In my experience, performance reviews have fallen into something that it’s more of a tick-box exercise for the organisation and more often than not, they are too corporate-oriented. Even the phrase “performance review”  has for me, and I’m sure for other people, a negative connotation, which can create a cultural hangover within organisations and teams around the use of them. 

Is there a better way for performance reviews?

That said, I think there is a better way to carry out performance reviews and as Simon Sinek would say, it starts with WHY. Why do we do performance reviews and what are we trying to achieve? 

For me, performance reviews should be aligned with Individual Development Plans within organisations. They should be colleague-oriented. 

A great example would be sports where the performance reviews focus on individual development and the daily, weekly, and monthly, “process” of getting better, rather than the outcome of competition (winning/losing a game) and there is a lot that corporate organisations could learn from it. 

How can we make performance reviews more effective?

Start with company culture

Many of the challenges of performance reviews could be solved with a positive company culture. A culture that puts people at the centre of the organisation. 

Do we really understand what the person on the receiving end of the performance review wants or needs out of it? Do we know what the best way would be for them to do it? Even more important, are we falling into the trap of creating a process that only serves certain people? 

As a senior leader, I have experienced first-hand how ineffective processes are when they aren’t designed with you in mind. So, for me, it’s critical to reinvent performance reviews in a more inclusive and diverse way. Create processes with diversity in mind and for that, you need to include everyone in the creation process. 

Keep your company values in mind

When we talk about culture, we can’t forget about company values. What are the values that we want to live by and how are we living them day in and day out? 

I’ve seen many performance reviews where values were nowhere to be found. Keeping your company values in mind would ensure that the demonstration of these values is assessed in performance reviews, considering we’re looking at them as part of IDPs. 

Making them the norm, not the exception

Assuming that we can cover a person’s performance for the last 12 months in an hour session is unrealistic and it creates more problems than it solves. 

However, they can be a time for reflection and celebration (what has gone well, where can we keep growing).

The fundamental part in my opinion is to make performance reviews an ongoing organic process across the year. Create an environment where people feel safe to speak up, receive and give feedback and have challenging conversations more often, instead of holding up until the end of the year, where more often than not, it’s already too late. 

This is also linked to values, if you see someone whose behaviours don’t align with the company values, waiting till the end of the year is not doing that person or the organisation any favours. Creating an environment where you can give feedback on these things when they happen, allows the person to reflect and think back and hopefully, act differently in the future. 

Develop leadership skills

There are probably only a small number of people who were born great leaders. But this doesn’t mean we cannot learn to become one. Providing training that helps people develop their leadership skills is a crucial aspect of more effective performance reviews. 

Using a coaching leadership style for example can be a great way to make the most of performance reviews. Knowing what the right questions to ask are, being more empathetic, and improving your listening skills, are just some of the few things that great leaders should continuously work on. 

Use a holistic approach

Gathering authentic and objective feedback is always a challenge for executives and larger organisations. However, as leaders, we should always strive for the most real overview possible. 

To gain this understanding, I think it’s necessary to make performance reviews a 360 process where not only managers get to review their teams, but the teams get to review their managers too. 

Fortunately, there are many possibilities to do this, I have seen few options in the past that seem to work well. 

• The goldfish ball activity: where the whole team takes turns to sit in a chair in the centre of a circle and receive feedback (both positive and constructive) from every person in the team. 
• Gathering feedback from different avenues: as part of someone’s review, that person is tasked with gathering 5-10 feedbacks or reviews from different people they work with. This can even include clients or people in different teams that they have worked closely with. 

Using methods like these, allows leaders to gain a more realistic view of someone’s performance, and helps to avoid someone’s biases or opinions of the person being reviewed.

Create accountability for everyone

Performance reviews have a focus on accountability for the employee, but what about the organisation? 

Going back to my previous point about making them part of the individual development plan, we could use these reviews as an opportunity for every member of the team to communicate what they need from the organisation to continue their growth. 

