Day by day, leaders focus on energizing all their resources in pursuing their dreams—the visions—by executing their missions. Their strategies can ensure that the organization continues to add value to all business stakeholders—clients, management, and employees. This necessitates creating a high-performance culture. Here are some strategies that will make the difference:
- Ensure that all managers are able to coach their people daily. This means that they:
- set goals with individuals and with teams
- measure key performance indicators
- follow up regularly to monitor progress
- provide ongoing feedback to employees when performance exceeds
or fails to meet expectations - give regular formal feedback on employee performance
- Identify the different core competencies for each level of management. Top management needs to be more strategic, middle management
more organizational, and first-level management more technical in nature. Make sure the performance-management system incorporates these competencies so that managers are:- rewarded for demonstrating those abilities
- given training or other help to acquire them
- Ensure that any formal training—in technical or managerial skills— is aligned with the core competencies.
- After training sessions, follow up with employees to find out what they learned and how they intend to apply their new skills back on the job. Monitor progress and recognize improvements.
- Ensure that employees are given an opportunity to participate in decisions, especially those who promote continuous improvement. Ensure that all your managers are trained to hold meetings where they:
- review operating data with employees
- celebrate improvements
- solicit new ideas that will improve operations
- plan implementation of new ideas
- Encourage the transfer of innovative new practices among business departments. Hold regular meetings to review performance, celebrating achievements and sharing best practices.
- Ensure that every business employee has specific, measurable, agreed-upon, realistic (yet challenging), and time-based (SMART) goals. Each one
should have goals that are reviewed with his supervisor at least at monthly intervals. - Display key measures of the company’s success in important locations, such as the entrances to the building and the cafeteria, so that people are aware of how the organization is doing.
- Employees who have demonstrated above-average performance improvements and have taken risks to change the way business is conducted should be treated like folk heroes.
- Generate enthusiasm by projecting excitement when appropriate. Leaders smile, raise their voices, and have good eye contact when presenting important ideas, and smile, lean forward, and listen carefully to others who display enthusiasm.