation. For the engaged, intrinsically motivated individuals who have a clear understanding of what good looks like, the manager provides the needed direction, the challenge and the stretch opportunities. Acting more like a mentor and colleague, the manager ensures the right recognition and support to help sustain high performance. However, for those who are struggling to find their feet in the organisation and are underperforming, the manager plays a critical role in early identification of low performance and understanding the reasons for this. Working with the individual, the manager makes time to clarify goals and expectations, provides the needed perspectives in helping the individual find meaning in what they do, helps build the individual s confidence and capability and through genuine care and frequent feedback helps the individual stand on his/her two feet again. Deloitte s process, the Employee Performance Plan (EPP), is a structured development plan that aims to manage underperformance by ensuring managers and individuals are guided through well documented steps to establish the facts, identify causes and contributory factors and ensure that individuals are given every chance to develop. Spread across three stages, ranging between 6 and 12 weeks, through specific objective setting and targeted support the process lays strong emphasis on helping the individual to understand what good looks like and providing the necessary support to build the individual s motivation, attitude and capability. Often, this process results in individuals moving out of the underperformance category and going on to make strong contributions to business. Other times individuals realise they may not be suitable for their current role and decide to make other career choices within or outside the organisation. Key to the success of this process is that the underperformer is given all evidence, opportunity and support to develop and that a formal dismissal process starts only when all else fails. Given the challenges in performance observation and the collection of good performance data, what can you do as a middle leader to ensure that, within your team, accurate data and evidence are used to support and improve performance and manage underperformance?

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