Changing a whole corporate culture might be beyond our individual responsibilities, but changing our teams and ourselves in order to deliver better results within whichever culture we operate, is not. This article will feature five tips with associated tasks designed to improve team and individual performance.
Most companies have an annual budget or strategic goal setting process but often this vital process does not achieve the expected results. An article in the Harvard Business Review shows that even in good economic conditions companies missed the potential value of their strategies by 37%, so great strategies do not always ensure great results. The golden key to linking strategy and results is by creating a culture of performance.
Begin with the end in mind
This is one of Stephen Covey’s key points described in his bestselling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It has special importance for teams, i.e. getting everybody aligned with the same goal has extra value. A clear, meaningful picture of your common desired destiny acts like a magnet, drawing the team effort towards it. The more vivid and lively you can make this image of what success will look like, the more it will help you achieve it.
Task: Prior to setting goals, brainstorm as a team to create a common vision of what a successful year means. Imagine it is 12 months from now and you are looking back on the 12 months that have been the most successful for your team. What does it look like? How do you know you were successful? How does this success feel?
Capture all the ideas, thoughts and feelings that come out of the brainstorming session. Synthesize the brainstorming output to clearly reflect the common understanding of what success means to your team and align this to the goals or strategic direction already given to your team.
Learn from the past to improve the future
Life teaches us lessons every day, but because we are busy we often don’t notice them. These precious gifts can catapult us forward on our journey to success. A quote that is attributed to Albert Einstein says it well; ‘Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. So learn from the past and figure out what you will change in the next 12 months.
Task: Prior to creating the actual goals, do this exercise as a team. List all the things that went well in the past 12 months. Then take the time to celebrate and enjoy all these successes. List all the things that did not go well in the past 12 months. Don’t dwell on the list; accept it as it is. Have all team members look at both lists and write down the lessons they have learned from these experiences. Choose the two or three lessons that will help you most in the next 12 months. Discuss examples of behaviours resulting from these lessons which will propel you to success.
Use roles to identify potential goals
Your team may have already been given some goals they will be required to meet and the goal setting session is all about how you will meet them. However, you may be in the fortunate position where you can create your own performance goals. Either way, the next step will help create a set of well rounded, realistic goals that encompass what you do as a team and what needs to be done.
Task: Note all the roles your team plays. Make sure both formal and informal roles are included. Indicate with a scoring system, how well the team is playing that role today and how well the team would need to play that role in order to have the successful year ahead.
From your above list, choose five to seven roles that should be focused on improvement in order to have your successful year identifying one to three goals per role.
Prioritise the goals to identify the most important, that your team will focus on, making sure they are SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic with some stretch, and time bound) and with a champion name for each. The champion ensures the tasks and work required to achieve their objective or goal are defined and accomplished.
Keep to disciplined follow-up processes
This seems so obvious yet many follow-up processes don’t work well, failing to identify potential trouble spots in advance and correct weaknesses in results, in a timely manner.
Task: Choose the format for your follow-up process i.e. monthly team meetings, time, place, day and travel arrangement. Schedule all the follow-ups for the year immediately. Decide on the monthly followup agenda. Keep them short, succinct and fun and most importantly, just do it.
Do this for yourself
Most of us have objectives and goals at work. How many of us do the same for our personal lives? What would happen if we created a written plan for ourselves for the next 12 months, including work roles and goals and non-work roles and goals?
You are likely to find yourself defining the life balance you want, how to make it happen, while being successful at work. Obstacles and challenges will be highlighted and solutions will be found.
Task: Give it a try. Take a few hours and go through the above steps on your own.
Conclusions
The gaps between strategy, execution and results exist. A culture of performance can tie the three together, enabling companies to deliver their strategies and desired results more fully. Ideally this should be addressed starting at the top of a company. However, no matter what level of the organisation we are in, we can improve the results we get individually and as a team by further developing our own skills of accountability, performance and delivering results. These five tips will get you well on your way. If you would like further information about team or individual improving performance, please look at the following website: http://www.valcoach.ch
About the writer
Susan Kuepfer is a professional and personal coach with 20 years’ commercial and industrial experience including Six-Sigma and many other approaches. She lives near Geneva and can be contacted at: valcoach@vtxnet.ch.