For example, let’s say someone needs to improve their sales skills, how can the organisation contribute to it? Is it more training, or is it more help or support from a manager or a colleague? Whatever that is, the review process should be a two-way conversation where both the employee and the organisation are held accountable for the employee growth and therefore, the outcomes. 

Take action

I previously mentioned that performance reviews have been in my experience a tick-box exercise, and following up from the accountability point above, I think action is a must if we want to make performance reviews more effective within our organisations. 

Continuing with the previous example, what is the organisation doing after hearing what the employee needs? Taking action proves that you are a people-centred organisation and will impact your employees’ engagement and satisfaction, with in turn, will help retention. 

On the contrary, not taking action, will communicate to everyone in your organisation that what they say doesn’t matter, and disempower them to speak up in the future. And this is a really dangerous place to be. 

Be agile and adapt

Creating new processes is not easy, which is why being able to adapt is crucial to success. I believe there is a better way but I’m also aware of the challenges when creating something new. 

So, when thinking about how to change and make performance reviews more effective, we need to plan for reviewing the process and making changes until we get it right. And even then, times changes and we need to continuously adapt to new realities, so making sure we have an internal review process of the process is an important element towards success. 

File for divorce

It’s not uncommon to link performance reviews to promotions and pay rises, which first, re-directs the objective of the process and secondly, it creates a great deal of stress both for the team members and the leaders. 

But we can divorce the two. Having conversations about promotions and pay rises is essential, but we can find a more appropriate time for them. This will allow us to keep our reviews focused on individual development and growth. 

Be aware of feelings

Any situation or experience will generate an emotional response and it will be different for each of us. While it is impossible to prevent these emotional reactions, we can make sure we do our best to ensure they are positive ones. 

All my points above will hopefully make people see their performance reviews as something that is good for them, a way to grow and learn. In addition, another thing to consider is thinking beforehand about how are people feeling after the review. You want them to feel enthusiastic and engaged instead of drained and disengaged.

Download our guide to prepare for challenging conversations here. 

There is no one-size-fits-all to do this, but starting with the end in mind (what is it we want to achieve? How do we want people to feel?) is a good starting point. 

The Optimist View…

I think optimising performance reviews is possible, there is a better way, and there are many companies already trying to do better. For me, the fundamental part is to see a cultural shift in organisations where we put people at the centre and reinvent the wheel to create working environments that are inclusive of the real diversity of the world. 

This is a passion for me and one of the reasons I am passionate about my job at Optimist Performance. Our leadership programmes work with teams to develop their leadership skills to help them thrive in their organisations. Get in touch with us to learn more. 

The post 10 Ways to optimise performance reviews – By Charlotte Wathan appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Every organisation has a culture, whether it’s written down or not, and sometimes even if it is, it doesn’t match reality. (Read our article about how can companies live up to their company cultures here)

Last week, we talked about emotional culture, and most of these cultures centred around basic emotions. But what about those characteristics that distinguish us as human beings? Is it possible to incorporate them into the workplace?

Here are three types of cultures that we should all look to adopt:

Culture of forgiveness

Have you ever made a mistake at work and been afraid to speak up or face the consequences? Have you ever been doubtful of your ability as a result of a screwup?

No one enjoys making mistakes, but for many people, making them is significantly more difficult.

According to research, 66% believe that talking about their faults will make them vulnerable to rejection or mockery from others and 55% believe they will lose other people’s respect if they admit they’ve made a mistake.

However, it is human to make mistakes, and there is much to be learned from them. In fact, our missteps teach us more than our achievements.

According to studies, forgiveness is linked to positive traits such as love and empathy. Even more, developing the virtue of forgiveness has been shown to have benefits to physical, mental, emotional, and social health in individuals. 

