How to Establish a High-Performance Culture

If you have been following our newsletter for any period of time, then you know we emphasize on the importance of culture as much as we focus on people, processes, products, and profitability. Culture is the special “something” that makes it all come together and flow in a ubiquitous fashion. The reality is that every organization has a culture, but not every culture is made the same. In this article we examine how to establish a High-Performance culture.

What is High-Performance?

Before we dive into the weeds of culture strategy, let’s get a clear understanding on what high-performance is, and it’s effects on your organization. At Marq Neasman Consulting, we interpret high-performance as the cultivation of knowledge, experience, habits, and skills, that when compounded, allow an individual to perform at 95th percentile, or higher, within his/her industry or organization. There is some degree of subjectivity when considering who qualifies as a high-performer based on the pool size. For example a person might be a high-performer in their department, but not within their organization. They may be a high-performer within their organization, but not within their city. They may be a high performer within their city, but not the region, etc. So ultimately who qualifies as a high-performer is determined by the metrics and goals of your organization or department.

There have been decades of studies completed on employee-performance, and how to get the most out of your teams. And the more we peel back the lids on this we discover that the way to getting the most out of a person’s IQ (Intellectual Quotient), is through consistent application of EQ (Emotional Quotient). At first glance, this might seem to dismiss obvious logic, however, it makes sense when we consider that the origination of every action is first a thought backed by emotion. Read the previous statement again, and if you understand what has been written, you have unlocked the mystery of developing a high-performance culture. However, if we have presented a new thought, I encourage you to continue reading.

Aspire to Hire Desire

If there is one assumption that still plagues organizations and the minds of business leader it would be the lie that your job is to manage people. The reality is that we manage systems and ourselves (thoughts, emotions, attention, etc). Through the development of character (EQ) we earn the right to lead people. In fact, ironically the more you empower people to do their own work, the more they will fight to prove you right. It is because of this truth that we always advise our clients to “Hire Desire”. 

What we are telling them is more important than finding people that can get the work done, it’s about finding people that have a burning desire to maximize their potential and master success. The individual may not be a High-Performer, yet, but their obsession to be great will provide the needed energy to become one. Your systems and coach-ability of managers will close the gap on any lack of knowledge or experience in most cases. In addition, the enthusiasm provoked by a strong desire to achieve is always healthy for your organization. Remember, dreams are not born of talented people with indifference, laziness or lack of ambition.

Autosuggestion: The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

Autosuggestion is a term that applies to all suggestions and all self-administered stimuli that reach one’s mind through the five senses. Stated another way, autosuggestion is self-suggestion. It is the agency of communication between that part of the mind where conscious thought take place, and that which serves as the seat of action for the subconscious mind. Through the dominating thoughts one permits to remain in the conscious mind, the principle of autosuggestion voluntarily reaches the subconscious mind and influences it.

Bringing the principle of autosuggestion to life within your organization goes beyond placing core values, and a mission statement on the wall (although we highly suggest this). You have to find a way to make these words evoke emotion and belief. You will get no appreciable results until you learn to reach your subconscious mind with thoughts or spoken words that have been well emotionalized with belief. When you hire desire, and apply the IMPACT Method, the principle of autosuggestion happens naturally.

Your ability to leverage the power of autosuggestion is only limited by your imagination. But it should be emphasized in everything from your logo to how you close meetings. The best way to do this is always by starting with your customer or client. Since the reason you exist is for them, everything about your culture should be aligned with solving the client’s problems. Here are some practical actions you can take to stimulate the principle of Autosuggestion, and influence the subconscious mind of your teams and employees.

Five Practical Ways to Establish a High-Performance Culture

If you are like most and struggle to think of different ways to create culture, we’d recommend the following as a great place to start. The primary goal of each action item is to channel the desire of your team, and activate the principle of autosuggestion at the subconscious level. Feel free to add to these if you’d like. Remember, there are no rules, and the degree of creativity is up to you.

1. Affirmations and Isms: Meet with your upper management, and establish three to five affirmations that align with each core value in your organization. These “isms” should be simple, so they can be repeated and memorized by every leader. Once you get going it’ll be hard to stop.

2. Memorialize the Process: Create a visual (cartoons work great), or write a book, that takes your team from pain to glory of the customer/client. This need to be done for every service/product you offer. Make sure you draw heavily from the emotions the client experiences. Show how your service helps in each stage of the process.

3. Story Telling: This will probably be your most useful tool above all. By leveraging internal and external platforms to share testimonies, stories and case studies, about how your organization has impacted people (clients and staff) will always be powerful.

4. Celebrate Wins: If you want to see people do something, celebrate it. It really is that simple. Any action you want replicated and automated, simply glorify it to the point of exaggeration. Your people will get the picture.

5. Brand Everything: No matter the size of your organization, it should feel that when someone is in your walls they have stepped into a new world. If you can walk into any room and not be able to tell the difference between your organization and another, then it has not been branded adequately. Repetition is everything, so the more people can associate everyday activities with the company, the deeper core values will drive. Company merchandise is a quick win in this scenario.

Power Thought

If we can agree, that many minds are better than one. Then we’ll agree that a High-Performance culture can do more for your organization’s people, processes, productivity, and profitability than you ever could. A great time to implement this strategies is always at the end of a quarter. We encourage you to be just as intentional about your culture as you are about your quarterly milestones.

If you need assistance transforming your organizational culture, you can learn more about our Culture Transformation. If you know another leader that would benefit from this article we commission you to send it to them.