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Creating a Culture of High Performance: 6 Pointers

For the past 10-plus years, I have focused on improving the performance of organizations, emphasizing their business strategy and sales leadership function. The end result is creating a culture of high performance throughout the organization.

In preparation for a keynote program, I tried to identify what high-performing organizations look like. One, their leadership team communicates openly. Two, they seem to have their personal and professional lives in balance. I have written often of my personal/professional pizza analogy, so I won't bother you with that, but if you have not taken my pizza test, send me a request.

Below, I have summarized the six characteristics of a high-performance culture (obviously, there are more details within each major category). Use it to evaluate your company, your department and your team, and determine what you need to work on to increase performance. You might use a 1-5 ranking (5 is high) and score each category, or even have your management team individually score each category and discuss it at your management team meeting.

  1. They are on a clear course (purpose, vision, mission, strategies, priorities with action plans).
  2. Their character defines qualities and values of the team (guided by clearly articulated behaviors).
  3. Their commitment is unwavering (people are committed to clear roles and responsibilities, and are aligned to the organization).
  4. There is collaboration throughout (teams openly support other teams).
  5. Change is accepted (the team quickly adapts to new environments).
  6. Coaching improves effectiveness (leaders are excellent performance coaches and role models).

How did you come out? How close to 30 did you get?

Posted by Ken Thoreson on March 18, 2014


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