Performance Peloton: The science of sustainable performance

Daniel Gualdino at Culture Amp argues that high performance can’t be hired but leaders can cultivate it 

 

Company leaders have puzzled for years over how to unlock high performance. It’s a workforce-wide conundrum: in one recent study by Deloitte, 58% of HR executives admitted that their performance management strategies fail to drive better engagement and performance. Many firms simply pin their hopes on a few star employees to pull them towards better results.

 

But if performance management systems themselves are struggling, will hard-pressed companies keep betting on hiring top talent? Or is there another way?

 

 

Performance is cyclical

New research by our People Science team, based on data from 560,000 employees in 1,500 companies worldwide, challenges assumptions that high performance is a personal trait.

 

Instead it shows that performance is cyclical, influenced by workplace conditions that can be managed and cultivated over time — for top performers and lesser-performing colleagues — through a combination of strategic design, deeper employee engagement, goal setting and a robust feedback culture. 

 

 

Inside higher performance cultures

Through detailed analyses, our people scientists revealed the paucity of sustained high performance from star performers and the cyclical trends within company performance, as follows: 

 

First, the data showed how rare sustained high performance is: only two percent of employees can sustain high performance over two consecutive review cycles. With other studies showing that high performers comprise just four percent of the workforce, working the best people into the ground is not viable.

 

Second, simply “buying in” talent to quickly boost performance is also likely to be flawed thinking: one in four of high performers only achieves their first high performance rating 18 months after taking on their new role.

 

Third, companies with stronger employee engagement see greater incidences of high performance. Firms in the top 25 percent for engagement have more high-performing employees (14 percent), compared with only 10 percent for companies in the bottom 25 percent. High-performing employees are also better motivated: they score 12 percentage points higher on their willingness to go above and beyond, compared to lower-performing colleagues.

 

Fourth, good leadership performance has a multiplier effect: employees under high-performing leaders are 4.5x more likely to be high-performing. A good leader sets the pace for the team and their influence extends beyond their own work.

 

Fifth, clarity over one’s role and regular feedback for employees is crucial in building a performance culture. Employees who become high-performing create personal goals and they align those goals to company objectives more often than lower-performers — by 21 percent and 26 percent points respectively. High-performers are more satisfied with the quality of feedback from managers while colleagues getting more effective feedback are more likely to see their performance improve over time. Team performance at scale is shaped by regular feedback and guidance.

 

Sixth, companies with a high proportion of high-performing employees have stronger onboarding processes; hiring systems that help colleagues understand what their role is and what’s expected of them, earlier, help companies build in higher performance across their workforce.

 

 

Pelotons: focused on performance

Our analogy for sustainable high performance is the Tour de France peloton, where the lead rider takes the front for a while, with other team members rotating to take over the lead ensuring that no single rider is burnt out.

 

This planned rotation isn’t a sign of weakness but instead focusing all the team’s talents on the win. Our analysis shows that company leaders have the opportunity to drive up individual employees’ and teams’ wider performance through goal-focused and supportive performance-led cultures and team structures, peloton style. 

 

Company leaders can embed a high-performance culture using some and potentially all these factors:

 

Know your role - and what your manager expects. Role alignment, ensuring that all employees have a clear picture of their role and expectations of their performance to support the company from the get-go, is crucial. 

 

Syncing company and individual goals. Companies establishing goal-setting frameworks for their employees gain vital edge. High-performers certainly identify personal goals and align them with company objectives more frequently than their lower-performing peers do, but more generally, aligning individual employees’ objectives with company priorities creates the conditions for higher performance outcomes. 

 

Openness and regular feedback. A robust feedback culture sets top companies apart. High performers provide feedback 36 percentage points more often than lower-performing colleagues: a remarkable gap in knowledge sharing which indicates that companies which foster open communication and regular feedback, including manager training on best review practice, create the conditions where high performance flourishes and multiplies.

 

 

Towards a performance culture

Sustainable high performance isn’t about recruiting ’superstar’ employees. Instead, it’s about deliberately creating the conditions where all employees can achieve their best work - building a performance-focused “peloton” rather than simply celebrating a few star riders’ efforts.

 

Where company leaders can focus on these different elements, they can create an environment where high performance becomes a product of their workplace culture, rather than relying on the occasional peaks of the exceptional few.

 

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Daniel Gualdino is Culture Amp’s Senior people Scientist. Culture Amp’s report ‘The Science of Sustainable High Performance’ is available at: www.cultureamp.com/performance

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and P_Wei