Culture, the LCD of Performance
By Jay Forte, Humanetrics, LLC
Is it the employee or the culture that drives performance?
Until recently I have believed that the least common denominator of performance is the employee’s heart and mind; their passion and intellectual contribution is the tipping point of performance. Today’s employees control both their intellectual contribution as well as the degree of passion they bring to the workplace. So is the employee the LCD of performance or is there something else more fundamental that drives performance?
The more I taught and researched extraordinary employee performance I found that the heart and mind of the employee is actually the second tier of performance influence, not the first. Instead, the first is (corporate) culture, where culture means the attitude, policies, approach and spirit of the organization. This culture attracts or sends employees away. An employee with a willing mind and heart is either turned on or turned off by the culture of the organization. A powerful employee (candidate) does not consider bringing his heart and mind to an organization that does not have an employee-centric culture. If that is the case, then the culture must be a more fundamental influence of employee performance.
Culture is the power source that activates the employee to use what they know and how they feel to perform. We know in this intellectual economy, it is the employee that determines the quality of his work. But it is the quality of the workplace in attitude and in presence that inspires employee participation at any level.
Extraordinary company cultures include the following 9 areas according to work published in Performance Consulting by Dana Gaines Robinson and James C. Robinson: clearly defined vision and mission, clearly articulated and presented goals and strategies, a sound and professional employee selection process, a dynamic orientation and inclusion process, a fair and attainable reward and incentive process, a fair and recurring performance review and feedback process, regular and recurring skill development, regular and recurring career development and counseling, and regular succession planning. This provides a great organization’s review list to assess the quality of its culture.
But let’s see what all of these components could look like in practice. And for that we first talk about the critical roles of a leader and a manager in establishing and maintaining company culture.
Consider the following perspective: A leader’s role is to help create the vision and mission of the organization and to develop the overarching strategic direction and objectives for the organization. The leader can only implement this vision and mission with a powerful and committed workforce…and the creation and maintenance of this workforce is the role of the manager. The manager (different form the leader) looks into his employees to understand them, match their talents with their roles, educate, reward, coach and develop each employee. This creates the powerful connection between the company and the employee and activates the employee’s commitment (heart and mind).
The 9 components of a successful workplace culture is a comprehensive list of those items that drive employees to particular workplace cultures. The cultures that offer as many of these 9 as possible inspire their employees to perform by responding to what employees want from their workplaces. Some of these components are put into place by the leaders of the company…those in charge of vision, creation of strategies and implementation of objectives. More of the 9 however are exhibited through the role of the manager. In today’s economy, the manager is now the image of the culture of an organization in the way he hires, rewards, hosts performance reviews and feedback, guides career development and sculpts jobs that match employees’ talents and interests. Organizations that train managers to respond in this way are making a strong statement about their workplace culture and encouraging employees to connect to the organization, become engaged and perform at their best levels.
So culture drives performance by inspiring employees. Develop a powerful employee-focused workplace culture through both managers and leaders and you will attract and keep the best performers.
Humanetrics, LLC. All rights reserved 2007.