When it comes to forgiveness, many businesses believe that it entails reducing their standards. However, research shows that forgiveness is not the same as tolerance for mistakes. Instead, forgiveness facilitated excellence, growth, and improvement rather than inhibiting it.

Creating a culture of forgiveness implies viewing mistakes in a new light, viewing them as opportunities to learn and grow. It’s all about how we respond when something bad happens.

How to foster a culture of forgiveness in the workplace

Consider mistakes as opportunities to learn. (Read our article about failure)

Avoid blame. Even if someone or a few people are responsible for the mistake, don’t dwell on it. Instead, focus on solutions and how to prevent making the same mistake again. 

Recognise and accept negative emotions. We all have emotions, and when something negative occurs, we are likely to experience anger or sadness. Fostering forgiveness does not imply that we must hide our feelings; instead, it means that we acknowledge and move past them.

Culture of vulnerability

Have you ever admitted being afraid or that you don’t understand something at work? Another fantastic attribute that we should encourage more regularly at work is vulnerability.

Leadership has evolved in recent years, and we believe that leadership will become more authentic, open, and trustworthy in the future. However, all of this will not be possible unless we begin to allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

Furthermore, vulnerability benefits not only leaders but for everyone in the organisation. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change,” says Brené Brown, who has studied vulnerability in the workplace for years.

One of the characteristics of vulnerability is curiosity. We progress when we admit we don’t know something but want to learn more about it.

She also says that “vulnerability minus boundaries is not vulnerability”. You need to choose the right place, time, and people to show your vulnerability.  

Furthermore, being vulnerable demonstrates courage because you are willing to show up and do the work despite not knowing what will happen. And this is something that your entire staff will value. We all want to be a part of something, and when we know that the people on our team are prepared to work through difficulties, we are more likely to stick with them.

How to foster a culture of vulnerability

Acknowledge emotions. Don’t hide your feelings. Rather, focus on recognising and sharing them with others. Do the same with others too. Ask them how they feel and have these conversations. 

Set an example for others. It’s not easy for anyone to show vulnerability, but someone has to start somewhere. People will lower their guards if they understand that it is OK to be vulnerable.

Culture of discomfort

And the third, but by no means the least important is being comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Whilst being uncomfortable is not something that we usually look forward to, it’s out of our comfort zones where we learn and grow. 

Promoting a culture of discomfort will also prepare us to deal better with uncertainty and change. It will also help us in dealing with all of these difficult situations, such as uncomfortable conversations.

How to foster a culture of discomfort

Let people know that it’s okay to be uncomfortable and that making errors is part of the learning process.

Encourage situations that make people uncomfortable (without going overboard) and explain why you are doing it. 

Deal with emotions. Speak to people if they are feeling uncomfortable. Don’t shy away from difficult discussions or leave individuals alone with their thoughts. Just talking about it can sometimes make us feel a lot better.

The Optimist View…

For a long time, the workplace was an environment where emotions didn’t have a place. Fortunately, this is changing, and businesses are seeing the value of treating people as individuals rather than numbers.

At Optimist Performance, we believe that integrating all of the traits above is the best way to foster a great workplace and an environment where people can flourish and achieve their full potential. 

We work with leaders and teams to create a winning culture with optimistic, contagious behaviours.

Get in touch with us today and find out how we can help you. 

The post 3 Traits for a better workplace – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

The need to have a company culture is well known, and most of us understand its value and benefits. Unfortunately, while most companies are doing their job to create a culture, many fail to live up to these cultures.

In a nutshell, we have beautiful slogans on our walls that don’t impact employees’ day to day behaviours in any way. For the most part, they are considered nice-to-haves that ultimately don’t have any real impact on the organisation. 

In addition, many companies are failing to keep their organisational cultures alive in a remote working environment. Nonetheless, it is now more important than ever to maintain our company cultures and do whatever we can to keep them alive and progressive. 

What is a company culture: A company culture is defined as a shared set of values, goals, attitudes, and practices that make up an organisation.

