In today’s competitive market, building a high-performing team is smart business. However, despite the majority of business leaders in New Zealand considering it a top priority, research suggests it is proving difficult to achieve.
In 2005, Dan Malachowski completed a study in which he examined the performance of 10,000 British employees and not surprisingly, the results were disturbing. According to Mr. Malachowski, 33% of all respondents said they were spending at least 2 hours per day working on private matters. (The estimated cost of poor ‘people management’ in the UK in 2004 was 23 billion dollars, 105 billion in the USA).
Whilst New Zealand executives often say reports completed in such markets do not necessarily apply to ‘us’, it is important we acknowledge the fact that we New Zealanders still lag a long way behind the United States, Australia, and Great Britain when it comes to employee productivity.
If you are serious about improving the performance of your workforce, it makes sense to focus on those who govern it.
Improving leadership performance
Experts believe improving leadership effectiveness is the key to improving productivity; in a recent survey, only 17.3% of NZ employees said their managers were effective leaders i.e. capable of leading and developing people.
In my opinion the purpose of a leadership team is to ‘add value’ to a business. Whilst this may seem irritatingly obvious, it concerns me the number of people in leadership positions who have little comprehension as to what this really means.
I believe your leadership team is employed to ‘grow’ and ‘improve’ your business. They are not employed to keep the business going nor are they there to manage systems and procedures - that is the role of your operations manual.
It is only when a leadership team truly understands why they are there (purpose) that they will be in a position to perform.
As a rule of thumb, I suggest you consider the role of ‘adding value’ in the context of leadership to be the following;
- Providing strategic direction
- Setting performance standards
- Building performance capability
- Developing a performance culture
Over the next four issues I will share with you a brief summary of my thoughts on each.
Providing strategic direction
Your strategic plan is an important document that provides key stakeholders with an overview of your goals and objectives. It also provides a performance platform for your workforce. In this issue, we will focus our attention on the latter as this is the one most companies seem to grapple with.
A well-designed, internally-focused strategic plan will provide your workforce with a very clear picture of the following:
- What you want to achieve (mission)
- What you want to become (vision)
- How you want to be perceived (intentions)
- The key attitudes and behaviours your team needs to demonstrate to build greater brand value (values)
- The specific goals each person needs to achieve
Assuming you are committed to growth, it is critical your leadership team understands how to achieve it.
Firstly, you need to ensure your workforce understands what you are trying to achieve, hence the reason it is important is your managers can articulate your vision with confidence i.e. can talk about what the company could/will be rather than just the way it currently is. If people get the sense there will always be issues, because that is all managers ever talk about/focus on, what is the point in trying to resolve them.
Get people involved in your strategy. If they do not feel a part of it, they won’t contribute to it. Having a clear Vision/Mission, when used correctly, is a powerful mechanism to align and engage people. Once in place, you can outline what individuals need to do and become to excel in your business and industry.
People want to succeed. If employees are challenged and as a result improve, they will remain engaged. If however, they have no idea how to win, they may not bother trying.
If your company is similar to most, your leadership team may need to reprioritise where they focus their efforts. Focusing on the above is a critical first step in moving your company forward. Next month we will explore ways to improve Performance Standards throughout your business.
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