High-Performance Culture: What You Need To Know
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High-performance culture has its ugly sides. It can be counterproductive in the long term if not appropriately overseen.
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This may sound like music to your ears - an organisation that consistently surpasses its peers in everything, from profitability and productivity to customer satisfaction and employee engagement. On top of all that, it is committed to innovation, social responsibility and ethical practices [1].
However, there are potential downsides to such a high-performance culture. If left unmonitored, it can end up being counterproductive in the long run.
Toxic Traits of performance culture
There are potential dark sides to high-performance cultures.
Under-reporting overtime
People work overtime and under-report hours to boost project margins and increase promotion chances [2].
Lack of effective collaboration
Suppose the culture overly focuses on individual results. In that case, collaboration among people will be lacking, or they might compete with each other to get the advantage.
Exhaustion and burnout
A strong focus on performance and punishing employees who don't reach targets and standards can create anxiety that can lead to exhaustion and burnout. Pressure and stress can signal to the individual that they must work harder, leading them to overstretch themselves [3]. High-performance companies are often appealing to young job-seekers due to the opportunities they provide, including high pay, valuable experience, and a springboard for other positions.
Therefore, if left unchecked, high-performance companies may end up creating a precarious outlook for employees and pressuring them to keep their results high. Those who struggle with such anxieties are likely to leave, even if they are potentially high performers. This may result in a vicious cycle of employee turnover, especially since new hires often work harder and longer.
However, it is not all doom and gloom. A high-performance culture can be a good thing if the company provides employees with the support they need in order to flourish.
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Moving towards sustainable high-performance
High-performance organisations (HPOs) hold people accountable for results and are decisive about non-performers. To make this work, the key is to create a safe and secure workplace where people with can-do attitudes can thrive [4]. People in such organisations are resilient and flexible. It is essential to develop and maintain a performance culture where transparency and trust are ingrained. A critical aspect of high performance is the long-term focus. An HPO maintains long-term relationships with stakeholders by promoting networking broadly throughout the organisation, engaging in beneficial work for society and creating mutual, win-win relationships [5].
Characteristics of High-Performing Organisations [6]
Rapid sharing of information throughout the organisation to enhance adaptability and business realignment under changing circumstances.
They have a vision that inspires and aligns their people to achieve short-term and long-term goals to move towards their vision.
HPOs allocate their resources diligently with a fair rewards program to retain the brightest in the organisation.
HPOs innovate in areas that truly matter and strive to improve processes to stay ahead continuously.
They implement technologies where needed and understand the importance of guiding their people during implementation.
HPOs value strong leadership in which building trust, coaching, inspiring people, and fostering accountability in getting results are central.
HPOs create a learning environment where employees are encouraged to take risks, experiment, and be open to feedback and learning from each other and outside the organisation.
They grow through partnerships and are part of a value-creating network.
Autonomy is essential in HPOs. That said, organisations need to balance this with some degree of coordination and control to stay competitive and achieve high performance. As mentioned earlier, HPOs hold employees responsible for achieving results. At the same time, they stimulate a safe and secure environment by keeping lay-offs as a last resort by employing performance coaching to get people back on track or guide them in their personal goals.
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Performance Coaching
These days, performance coaching goes beyond minimising the gap between current and desired performance. It is a vital tool to guide change and deal with organisational complexities [7]. The goal is to give managers and leaders the tools and capabilities to coach employees—as well as themselves—to sustain high performance. The objective is to create a culture of quality conversations where performance and developmental conversations are the everyday norms [8].
As described above, people may experience pressure and anxiety in a high-performance culture. That anxiety can either lead to bad outcomes – such as exhaustion or burnout – or be used as motivation to find the means to reach better results. A study showed that people who were instructed to channel their anxiety during a task experienced significantly lower levels of emotional exhaustion after performing it [9]. This shows that people can use anxiety as a source of information and energy to guard themselves against emotional exhaustion.
To conclude, HPOs have stand-out characteristics which are aspirational for many. Though HPOs are good, they can be breeding grounds for bad cultural traits, as detailed above. These may show up in the ugly behaviour of employees, which needs to be managed through effective coaching.
