RESOURCE
Observations
Performance is the sum of all the business activities and outputs achieved. It is not just the targets delivered, it is also the lessons learnt, the confidence generated, the capabilities developed, the culture reinforced, the understanding created, the relationships enhanced and the story built.
The whole needs to be greater than the sum of the parts, preventing the business from just being a mass of activity. This is achieved by a combination of focus and connectivity, resulting in momentum which is both tangible and emotional. In turn the momentum creates a platform for future performance and an organisational confidence which turbo boosts this.
Performance is never linear or as expected. Maintaining momentum requires considerable energy from the leaders to continually refocus, enthuse and drive the organisation.
The leader’s role is to provoke that performance. In my experience performance is almost always enhanced by the leader actively following through, being challenging, demanding and supportive. Delegation and empowerment can, and must, still happen but I am unashamedly in the camp that sees leaders as constructive agitators not passive cheerleaders or servants.
Creating momentum is a critical role of the leader and for me that can only be achieved by the leaders actively driving performance at an organisational, team and individual level.
Framework
These are the areas I encourage my clients to think about.
Defining Performance
A key part of the leader’s role is to help the organisation understand and emotionally buy in to what great performance looks like and then translate that into tangible action. In doing this it is important to have a clear idea of when ‘good enough’ is part of a great answer.
Effective leaders also encourage others to be clear what great looks like for their accountabilities.
A specific requirement of the leadership team is to set priorities and allocate resources. I have run hundreds of workshops and I have never come across a leadership team that cannot agree priorities. The tough part is making them a reality, saying no to new priorities, making the necessary trade-offs and deciding on activity to stop.
Meaningful priorities require constant attention, not just a half day offsite.
Measuring Performance
‘What gets measured, gets done’ is an insight that I have heard throughout my working life and remains, for me, a powerful leadership truth.
To be meaningful the measures need to be selective and combined with insights. Data on its own is of limited use. This requires the thoughtful selection of what is measured as there is always the temptation to be high on quantity and low on quality. It also needs smart resources, inevitably people and technology, to generate the insights which can be acted upon.
The leader’s role is not to do all this, rather to be architect of the approach and conductor of how the insights are used to create better plans, actions and learning.
It is not just the commercial performance that needs to be measured but also progress of key deliverables and projects, indicators of organisational health (eg. engagement), capability (eg. talent) and vulnerability (eg. risk). There should also be mechanisms which give insights to the market, the customers, other key stakeholders and the market in general.
Provoking Performance
All the great leaders I have worked with actively provoke performance. They don’t believe that just because it has been agreed or stated that it will happen. This is not about a lack of trust; it is the reality that focus on follow through makes things happen.
Follow through can take many different forms including: checking understanding, capturing and sharing the outputs at pace, agreed robust follow through mechanisms, regular group and individual conversations (see Setting The Leadership Rhythm) and, crudely, ‘just being in people’s faces’. One of the key judgements is about pace, finding the right balance of speed and quality. Personally, I often find it is possible to do both, but it requires the leader to orchestrate the tempo and shape of the conversation.
Delegation and empowerment still need to take place. The nuanced leadership judgement is enabling that to happen while also creating; a discipline of follow through, practical support, constructive challenge and connections to the rest of the Leadership Agenda.
Inevitably how this is achieved will depend on the context and the personalities involved. However, in my overwhelming experience, the best leaders manage to combine real empathy and support with a meaningful degree of hustle and grit, which at times doesn’t always make it comfortable but does ultimately create greater value.
For this to work, mutual respect is essential.
10 Top Tips
Driving Performance
Constantly talk about what great looks like – it sets direction, excites people and means that you continually improve your own perspective.
Make priorities real – that means allocating the appropriate resources, stopping other activity and sticking with the priorities over time.
Make planning core – plans may change as soon as they start but the process of planning will be invaluable.
Be architect of the KPI’s – it will shape what gets done. Demand insights not just data.
Make connections for people – as leaders you have a unique and privileged overview.
Invest in follow through – serious time, resources and process.
Consciously manage pace – the tempo you create (conversations, timelines and decision making) all impact performance.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good – momentum is often more important than perfection.
Become great at difficult conversations – they often add more value than hyperbole.
Build mutual respect and trust – it is the foundation of driving performance.
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