Who wouldn’t want to encourage a high-performance culture? The correct answer should be no-one. A truly high-performance culture is powerful and truly symbiotic. Before we get stuck into the detail of it though, it is important to understand that high-performance in this sense is not just results orientated. Results should be a by-product of culture and the high-performance aspect we are talking about here covers everything from attitude through expertise to the ability to learn and grow.
Nick Saban is quoted as saying “mediocre people don’t like high-achievers, and high-achievers don’t like mediocre people”.
A fairly brutal quote but it taps into what is probably the biggest challenge with creating a high-performance culture.
We do however, want to try and avoid making things personal. The suggestion that you dislike the person who is in this quote, “mediocre”, is not ideal but when nurturing the culture in your team, it is important to identify where mediocrity is causing a problem. Most of us have seen or been part of a behavioural shift based on the fact that one (or more) person is seemingly working harder or better than the rest. Over time, if not addressed, you can see the performance of this person drop because ‘what’s the point?’.
Mediocrity is the absolute enemy of high-performance. Brilliant results do not follow average performances and your responsibility as a leader is to ensure that team members are given everything they need in terms of tools, training, support and guidance to be exemplary.
After this potentially comes the hard bit. You can’t have a high-performance culture, a top-flight team if some of the team members are simply not operating on the same level. You must, for the sake of the team, be prepared to make the hard call when all development options have been exhausted and replace weak team members with strong. It is completely accepted in sport and a high-performance culture in business needs to have the same rigorous drive when necessary.
The focus of this blog is to draw attention to the problems high-performance cultures can create. For me, the most important to be aware of, is the correlation between strong personal relationships and high-performance. If you have team members who don’t get on, whose personalities seem to constantly clash, whose work ideas are constantly at loggerheads, take a look at the personal aspect of Nick Saban’s quote. Do we have a personality clash or are we seeing the effects of high-achievers and mediocre performers demonstrating their intolerance for each other?
Next time you come across a personality clash like this, just consider some different options. Is the clash more performance-based than previously thought? Do you have a high-performer or a mediocre player? Can you help turn one or both into high-performers?
High-performance culture is absolutely something to strive for but, be aware of the challenges it may present and the opportunities these create.
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