While it can seem quite challenging to maintain our company cultures while WFH, we need to remember that culture is about values, beliefs, and behaviours. It’s not about ping pong tables or nice offices with free drinks (even though they help to keep things fun!). 

Keeping in mind what company culture really is can help us find ways to keep it alive while working remotely. 

Are we living up to our organisational cultures?

According to an analysis done by MITSlogan, there is no correlation between the cultural values a company emphasises in its published statements and how well the company lives up to those values in employees’ eyes. 

Even more, while most company leaders accept the importance of having a company culture, statistics show that they are not walking the talk. 

According to the Achievers Engagement and Retention Report, 45 per cent of employees say that their leadership is “minimally” or “not at all” committed to improving company culture.

And according to various LinkedIn polls by Massimo Brebbia about vision, missions and values, the results weren’t any better. 

37% of the voters have never seen the Mission Statement

25% believe it is not in line with the vision

38% believe it’s in line with the Company Vision

42% of the voters claim the Company Values do not reflect the company behaviours

43% confirm they walk the talk

7% is not aware

56% of the voters said Company Vision had been presented and discussed with them

44% have not seen it or discussed it

So, if we all know how important having an organisational culture is for success, how can we make sure we succeed in living up to it?

9 tips to help you succeed

Involve everyone

According to a behavioural experiment, when we choose something for ourselves, we are far more committed to the outcome (almost by a factor of five to one).

So, instead of creating or even changing your culture behind closed doors to later communicate it to everyone else, why don’t you include people in the process?

This can be a challenge for big companies, but there are ways we can still involve as many people as possible. For example, using forms, questionnaires, … The crucial thing is that people feel included in the process. 

Make sure everyone believes in the culture

As we mentioned above, including everyone is not always possible. For small businesses, it can be easier, but this can be a challenge for big companies. So, if not everybody can be involved in the creation process, at least make sure everyone agrees and buys into it. 

You can have a beautifully written culture, but if people don’t really believe in it, it will only be that; beautifully written words. 

This is even more important with younger generations because they are looking not only for a paycheck but for a company that aligns with their personal values. 

When we create a culture based on a mission, vision and values that people can relate to, we will be on the right track to creating an organisational culture that people believe in. 

Creating a story or narrative can be a good idea to communicate the company culture effectively. An excellent example of this is the CEO of a retail bank who, in order to implement an organisational change, created a compelling story that would make sense to all the bank’s employees, top to bottom.

The main idea was that everyone could relate, understand and believe in the story, making them work together towards success. 

Focus on a sense of belonging

This is strictly related to the two points above. If we involve people in the process and make sure that everyone believes in the culture, we will be closer to achieving a sense of belonging. 

A culture should focus on creating an environment where people feel like they belong. Concentrating on creating a culture that promotes inclusion, collaboration, and authenticity is a good starting point to build a working environment where people feel safe and feel a sense of belonging. 

Hire accordingly

When we talk about hiring people who align with the values, it doesn’t mean they all need to be and think alike. It’s essential to find people who share the same values but who can also challenge us to evolve and grow. 

Finding people who align with our values should never be an excuse to forget about the importance of diversity. This is also why many companies are moving away from hiring cultural fits and hiring cultural add. 

Keeping our company culture in mind will also impact people who are already part of the company. Sometimes, redefining a company culture can lead to having to let people go. 

This happened to Gail Kelly, former CEO of St. George Bank in Sydney, who had to let some people from the team go in order to implement a cultural change that could improve performance. 

This situation is not ideal; there should always be an opportunity for people and organisations to adapt and change, but also knowing when something or someone doesn’t fit can save us time, energy and resources. 

Accompany your company culture with behavioural guidelines

Sometimes, when we create a culture, we can fall into the trap of believing that everyone thinks and understands it the same way we do. 

