What is the environment you are creating in your business? Are you allowing your team to learn, stretch their skills and grow? Or is the culture punitive and everyone points out other people’s shortfalls? I worked in an organization that defaulted to calling out mistakes in public. Seemed to be the opposite of praise in public, coach in private. The people that tended to be called out were the high performers. Many performed at 3-4x their peers. Based on the volume of output and overall quality vast majority of it was superior to their peers. One would think that a minor mistake would be acceptable based on the incredible performance. That lead to a colleague adopting the attitude of “can’t screwup if you don’t do any work.” The culture became risk adverse, and the less people did, the fewer mistake they made, and the better they were rewarded. Not a shining example of driving for high performance.
Lets looks at a few elements that will provide for a more autonomous and rewarding culture. What are the core roles performance standards? Are you focused with the end in mind – the outcome? Does everyone know what “good” looks like? Below we will dive into all three a little more.
1) Standards – Define the service level and quality of the individual and team’s output. A line cook needs to produce a certain quantity and quality of food with an acceptable amount of waste during a meal service. A customer service representative needs to respond with a defined service level agreement with a quality measurement. People creating training content need to have a milestone for beta and general availability with associated levels of completeness. Does your team know the “standard” for them?
2) Outcomes – Too often managers focus on how vs what. Don’t get me wrong, there are some areas that do not allow for deviation. These include adhering to food safety standards or medical procedures. More often than not, many roles require a specific outcome, but everyone may have a slightly different way to get there. I am not advocating for the wild west. What I am suggesting, is allowing people to bring their personality and creativity into work to allow for better outcomes. An example of this is in sales. The outcome is meeting and exceeding quota. There typically are steps and documentation that needs to be completed during the sales cycle. That doesn’t mean the job is performed robotically. Within the given framework, there is flexibility on how to connect with a prospect to leverage an individual’s strengths. I have seen introverts and extroverts be extremely successful in sales, but each has a slightly different approach.
3) What does good look like – Is everyone clear on what good looks like? On the outcome above – I focused on the result. Good is combining the standards, the outcome and doing it in a way that is ethical and advances the overall business. Is everyone in the organization able to interpret and explain what good looks like? Is the culture open and honest allowing for feedback from all vs focused on the hierarchy and having yes people? If so – you may be on the path for long term success. If not – act today and be open to feedback for improvement.
Think through
As we started off with a real-life example of what I experienced early in my career, I made a promise to myself to never become like that. Be clear on the standards, the expected outcome, and what good likes like. This is not a one-off event. It needs to be a way of life. Every month, every day, every week and every hour needs to be focused on pushing for excellence in a fair way. People make mistakes and are part of the normal learning process. Again, we are not saying making the same mistake continuously. Other than in a medical profession that is life and death, how many jobs are there that have the same consequences. So lighten up, support your team and help them grow
Feel free to post comments or email them to me. Small Business, Big Lessons ® – How are you helping your team grow professionally?
Small Business
About the Author:
Gregory Woloszczuk is an entrepreneur and experienced tech executive that helps small business owners grow their top and bottom line. Gregory believes in straight talk and helping others see things they need to see but may not want to with a focus on taking responsibly for one’s own business. He and his wife, Maureen, started GMW Carolina in 2006.
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