Co-Founder and CEO at Y Scouts. Y Scouts is the world's first purposed based leadership search firm.
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You can’t have a high-performing company without high-performance management. But high performance is more than just another management style. For leaders who consistently nudge the needle toward outstanding, it’s part of their DNA. They often exceed even their own expectations and won’t settle for less. These high-performance leaders drive results and seem to be a magnet for others just like them.
High performers are a double asset for any leadership team. They set high standards for themselves, and they understand how to bring out the best in their teams. Although they may seem to have a superpower, there is a method to creating a high-performing culture. If you want to cultivate a high-performance management team, here’s what you need to know.
What Is High-Performance Management?
High performance aligns around shared values and vision to accomplish an overriding objective. As such, high-performance management is less about management than it is about culture and teamwork. Any team can have one great star player. But that’s not how championships are won.
High-performance management is not the old performance management with a new coat of paint. High performance is different. Rather than focusing on mediocre outcomes, high performance is about aligning individual and organizational goals to deliver exceptional outcomes. However, to have an impact on the entire company, high-performance management requires strong leaders within a culture of excellence working to build great teams.
Teamwork: The Premise Behind High Performance
For comparison, let’s take a quick look at traditional performance management systems that focus on rating tools and processes to evaluate how individual employees do their jobs. There is a problem with these systems. The link between individual and organizational performance is usually weak. This means that in many companies, everybody gets a trophy whether the company is winning or not. This disconnect between individual and company-wide achievement is a missed opportunity, leaving companies vulnerable to market disruptions and competition.
High-performance management creates an environment in which excellent teams thrive. Management firm McKinsey & Company surveyed a number of executives over many years. They consistently describe key dimensions of superior teamwork. Their study revealed that great teams:
• Align on the company direction.
• Share common beliefs and values.
• Enjoy quality interactions underscored by trust and good communications.
• Are energized by an organization where teams are free to take risks and learn from outside ideas.
These things don’t happen by accident. They must be an intentional part of how you reward and communicate with your people.
Structured Leadership Teams: The Key To High-Performance
Start by structuring your leadership team to support a high-performing environment. Conventional wisdom says that the team shouldn’t be too small (i.e., a good number may be between six and 10, depending on the company's size). You want to have enough members to drive good decisions, but not so many where it becomes ineffective. You need people for succession planning and to offer diverse opinions. Add too many leaders and you may start to see sub-teams develop.
There is no one-size-fits-all for every leadership team. If an organization is very complex, the CEO could have as many as 20 direct reports. In this case, the leadership team may need to be organized into two or more groups. The size of the team could vary, too, depending on the type of work. The number of leaders doesn’t matter as much as having high-performing leaders in place. High-performing leaders can help teams work together and produce results.
In addition, the leadership team can implement a governance structure around high-performance management. This structure is designed to:
• Define high-performance, including measures and ratings that reflect high-performance definitions and behaviors.
• Describe the function of key leadership roles with a shortlist of business outcomes that are actually related to organization and team outcomes (not stale job descriptions).
• Revamp the company systems (e.g., incentives and professional development) to align with high-performing company and team objectives.
Traits Of High-Performance Leaders
As you build out your leadership team, include leaders that exhibit high-performance management traits. These traits include:
• Listening With Intention: High-performance leaders take an interest in individuals and will take time to connect. They are not afraid to show their vulnerabilities.
• Mentoring Others: They can help others to develop their capacities, particularly when it comes to critical thinking skills. Because they take the time to understand what motivates their people, they know when to offer stretch assignments or push for higher levels of achievement.
• Delegating Thoughtfully: By giving others the right tools and the level of decision-making authority required, these leaders understand how to decentralize decision-making.
• Creating Accountability: By taking ownership for the decisions they make, they are role models of accountability. They expect the same from others.
• Performing Boldly: High-performing leaders are not held down by limiting beliefs. They often go beyond their comfort zones, taking action now and begging forgiveness later.
• Respecting Others: Although they choose their words carefully, they are honest in their feedback. They are encouraging, yet they understand how to give others the amount of support they need without being patronizing.
• Valuing The Team: They understand how to create an open, safe and collaborative environment, both internally and with other teams. There is no failure, only feedback. Team members feel free to innovate and take calculated risks.
• Building Bridges Of Trust: As role models of consistent and principled behavior, they reinforce cultural values. They acknowledge great outcomes among team members and shoulder the blame when things don’t go as planned. They are transparent and honest.
• Managing Complexity: Because they understand the importance of structure and prioritization, high-performance leaders are unfazed by complexity. They can simplify issues and focus on delivering results.
Build High-Performance Companies
High-performance companies need exceptional leadership. Additionally, they must build in exemplary performance as part of the culture. They do this by matching individual and team objectives to the overall vision of the organization. In these exceptional times, high performance is table stakes for companies that pull ahead.
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