So, in addition to communicating and explaining the culture, it’s helpful to include what the culture means in terms of behaviours. For example, if we say that collaboration is one of our values, what does it mean to our day to day lives? 

Setting clear expectations of what the culture means for everyone can be helpful to live up to it successfully. 

Be authentic

When we create a company culture, we must be genuine about it. Creating something that sounds perfect on paper but doesn’t replicate the company’s day to day behaviours will have little to no effect. In fact, it is likely to have negative consequences for the business. 

The idea of having a company culture is to effectively communicate what the company stands for, its values, and its mission and vision. So, everything we do has to align with it. 

For example, if a company states that they care about people’s wellbeing or are “people-first”, their actions must demonstrate the same thing. No one can fool people for an extended period of time.

If we use over time as an example, imagine that a company clearly says they care about their employees’ work-life balance but then promotes people who overwork all the time. Even though the message is excellent, their actions are talking louder than their words.

We are not saying authenticity is a must-have; instead, it’s a must-demonstrate value. This means that whatever your values are, they have to be authentic and champion everything that the company does and represents. 

Walk the talk

This is probably the most critical point of all, and it includes a bit of everything we have already talked about. We need to walk the talk. From top to bottom, everyone in the company should act according to the values, mission and vision stated in the company culture. 

For leaders, this is extremely important because most of the time, leaders are the ones who need to implement the culture. Also, people will behave according to the behaviours of the people around them. 

To use the overtime example again, in this case, leaders should show with their behaviours that they care about work-life balance. Taking time off, disconnecting after work hours, or even being vulnerable when they feel overwhelmed will help everyone feel safe doing the same. 

Make sure there is a reward system in place

Using a reward system to establish the company’s behaviours can be a great way to implement a company culture successfully. 

Rewards can be shown in many different ways. The easiest of all would be a monetary reward or even link it to promotions. But we can also implement a reward system to show appreciation and value to the people committed to living up to their company culture. 

For example, John McFarlane, the former CEO of ANZ Bank, sent a bottle of champagne to every employee for Christmas with a card thanking them for their work on the company’s “Perform, Grow, and Break-out” change program. While this can seem like a small gesture, employees consistently report that the rewards have a disproportionately positive impact on changing motivation that lasts for months, if not years.

As we mentioned before, people not only care about money, they want to feel valued and sometimes asking people’s opinions, caring for them, even small tokens of appreciation can have more of an impact than a salary increase in a toxic culture. 

Don’t be afraid of change

Last but not least, it’s essential to be aware that company cultures will continually evolve and change. 

It’s important to consider that company cultures are living entities that will evolve over time. So being open to its evolution is essential to succeed. 

The crucial thing to remember is what our core values are, and keep them in mind even during times of change.

The Optimist View…

At Optimist Performance, we believe that every company has a culture, even if it wasn’t thought or designed. Once a group of people start working together, you will soon see a culture of shared values and principles emerge. This is why we should never underestimate the importance of creating and implementing the culture you want for your company. 

We also believe that company cultures are much more than nice words on a piece of paper. It is the set of values and principles that determine the whole identity of the organisation, and as such, it should be a guide for everyone in the company. 

Unfortunately, this is not an easy task, which is why so many companies fail to live up to their cultures, even more so in big organisations where there is constant staff turnover. The positive side is that there are many ways out there to help you succeed. 

At Optimist Performance, we help organisations build a culture to succeed, and we do it in different ways depending on your organisation’s needs. 

If you want to know more about our services, get in touch with us today and find out how we can help. 

You can also learn more about our leadership programmes, experiential events, or executive coaching here.

The post 9 things we must do to ensure we live up to our company cultures appeared first on Optimist Performance.

When one of my peers bought Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, for me, my first thought wasn’t a positive one. 

I immediately thought: “Gee, thanks…What I always wanted, a book to tell me how screwed up our company is. While oversimplifying it into five reasons with some fancy consultancy speak to prove the author’s point.” 

