An organization’s culture is a powerful contributor to results, but it takes effort to create one that delivers top-tier performance. To uncover what organizations can do to develop these organizations, the fourth discussion topic focused on the key attributes of high-performance organizations. The group also focused on the role of leadership in a high-performance culture and why it is hard to create a culture of candor and accountability.
One item the group addressed was the idea of identifying and moving low performers.
“You’ve got to figure out how to get rid of low performers,” said Reese.
As one attendee observed, leaders get personally invested in helping people, but there’s a penchant to waste time with the bottom third of performers. Another participant referenced how GE cuts the bottom 10 percent every year – across departments.
But, as another attendee cautioned, it’s important to be careful with employees’ confidence. “I agree with looking at bottom 10, but be careful of evaluation,” he said.
Another participant told how, in 2008, his company wasn't where it needed to be, but the leadership relayed to the entire organization that improvement in performance would ensure the next year was an exciting ride. “We mapped out what it means to have a high-performance culture. We told them that it means a lot of things but, if you do them, next year will be great. It meant some change, but those were levers in a road, it was the story about what it could mean to someone. Adoption was never an issue.” He advocated that illustrating what it means to be a high-performance organization can be a strong way to motivate people.
Bob Miller commented on one attribute he’s observed in high-performance sales organizations. Paradoxically, there’s a high degree of collaboration amongst people in the field, even though they may be competitive,” he said. “There’s an absence of lone wolves.”
Reese mentioned the idea of candor, saying “The best mentors I had were very clear in review and created the spirit where you can admit ‘we’re bad at this,’ rather than leaving meetings and whispering why we didn’t fix it.”
Another participant commented that providing visibility into KPIs is valuable for the company.
“Collaboration is interesting,” commented an attendee. “We had transparency around what people are doing and how they were doing it.” He referenced his company’s incorporation of ‘deal blogs,’ and the sales reps’ who were leveraging them as a forum for support.
Bob Miller observed, “Those who ask for help are your top performers, not the bottom.”The idea that high performers obtain the executive support and resources they need, as the squeaky wheel, was echoed multiple times.
Jones noted that another key attribute of high performing sales organizations is that they celebrate successes, that there is an element of recognition. As Reese observed, “Sometimes leaders are afraid to celebrate because people will get soft.”
Another noted that seeing leadership participate in the same actions, practicing is influential. “We’re just all big kids,” he said, “waiting to see if you are going to do it. If they see me doing it, it’s not going away.”
“Discipline,” stated an attendee. “High performance cultures have that. We looked back over a couple of years and we didn’t have it, but once did we saw predictable results. Again, the idea of candor surfaced. “If you have clear metrics, everyone knows how they’re being judged,” said one participant. He commented that it’s a matter of sorting fact from fiction.
One participant shared that, when driving dialogs about candor, it’s important to be transparent, as well. “I’m open and transparent about what I fell down at and grade myself in front of others,” he said.
Another attendee referenced Zappos, noting that the culture the founder has created is one of unbelievable candor. “All the way down to his personal blog, he’s completely open and honest about the good and the bad,” he said.
Reese closed the session with an anecdote from the previous day, when he met with an individual who’d been clamoring to get on his schedule for a while. During a 90-minute lunch, he kept asking, “would there ever be a point where you’d want to know about my company?” The response from the vendor was, “in a couple of minutes.” A couple of minutes later he asked, “Are we at that point yet?” The vendor’s response was, “let me show you this slide.” At the end, the individual asked how it’d gone. “It didn’t go well,” said Reese. “I got all the right people here and you don’t even know one thing we do, or what our interests were.”
“Salespeople still get excited about products,” Reese said. “It’s about discipline.”
Key Observations:
- Illustrating what a high-performance organization will look and be like is a strong motivator.
- Top-performing sales organizations tend to celebrate the successes of their people.
- With clear metrics, people have a clear understanding of how they’re being judged.
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