Build Performance Culture & Accelerate Business Success
How would it impact your business’ success if your employees were highly engaged in their work, always striving to get the job done, innovating, creatively solving problems, and proactively addressing inefficiencies? What if they shared a common value system, trusted each other, and were truly interested in seeing the company’s goals and purpose being fulfilled?
I believe that all of us would answer these questions in an affirmative way. That is at a gut level, we would say that this kind of engagement would have a “HUGE” impact on performance and the bottom line. As a matter of fact, 100% of the business leaders I meet want the kind of company culture I just outlined.
I have personally owned and operated several companies over the past twenty-four years. Companies employing as many as 250 people with locations spread across multiple states. I know how difficult it is to create a performance culture like the one described in the first paragraph, but I have also seen first-hand the results of intentionally pursuing it.
So, it is more than safe to say that high employee engagement and healthy company culture are “HUGE” factors in your company’s success. However, like anything we encounter, recognizing an opportunity is only one part of transformation. You still must answer a couple of critical questions before you begin to expend energy and resources.
Question #1: What is the best way to go about creating and fostering a performance culture?
Question #2: How do you measure the return on investment (ROI) of time and resources?
In my consulting work, I utilize a four-step process to assist my clients in building performance culture. The process is not always linear, but for the purpose of answering these two questions the steps (stated as objectives) will provide an excellent framework. In addition, answering the ROI question will be dependent on the specifics of your company’s current state. Therefore, I will point out the financial implications of action and/or inaction and leave the calculator in your hands. I challenge you here to use a very critical eye as you do so, it is hard to be objective when you are looking in the mirror.
Objective #1: Develop a Cohesive Leadership Team
This objective seems simple enough and if you are like most business leaders, you believe that you have this one figured out. But the fact is that there are always opportunities. Opportunities that can have a high price tag.
Case in point. In a recent leadership team building session with a client, we began discussing how the team typically tackled an issue. What we discovered was that they
had developed a sort of democratic approach to problem solving and decision making. One that did not foster the kind of healthy debate necessary to uncover the best solution and get the team aligned behind it. We found that certain members of the team were much more assertive in their communication styles, and this would often preclude less assertive and more cooperative members from getting their voices heard. We determined that the result was often a compromise of sorts that rarely had the support of the entire leadership team. We also discovered that at this often resulted in the issue not getting resolved. Issues like this are hard to identify when you are involved in the process. In fact, the leader in this case was one of the unaware assertive voices. What is the cost of this kind of dysfunction?
Performance culture starts with the leadership team. It is not sufficient to just have talented people sitting at the table. You must also be intentional about developing a cohesive team. One that knows how to draw the very best ideas out its members and then gets behind them. One that knows how to hold one another accountable and produces results.
Objective #2: Clearly Define Why, How, What and Who
I could write a whole book on this one and in fact many people have. Authors such as Simon Sinek, Jim Collins and Patrick Lencioni have very eloquently spelled out how critical it is for companies to lay this foundation. Answering these questions provides a sort of north star or through line for your organization and gives you the clarity you need to achieve your goals and purpose.
My first business was a wireless retail company. My brother, Don and I partnered together to bring a successful kiosk-based retail concept from California to Minnesota. Don owned and operated the California business, and I was to be the leader of the Minnesota operation. At the onset, Don and I had a good idea of what the answers to these questions were, but we did not take the time to clarify them for the new organization. We did not know any better at the time, but as I reflect on it now, I can recall vividly how this lack of clarity impacted performance as we began to scale the operation. What worked in a single location was not working across many locations. This was especially true as we ramped up hiring and began promoting leaders to oversee new markets and clusters of stores.
We eventually figured this out along with a few other things, but the lesson was learned through failure and came at a tremendous cost. After opening a new market, adding six additional locations, and taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars in lease obligations, we were forced to close all six stores and move out of the market after only one year. Now I do not attribute this colossal failure entirely to our lack of clarity, but I know that it was a significant factor as we were not fully prepared for this expansion.
The bottom line… It is great if you have these questions answered for yourself, but if you want to scale and continue to have a high-performance culture it is critical that the answers are also clear to the organization.
Objective #3: Install an Intentional Communication System
We all know how important communication is in life and in business. With clarity around the four questions (Why, How, What and How) the challenge now becomes not only ensuring that everyone is on the same page, but also that everyone is on the right page. Installing an effective communication cadence is the key to maintaining alignment, ensuring that issues are getting resolved and innovation is happening at all levels of the organization.
A friend recently sent me a book entitled “No Barriers” it is the autobiographical story of Erik Weihenmayer’s journey as a blind man to successfully kayak the Grand Canyon. As it turns out the Grand Canyon excursion was not his first amazing feat, he has also successfully summited Mt. Everest. Erik’s team’s climb was feature as a comparison example in another favorite book of mine, “The Four Disciplines of Execution”. In the chapter entitled “Create a Cadence of Accountability,” the author tells the story of a group of paying climbers who attempted to scale Mt. Everest. On their journey these climbers faced many obstacles including 62 MPH winds and high-altitude sickness. These challenges caused the group to fall apart and some of the more determined climbers decide to attempt the summit on their own. The results were devastating and resulted in the death of eight people. A tragic story of teamwork gone wrong. In contrast Weihenmayer’s team decided to install an intentional communication system at the onset. They committed to huddle together at the end of each day to talk about what they had accomplished and discuss the adjustments and strategies for the next day’s work. The results were impressive. The faster climbers cleared the path, fixed ropes, and then worked their way back to meet Erik on the trail. Erik later commented “Our team stuck together and took care of each other, which gave me just enough courage to finish.”
No doubt that both teams were filled with very capable climbers. Each had painstakingly planned their climb to the very finite detail. The difference in the result is directly attributable to one clear difference… intentional communication. In business this scenario plays out each day with different consequences. Without an intentional communication system, strategies are not improved upon, innovation is slow or non-existent, issues take longer to resolve, and people are less likely to engage in the greater success of the organization. The cost can be measured in the loss of time and money.
Objective #4: Operationalize Performance
The final objective is simple but not easy. The result is an organization that has the answers to the four questions animating its infrastructure, relationships, and offerings. The textbook definition of operationalization is “the process of turning abstract concepts into measurable observations.” To use consistent vernacular, it is the process of making sure that the answers to the four questions are observable everywhere and informing everything. I think most of us can imagine what this looks like, but the execution of this concept must be intentional and at times will test your resolve and determination.
A consummate example of a leader that understood this and a company that has done it well would be Steve Jobs and Apple. Steve Jobs’ core beliefs can still be observed in the infrastructure, relationships, and offerings at Apple almost fifty years after its inception. How did this happen? After reading Steve Jobs’ biography many years ago, I walked away concluding that it was Jobs’ determination to see his beliefs operationalized that allowed Apple to accomplish what it has. Eventually changing the lives of many billions of people which continues to fuel Apple’s unprecedented market domination. There is not space here to unpack “how” Apple did this, but the result can be clearly observed in its relationships, products, and services.
In conclusion, I know that these four objectives when achieved will drive both meaning and performance for your business. The ROI is in fact HUGE! I know because I have observed and experienced the results over the past thirty years in my own businesses and in the businesses of the clients I serve. It is my hope that this article will inspire you to take action! To begin to intentionally create the unique performance culture necessary for your company to achieve its purpose!
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About the Author:
Robb Breding has over 30 years of business ownership and executive leadership experience. He is the founder and chief evangelist at REV Advisory Group, a performance consulting and coaching firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Robb founded REV with the core purpose of empowering individual leaders, teams, and organizations to discover and achieve their purpose!