I’m always wary of fancy-suited consultancies pitching, “There are only five of those, 3 of these and 7 of the other to think about.”  With 30 years of HR leadership experience, I can assure you there is far more than three, five or seven buckets to fill when it comes to dysfunctional human behaviour in human organisations!  

But I give it a read and then saw the following graphic for clarity’s sake:

Dysfunctional Teams: I got it instantly  

I could instantly relate to the 5 dysfunctions that Mr Lencioni puts forth in his parable. Down the right-hand side are some issues that almost every company I’ve worked for suffered from.

Most of them couldn’t get beyond the Trust factor full stop, much less evolve up the pyramid to manage Constructive Conflict, build Commitment or engender any personal sense of Accountability that translates into superior Results.  

In actuality, my experience with organisations and the leadership that shapes their cultural norms often involved hiring the best and brightest minds available. Then pulling the wool over their eyes about the trust issues.  And straightaway pushing them into being committed and accountable. 

Unfortunately, this tapped into their desire to belong to a known brand to create a resume passport stamp that says “I was special enough to work here,” which typically lasted no more than 18 months to 2 years. After which, they’d politely bow out and thank the mad leaders for the “wonderful opportunity” to work alongside some terrific people, sort of thing on LinkedIn.  

Sadly it’s more common than not to work in a dysfunctional organisation. Unfortunately, it’s far easier to create one of those than a high performing organisation.

To achieve the latter, we need to consciously focus with awareness and intention about engendering trust. Provide a constructive channel for conflict. And organically encourage everyone to commit to a cause by being highly accountable on a personal level to produce exponential results.  

Learn more about our leadership development programmes here or get in touch with us to learn how we can help you and your team to achieve your full potential.

Examples Of Other Teams

I’ve found some powerful examples (which aren’t perfect, I can assure you). Wherein the founders and leadership foresaw and understood the natural chaotic behaviours that large groups of people could tend toward. 

My favourite example I point to is Reed Hastings’ Netflix.  What I like about their journey of discovery and is that Reed engaged directly with Patty McCord – his first HR leader – whose ideas about hiring the best people, paying them well, treating them like adults offering them the freedom to solve problems within a framework of responsibility – whilst being rather selective about the folks who make the cut – was enlightened.

They built their model over ten years, having experimented endlessly with a variety of approaches.  

What they landed on was memorialised in Patty’s book Powerful, where she very honestly outlines how they created the Freedom and Responsibility framework and instilled some fundamental behaviours that they strongly encouraged everyone to embrace.  

It wasn’t a dictum as much as it rewarded the desirable behaviours and firmly dealt with folks who didn’t buy into the framework’s approach.  

Netflix is amongst a rather small group of clever companies who fall into the Venn Diagram centre, where Great Place to Work overlaps with the Highest Net Employee Promoter Score, along with strong Top Pay and Benefits, Endless Opportunities and Bring Your Whole Self to Work.  

Naturally, there is a dark side to this: it’s a highly selective culture.  If you don’t engage, you’re gone. And if you stay, you’re going to work hard to keep up your end of the bargain. 

But according to their Glassdoor reviews, 92% of employees approve of Reed’s approach, and 76% would recommend it to a friend.  I’d say that’s far better than average. And the shareholders seem to think Netflix is still a great company to own.  

My experience in different teams

My own experience working in a high performing environment would have included my time at Goldman Sachs as a recruiter or my time at Peoplesoft prior to Oracle’s acquisition.  

In both cases, there were ridiculously high standards in recruitment (took me 11 interviews to get an offer). But once in, it was a factor of keeping pace, if not excelling.  Culture translates into a sense of being part of an elite tribe of uniquely capable people.  

That sensation of having ‘arrived’ felt good at the bar with your friends outside of work, but “You’re only as good as your last trade,” was the continual refrain amongst employees at Goldman.  

