Improving executive performance is simple. I can tell you how to do it in two sentences.
It doesn’t require a rocket scientist, a slave driver or a bolt of lightning. You don’t have to micromanage, get picky about your executives’ productivity metrics or incentivize them with tons of money.
“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” –Confucius
The truth behind increasing employee performance is obvious, easy to understand and will result in a net gain for your business. In fact, here’s the simple formula:
Provide a clear vision and set realistic expectations.
Equip your executives with all the tools to succeed.
I know … you are probably a little disappointed. You wanted some magic, something different and clever, the missing ingredient that has held you back and will produce breakthrough results. Instead I am proposing something your human resources department has told you for years, and if not, they should have.
But hear me out. I have coached hundreds of executives in thousands of coaching hours and the results are obvious. It’s not just me saying this. Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill passed on this wisdom decades ago. It has been proven over time and will probably also work for you if you just put it into practice.
In short, if you want peak performance and the highest probability of success, then these two sentences contain the essential wisdom you need to know. Let’s get into more detail on them.
How to Increase Executive Performance
Provide a clear vision and set realistic expectations.
This first sentence includes a couple of concepts that aren’t optional unless you want to provoke chaos. If these are not realized, decisions are either not made at all or are poorly made — both recipes for disaster. Look at them separately:
1) Provide a clear vision.
2) Set realistic expectations.
There are many ways to arrive at a vision. You can take it from the organization’s founders or have your own ‘aha moment’ in the shower. You can brainstorm it with your executive team or dream up something outrageously exciting on your own.
Whichever way it happens, you must create a gap between where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. Otherwise, what’s the point? Why would anyone work hard to get exactly nowhere? If a goal can be checked off like an item on a to-do list, it is just not lofty enough. A vision, on the other hand, is so inspiring and exciting that it naturally pulls your team forward. It provides meaning and ideally a noble cause.
A clear vision provides something to take risks for because the benefits far outweigh the costs. It needs to be clear and specific enough to rally the troops. When John F. Kennedy professed in 1962 to put a man on the moon within a decade, an entire nation rallied behind the vision. For a vision to work it must come alive. Writing it down on your annual report or the entrance wall in your headquarters isn’t good enough. You need to be the steward of the vision and breathe life into it every day.
A vision alone won’t do, though.
In addition, it is your responsibility as leaders to communicate individual, team and organization-wide expectations. How else will people know what to do? How else can you measure if a job is well done? How else can you possibly ask your executives to hold themselves and each other accountable?
Here are the top expectations I have of myself and of anyone I am working with:
1) Act with integrity – always.
2) Be committed to the cause; if you can’t, please make room for those who can.
3) Show up and be prepared to take action; nothing less will do.
4) Collaborate for the best ideas to come to fruition because it is fun.
5) Accept ambiguity since the only thing that is certain is that change happens.
What Executives Need to Perform Well
Equip your executives with all the tools to succeed.
In the middle ages, a man was given a horse to do his work. In the industrial revolution, he was given a machine to be productive. Today he needs a person, another human being by his side to sort through the clutter and messiness of rapid change.
It is wisdom my late mother knew when she said ‘behind every successful man is a woman.’ It is not the gender that matters, but the fact that one human being needs another to succeed.
No athlete in his right mind would ever attempt to make it to the Olympic Games without a coach (or two). Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, publicly stated that the advice that stuck out for him was to get a coach.
“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.” –John Wooden (basketball player and coach)
Remember when Meredith Grey in Grey’s Anatomy referred to Cristina as her ‘person?’ Cristina was her go-to person when things got tough, when moral and ethical dilemmas came up, when relationship issues stifled progress, when the stress became unbearable. Cristina was her friend, her confidant, her ally. A coach does essentially the same and some. Coaches aren’t attached to the specifics of the outcome, just to the overall success of the executive and the business.
Can you imagine what your business would look like if every executive was given the opportunity to partner with a coach? Every single one? It would be like equipping each employee with a rocket booster to perform better in his/her job, to live happier lives and be more creative/innovative in the process.
Why should you take on this expense? Because it is probably cheaper than what you are currently doing.
Think about it: All executives get directions from the boss, the board, and the powers that be. But who actually helps them to succeed? Who acknowledges all the hard work and the long hours? Who cheers them on when the going gets tough? Who can challenge them without demotivating them at the same time?
According to a Towers Watson Study, attracting employees is challenging as well.
Towers Watson’s 2010 Global Talent Management and Rewards Study
- Fifty-two percent of United States companies have a problem attracting “critical-skill employees” while 31 percent have problems retaining them. For “top-performing” employees, the numbers aren’t much better: 45 percent of U.S. companies have problems attracting them and a quarter have problems with retention. Even “high-potential” employees are hard to come by: 40 percent of U.S. companies struggle to attract them and 25 percent have problems with retention.If you add up the cost of attrition, retention and motivation, it might just make sense to support your valuable employees with someone who will focus on their success.“Looking again at the employers’ list of qualities, it seems that there’s a tendency to forget that employees have lives — or needs or wants — outside of the office.” –Phil Stott, Vault.com
In Summary
Increasing executive performance and leading your team to success is simple. Show them where to go and be specific about the part you want them to take in the journey. Then value their contribution by giving them all the support to succeed.
The only thing between you and a growing business is your willingness to take action.
Please share your thoughts below. What did you take away from this article? What actions will you take as a result of reading it?