How to Sustain High Performance
Way back in 2015, I had the privilege to consult on workplace optimization inside a world-famous corporation. It was, and still is, known all around the world for its bold brand positioning and its high performance culture…so you can probably guess which one I’m talking about.
(If not, I’ll give you a hint: Its name rhymes with “Mikey.”)
During my tenure, I got to work with some truly brilliant professionals: category leaders, functional leaders, innovators, and creators, and I was charged with leading workplace transformation inside various departments.
The corporate world calls this work “organizational change management,” but it often gets boiled down to one unrealistic objective:
Optimize work as quickly as possible, while minimizing negativity and sustaining performance.
Over a two year period, I met with maxed out leaders and their maxed out teams. I deployed carefully vetted communications and hosted heated Q&A events. I was ‘boots on the ground’ and the primary POC for hundreds of employees, and through it all I learned a valuable lesson:
High performers need more than motivational communications and careful planning to keep doing their best work. They also need the people they’re working with to acknowledge the disruption they’re experiencing and adjust from time to time.
HIGH PERFORMERS AREN’T MACHINES
If you’ve been a high performer for most of your career or worked alongside them, it can be easy to think of them like machines because they make some of the hardest work look easy!
But high performers are human beings, and as work becomes more disrupted and less predictable, expecting perfect performance is unrealistic and minimizing negativity is dangerous.
Negative emotions are a natural part of working through change.
Minimizing or dismissing them can lead to resentment, depersonalization, burnout, and an inevitable decline in performance.
So what should be done to support high performing humans in ever-changing, competitive environments?
Well, you can start by calibrating your efforts (your decisions, behaviors, instructions, etc.) with the emotional landscape within you or around you.
I call this Affect-Effort Calibration, and it’s something you can incorporate into your formal meetings or informal working sessions to make sure you and your team stay in the game longer.
CALIBRATION SUSTAINS PERFORMANCE
Affect-Effort Calibration isn’t some grand gesture or new protocol. It can be as simple as slowing down to look someone in the eye and find the most authentic way of saying,
“I see how hard you’re working, now tell me how you’re feeling. I want to help you decide where to invest maximum effort this week.”
Or asking,
“What small adjustments are needed today, so you can bring your A-game tomorrow?”
…and then supporting those adjustments, again and again.
Questions like these, directed at yourself or at your teammates, go a long way to:
Observe the remarkable humanity in you and those around you
Trigger oxytocin, the brain chemical that reminds you to take care of one another
Identify the small adjustments that preserve or build trust in the midst of disruptive change
Reinforce the belief that your endurance is your most valuable skill
To learn more about how you can improve your own career performance, or sustain the performance of your team, schedule a Strategy Session with me.