High performing cultures can create competitive environments, which can tilt positively to drive up quality outcomes or negatively when it becomes political.

If leadership doesn’t stop it from happening, then trust is out the window. Conflict becomes nasty, commitment becomes selfishly oriented, and accountability is all about who to blame when the boss is less than satisfied.  

And you’re right back in Dysfunctionville all over again.  

But let’s go back to our example

Reed Hastings is hard-driving, highly competitive and super clever, but he’s also all about his people. He knows full well that without these bright sparks shining their light on Netflix’s deepest challenges, he’s just another fleeting success story walking the streets of Silicon Valley.  

He pulled together some of the best minds and made sure the voice of the people was represented.  He plays hard, takes big bets on hiring the best, paying the top end, trusting them to solve problems with lots of latitudes. He also takes swift and direct action against anyone who isn’t pulling their weight (with a respectful severance package).  

He does what he says he will do.  More so than many leaders these days.  

He encourages intelligent and constructive conflict. It’s not very comfortable initially, but you learn how to focus on the problem and not the people involved.  

The vision sits at the centre of everything – and says, “We’re going to make people’s lives better in these ways…” and mean it.  That creates a personal sense of commitment and ownership.  

And there is always an explicit focus on the end game, what must be delivered. No black boxes or secret agendas. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), published everywhere, with hundreds of subordinate OKRs, are broadcast across every laptop in the company.  

That’s where accountability is tracked, and commitment is measured. There are no questions about what you’re there to do or what Netflix is laser-focused on.  It’s all there in black and white, and you just need to do your bit to deliver it. 

My conclusion…

The Five Dysfunctions are sadly very familiar to me as I’ve lived in that world far more than I’ve lived in the inspired “High-Performance Land.”  And it sucked as the company wobbled and dragged itself along, especially in an HR role.  

I wasn’t inspired to fix everything, but I tried. It was just too daunting, and I couldn’t change how leaders behaved in the end. 

At the apex of my career, I’ve become far more entrepreneurial and offer the wealth of my own experience to help HR teams build their people strategy consultancy. 

My focus is to show leaders how NOT to be dysfunctional and design the business that would inspire them, starting with trust as the basis for the journey to high performance.

So much work goes into achieving and earning the trust of others; as it’s said, “you earn trust in drips and lose it in buckets.” 

If you think about architecting your culture, underpinning it with meaningful core values, then refer to those religiously in every decision you make (especially the hardest ones). 

• Loudly reward the folks who thrive in the culture. 
• Urgently course-correct those who struggle keeping pace.
• Keep the vision front and centre every day of that business’ life.

Then, you’re in with a chance.  It requires you as a leader to keep the faith, toe the line, and keep one another honest, constructively.  

If you collectively own the dream of working with inspiring people, delivering great products to delighted customers, you might just find yourself feeling rather proud about the whole thing.  

Check out MIT Sloan’s annual Culture 500 report to get a sense of how employees view the cultures within which they work.

About the Author

Jeff Wellstead began his 30+ year human resource leadership career in NYC working with global consulting, investment banking and technology organisations for 17 years until his move to the UK, where he’s focused on the technology & biotech SME and start-up sector in the UK for the last 16 years.

Jeff is an expert in transformative talent development across all HR lifecycle activity having worked with Fortune 100 global brands including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Accenture, HP/EDS, Novartis and PeopleSoft/Oracle – and high-tech, hyper-growth start-up companies such as MessageLabs (now Symantec), SpinVox (now Nuance), Dialog Semiconductor, Skype (now Microsoft), MetaPack (now Stamps.com), Brady Plc, Oxford Nanoimaging and Summit Therapeutics.  

Jeff founded Big Bear Partners, Ltd. To help companies undergoing tectonic shifts in exponential computational shifts, needing to re-engineer their people strategies, attract, retain and develop differentiated skills and capabilities and embrace the spectrum of new workforce innovations across the entire talent management strategy.

