The Laws of Attraction...Create a Culture That Attracts Top Talent

Are you a business leader struggling to fill positions that are critical to your company’s success? The “war on talent”, the “great resignation” and macro population trends all have contributed to a lack of quality candidates. This has forced companies to think differently about how they will attract and retain talent. I am hearing statistics from my clients and others that reflect a doubling of the time it takes to fill an open position. This realization has resulted in many innovative tactics that are now being employed to give one company the edge over the other. Many of these creative solutions can help you win the short term battle, but in order to win the talent war, companies must become intentional about creating and maintaining a “Performance Culture” that will properly engage the kind of people needed to thrive! I am not talking about ping pong tables, a good health plan or unlimited vacation. I am talking about creating an environment where people want to come to work. An environment where they will find work they enjoy, people they can trust and a meaningful mission to accomplish… a “Performance Culture”. In this article I will outline the 7 Key Components of Performance Culture. These keys have been developed over the past 25 years and are the result of much research and the practical application of that research in my own businesses and the businesses of my clients.

Component #1: The top leader and/or the leadership team is committed to excellence and has a growth mindset. This seems like a no brainer, but you would be surprised at how many business leaders I meet that are stuck in a negative or outdated mindset. Any company that is succeeding in creating a winning culture is led by people who are open lifelong learners. They know that they don’t know… everything. They know when to seek advice from experts and they surround themselves with people who share their affinity for excellence. This passion for continual improvement is contagious and appealing to those they hope to employ. And guess what… people want to work for people like this!

Component #2: Clearly define and live out your mission, vision, values and goals. This one can be tricky and if you”re not careful to be truthful and authentic in creating and communicating these things, doing so will have the opposite effect you are looking for. I remember when I first started out in business. Like most entrepreneurs, I just wanted to create something. I wasn’t thinking about a mission statement or what the company’s values would be. At first I was personally and implicitly defining these things as a leader of a startup. I knew all my employees and they knew me. As my business grew I had to get very intentional about this. Every new hire represents a reinforcement or deterioration of your mission, vision, values and goals. The sooner you define these things and begin to communicate and live them out the better. If you want a performance culture, this stuff must ring true and have meaning. Once established, these pillars will inform and give meaning to every singe area of your business!

Component #3: Well defined roles and clear lines accountability. In a recent Gallop Study looking at employee engagement, one of the elements that they used to measure engagement was “clarity of expectations". This component has obvious benefits on the company’s side, but the fact is that employees also benefit and thrive in an environment with clear expectations might come as a surprise to some leaders. Another important benefit of defining roles and accountability is that it helps to eliminate ambiguous expectations and gets everyone focused on the proper results.

Component #4: A commitment to having the right people in the right seats. This notion is very simple but not always easy to execute. Getting this right requires discipline and will mean putting some rigor into how you attract, select, onboard, develop and engage your employees for each and every role. Dovetailing off of component #3, begin by creating candidate centric job descriptions that not only describe the role, but also what success in the role looks like. Be sure to include the important component #2 elements as well. There are also many scientific solutions that will help you to objectively define behavioral preferences and values for the role. All of these pieces should be used to inform the evaluation and interviewing of candidates. When it comes to attracting the right people for these clearly defined roles it can be somewhat counterintuitive. That is the more specific and targeted you are the more appealing the role will be to a candidate. The more selective you are the better you will become at attracting the right people.

Component #5: Employ a proactive method for identifying and developing talent. Identifying talent begins in component #4 and is reinforced here. A rigorous and engaging selection process for new hires and promotion will reinforce your performance culture and engage the very best people. People want to be a part of something. They want to know that you care about them and their professional development. This plays out in the numbers as well. In the aforementioned Gallop Study looking at employee engagement “opportunities for development" was at the top of the list. The good news is that an investment in training and development, when done properly will provide a healthy ROI. I would also note that getting specific and involving employees in this conversation will increase the impact. Finally, don’t just focus on hard skill competencies. Training around such soft skill competencies as Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Teamwork are critical to building a performance culture. It doesn’t matter how good someone is technically if they can not positively interact with others.

Component #6: Engages its people with a compelling game and scorecard. I grew up in a home where games and competition were a big part of our lives. Over my lifetime I have come to realize that most people and certainly the most productive people really enjoy competing and playing games. The second part of this component is also very important. In his book “The 4 Disciplines of Execution”, Chris McChesney illustrates the importance of keeping score. He uses the analogy of a pick up basketball game. Watch how the game changes when one of the players suggest that they start keeping score. Standards, scorecards, KPIs, etc… doesn’t matter what you call them, they are important, good people love them and they are critical to a performance culture.

Component #7: Embrace a regular cadence of communication and accountability. When you hear it said that you must communicate clearly across the entire organization, it makes sense and leaders are motivated to make it happen. When you go deeper and begin to look at effective communication and accountability you see that it must be intentional and it must be two way. Insisting on a regular meeting cadence and allowing accountability to flow in every direction takes discipline and humility on the part of leadership. Leaders must live by their own standards and be willing to listen. That is valuing everyone in the organization and allowing them to have a voice. The goal is not consensus, but rather a culture that embraces healthy conflict and communication resulting in mutual accountability and superior results.

As you can see performance culture is not something that just happens. It can begin with a charismatic entrepreneur passionate to carry their new start-up to the top but it is established and ultimately maintained with intentionality and commitment. If you are interested in having the kind of performance culture that attracts and retains top talent, not to mention produces superior results, begin by completing our Engagement Survey and scheduling a free 45-minute strategy session today.