Introduction

At its core, performance relies on a combination of awareness, discipline, effort, and openness. Every day, billions of individuals engage in performance, whether it’s in a professional context, in the realm of education, or in their personal lives with friends and family. However, not everyone exhibits the same level of engagement and effectiveness in their performance.

Individuals can be categorised into two groups: performers and high performers. Subtle but significant differences separate the two. Performers are characterised by their commitment, leadership ability, and mindfulness. High performers, meanwhile, possess a clearly defined purpose, a unique capacity for creation, and a deep sense of care.

The high performer will always delve a layer deeper. They want meaning and understanding, something profound. While not everyone may want to be a high performer, those who do can benefit from some common insights and opportunities.

Common insights

Imagine a triangle, with its broad base representing character and competence. These feed into one’s skill set, then build to a sharp apex at the top: execution. High performers approach each layer systematically and share some common insights:

Execution – combined with experience, the accumulation of a high performers character, competence and skill level determines their ability to execute in a moment. They see execution as an opportunity to obtain feedback.

Skills – Often holding a position of a leadership or influence high performers are consistently scanning. They are proactive and eager to refine their current skillset and acquire new and more relevant skills.

Competence – High performers back themselves while striving to produce higher quality. A common trend evident is that they are relentlessly curious in search of new insights to develop their true competence.

Character – At the base there is daily significant growth potential. High performers consistently nurture this space, more often in the shadows. They know that their true quality is always left behind the room they leave.

Key opportunities

In today’s dynamic performance landscape, three key development opportunities stand out:

1. Why, What and Who
   Understanding why you do what you do, what you aim to achieve, and who can support you is crucial to maximising your potential. These questions serve as a compass for personal growth.
2. Cultivating Deeper Relationships and Fostering Trust
   Research consistently highlights the centrality of trust in all social interactions. Trust enhances collaboration, encourages vulnerability, improves communication, and fuels idea generation. Deepening your relationships can have far-reaching personal and strategic benefits.
3. Objective Goal Measurement
   Consider the difference between the 2D roadmaps of the past and the current 3D versions on your phone. Which of them offers greater clarity? Which helps you get where you’re going faster? Clear, detailed goals enhance efficiency. They provide a roadmap that not only guides you but also identifies potential risks, opportunities, timelines, and obstacles to be aware of.

High performance is not always easy to define or achieve, but you know it when you see it. Those who do achieve it will always stand out.

More on Peak Performance

Building Optimal Performance

How to Achieve Peak Performance

Ready to take your next step toward peak performance? Get in touch:

In order to thrive, workplaces need to build cohesive teams that are intrinsically motivated. In this insight piece we address ways of approaching, obtaining, optimising and sustaining performance.

Every working environment is made up of four core layers:

Organisation

Leadership

Team

Personal

Within those layers exist both complementary and competing factors that can contribute to organisational growth. Some of these factors are in our control and can be strengthened directly, such as maintaining an active, healthy team and prioritising people development. Others are outside our scope, such as employee disengagement born of a change in personal priorities.

Linking each layer is a daily demand. Organisational design, positive leadership intent, a disciplined feedback loop and dedicated culture of growth must work in tandem. Improving and aligning each layer is pivotal.

1. Every organisation needs to set out their strategic vision. Typically this outlines who the organisation is, what they stand for, their strengths, recent and notable successes, people development programmes and how to capitalise on future market opportunities.

Get right: Generate trust with a clear understanding of the journey ahead

Research shows that when it comes to maximising performance, trust is pivotal. An abundance of academic and anecdotal evidence points to trust’s long-term strategic value. Benefits include increased collaboration, vulnerability, communication and idea generation.

Communicating a coherent strategic vision requires a thoughtful engagement plan. Some important points include:

2. An organisation’s strategy should flow downward and outward. For a strategy to successfully capitalise on opportunities, the leadership team needs to be aligned.

Get right: Leaders and leadership teams need to work on themselves first

Leadership teams are too often misaligned, leading to a lack of conviction in critical areas such as providing direction, communication (verbal and non-verbal) and role modelling positive behaviours. Obtaining a high standard of performance relies on resolute leadership alignment.

3. A coherent strategic vision and aligned leadership group is a positive start. However, if mishandled, competing projects, team dynamics and internal politics can quickly hamper an organisation’s growth.

Get right: Ensure your teams provide consistent space for professionals to grow

Teams can better optimise their potential through an embedded performance professional (internal or external). Their fundamental role is to work with a team to provide objective feedback and help cultivate or better maintain high performance behaviours, all while keeping an eye on the wider professional context and the organisation’s long-term aims.

4. Everyone has the potential to be a high performer. The necessary skills can be practised and honed. Curiosity to learn, a strong work ethic and leadership skills (such as a commitment to bettering others as well as oneself) are all indications of an individual primed for long-term sustainable performance.

Get right: Provide your people with the support to truly grow

Many traditional ‘off the shelf’ options are available for employees. Research suggests that organisations should actively focus on bespoke people development areas such as performance coaching. Shifting from a learning and development platform to a learning development experience is paramount to sustainable performance.

Interested in a further conversation about personal, team or leadership performance?