The post Do You Work In A Dysfunctional Team? – By Jeff Wellstead appeared first on Optimist Performance.

If we think for example about work-life balance or feeling lonely and isolated, these should begin to change once we go back to ‘normal’ and we can go out and have face-to-face relationships again. 

But looking into the future, all the research shows that remote working is here to stay. However, there is one hurdle that companies, teams, and organisations will have to instill and devote more time and energy to across the board: TRUST. 

Why trust?

At the moment we are all working from home because there are no other options, but what will happen once we can go back to the offices. Will you trust your team to stay at home? Equally important, will they trust each other? 

“How do we know if people who are still working from home are actually working?”

The response to this question underpins lots of research into human psychology around trust and belief.

It is essential for leaders to pay attention to the question, their reaction, and their management response to it, as it has the potential to make or break their team(s) and organisation.

This should make us think about how much trust there is in our teams. Not only if you trust them, but if they actually trust each other. 

Trust is critical and it can affect your company in many ways

If people in the team don’t trust each other, they won’t work well together, affecting their performance. 

People will try to hide their mistakes instead of just admitting them and try to rectify them. 

They won’t be able to learn from each other, so they are bound to make the same mistakes. 

It can develop into competition and rivalry, which can bring negative feelings to the rest of the team.

Just think back and remember if you have ever worked with someone you didn’t trust and how difficult this made your job?

At the same time, if you don’t trust them, you will feel the need to control what they do a lot more. We have seen a lot of companies increase their monitoring activities, but these measures are proven to be counterproductive.

This survey shows; for those reporting high levels of monitoring (more than 4 on a 5-point scale), 49% were often or always anxious when carrying out their job.

They will sense your mistrust towards them which will bring negative feelings, and increase trust issues. This can affect future performance and result in many problems.

So, instead of waste your time on fixing every little issue, why don’t you just focus on solving the root problem? Build a culture of trust. 

How to build a culture of trust?

As in any other relationship, trust is difficult to gain but really easy to lose. Building a culture of trust is not a one day job, it is something that you nurture every day. 

“Gartner research shows that organizations with high levels of trust increase their average employee engagement by 76% over those with low levels of trust.”

Also, trust starts with you. If you want people to trust each other, they first need to see that you trust them. 

“Your words and deeds must match if you expect employees to trust in your leadership.” – KEVIN KRUSE

Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• Do you genuinely care about people every day? 

It is not enough to say you care, you have to show it. For example, if you ask how people are feeling but then don’t pay any attention to their answers, just may as well avoid asking altogether.

When you genuinely care about other people, your attitude and your behaviour towards them will change. 

• Are you giving them space to gain your trust? 

If you are always on top of them, they won’t be able to show you if you can trust them or not. You need to give them an opportunity to show you they are trustworthy.

For example, allow them to work on their projects, take their ideas into consideration, assign them a project and let them figure out how to achieve it. 

• Can people really trust you or do they have to tiptoe around you? 

People need to be able to trust you every day, and you need to show them that they can come to you when they need to, not only when you want them to. We all have bad days, but this can’t affect the way you interact with your team.

• Are you open and honest with them? 

Being honest applies to everything. If the company is going through a rough patch, you need to make everyone aware of it, so people can understand future decisions or even participate in them.

As little as “I am having a bad day” to “we are in a position where we may need to let go of people” honesty is the right path to follow if you want to build trust among your team. 

• Do you live and breathe your company culture? 

It’s not enough to write a company culture, and just leave it there to create dust. Your company culture shows the values of what the company has been built on. 

Every big change starts small, and if you want to create a real culture of trust in your company, you have to lead by example.

At Optimist Performance, we help businesses to create a culture to succeed. We work with leaders and teams to help them maximise their potential. 

Get in touch with us for a free consultation about our transformational talks, workshops, and 1-1 coaching sessions. 

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