Creating a Culture of High Performance
Creating a Culture of High Performance
The same can be true for organizations. Witness the damage caused by unethical behaviours in recent years by CEOs of elite businesses. Their actions not only lowered the confidence of investors but poorly impacted the lives of employees.
Heroes in sport may be compared to leaders in organizations. How the members behave and perform is often a result of the example set by leadership. For instance, if a company’s set of published standards are that it values responsibility and accountability, but management often does not abide by these stated principles, employees will, as a consequence, feel it is alright to do the same, thus fostering a culture of deception contrary to the stated value.
According to the encyclopedia Wikipedia:
Organizational values are beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees…and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another.
(Strategic Management, Charles W. L. Hill, Gareth R. Jones, Fifth Edition, 2001 Houghton Mifflin, MeansBusiness, Inc.)
I recently met a business owner who told me that he wanted to build the profitability of his business so he could be in a position to sell in 5 years. The sales people were content with filling existing customer needs and were not pro-actively prospecting for new business in their respective territories. The business owner had accepted this for years even though he was now faced with a new personal goal for his business. Even though he had mapped out a growth plan for the next five years and communicated it to the sales people, they were not changing their behaviours to do what was required. In this case the business owner was sending a message by not responding appropriately to the performance of his sales people and thus preserving a culture of complacency.
What kind of culture exists in your organization? Does it contribute to the personal goals that you, as a leader, have or envision for yourself and your company? Do changes need to happen in your culture, values, beliefs and norms in order to stay competitive and achieve high performance in today’s radically changing business environment?
These important questions must be asked and answered by the leaders of organizations, as they are the ones who set the tone and either create or sustain the current organizational culture. For help in answering these questions, and to assess your current situation, contact us so that we may share our expertise with you and your team.
Article by Stephen Goldberg
email: sgoldberg@optimusperformance.ca
Creating a Culture of High Performance - To learn more about this author, visit Stephen Goldberg's Website.
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My last article dealt with creating a high performance organization and used the Tour de France as an example of what drives high performance; in that case individuals functioning at their maximum and working as a team. Unfortunately the Tour de France was mired in controversy (at the beginning and end) as a result of doping allegations. Heroes quickly become villains and damage the sport as a whole.
The same can be true for organizations. Witness the damage caused by unethical behaviours in recent years by CEOs of elite businesses. Their actions not only lowered the confidence of investors but poorly impacted the lives of employees.
Heroes in sport may be compared to leaders in organizations. How the members behave and perform is often a result of the example set by leadership. For instance, if a company’s set of published standards are that it values responsibility and accountability, but management often does not abide by these stated principles, employees will, as a consequence, feel it is alright to do the same, thus fostering a culture of deception contrary to the stated value.
According to the encyclopedia Wikipedia:
Organizational values are beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees…and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another.
(Strategic Management, Charles W. L. Hill, Gareth R. Jones, Fifth Edition, 2001 Houghton Mifflin, MeansBusiness, Inc.)
I recently met a business owner who told me that he wanted to build the profitability of his business so he could be in a position to sell in 5 years. The sales people were content with filling existing customer needs and were not pro-actively prospecting for new business in their respective territories. The business owner had accepted this for years even though he was now faced with a new personal goal for his business. Even though he had mapped out a growth plan for the next five years and communicated it to the sales people, they were not changing their behaviours to do what was required. In this case the business owner was sending a message by not responding appropriately to the performance of his sales people and thus preserving a culture of complacency.
What kind of culture exists in your organization? Does it contribute to the personal goals that you, as a leader, have or envision for yourself and your company? Do changes need to happen in your culture, values, beliefs and norms in order to stay competitive and achieve high performance in today’s radically changing business environment?
These important questions must be asked and answered by the leaders of organizations, as they are the ones who set the tone and either create or sustain the current organizational culture. For help in answering these questions, and to assess your current situation, contact us so that we may share our expertise with you and your team.
Article by Stephen Goldberg
email: sgoldberg@optimusperformance.ca
Creating a Culture of High Performance - To learn more about this author, visit Stephen Goldberg's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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