Every company wants a team of high performers, but how do you create an environment that fosters top performers?
It’s not easy to create this culture, especially on Friday afternoon when everyone is counting down the seconds to the weekend.
We put together a list to make this task a little more comfortable and to help incorporate some of these things into your daily life at your company. Of course, it is always a good idea to use the best tools for the job!
1 Make goals achievable
Implement SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based. Setting goals are vital to increasing performance, and SMART goals will help you do that efficiently. Work with your employees and set these goals together.
Make sure that whatever the goal it is tied to something that is measurable and has KPI’s associated with the SMART Goal.
2 Scorecards
What is a scorecard? Simple KPI’s that help keep you on track with your SMART goals. Its simple to set up and employees can measure how they are doing, what is working and, not working. It also helps management understand how everyone is doing and where they need help.
When you are setting up SMART goals, agree on no more than four critical numbers that the employee can track of themselves. Each scorecard may be different depending on each employee’s SMART goals.
3 Recognize when people achieve their goals or do exceptionally well on their scorecards
Everyone loves praise, especially in public. Actively look for people that are hitting their goals and have significantly positive scorecard numbers. When you find someone that meets your criteria for a high performer calls them out on it. Tell the rest of the company through a planned meeting, top performers of the month club, or even just praising someone in a company email.
The key to this is making it a game to find high-performance employees and telling everyone you can how great of a job they are doing.
4 Use team building activities
Last but not least create some team building activities that you can use to develop better relationships between employees. It’s no secret that when people like and respect each other it improves performance.
The goal here is to have your teams working together to achieve a goal that is not work-related. This helps build trust and gives everyone a chance to get to know each other better.
Bottomline is creating an environment that fosters high-performance employees takes work and commitment. Don’t forget that having a little fun can go a long way increasing a positive, high performance, workplace.
