It’s probably not contentious to state that most organisations claim to value performance excellence. To name just one, Barclays plc has ‘excellence’ as one of its 5 core values*.
Equally, you would probably have to speak with many Human Resource Directors before you found one expressing a dis-interest in developing talent. Talent development is a core function of any HR department, with small fortunes spent on training courses. Indeed, corporate Universities are becoming increasingly popular.
Yet it is the contention of this article that much of this is a fallacy. There is a disconnect between what some companies claim to be their core purpose, and what actually goes on behind the scenes.
The random nature of excellence
Of course, there are exceptions. But many companies ultimately fail, and studies of ‘great companies’ often turn out to be simply winners of a random walk. This lack of resilience suggests people within these companies are focused on something quite different to ‘being excellent.’
The approach corporates use to develop talent is a case in point. More specifically, how the business world appraises and reviews performance of staff. How companies go about this process is a barometer of what their attitude really is to developing talent, and creating a climate where people are able to perform at their very best.
Results vs. performance
This paper discusses how corporates review staff performance, contrasting this with fields where performance excellence is critical to success. It is informed by a survey of professionals in various fields, at different levels of seniority.
Relatedly, the methods adopted to motivate and incentivise staff are critiqued and compared with what we know about human motivation. Suggestions are made for creating high-performing motivational climates.
Many businesses believe they are performance-focused, when in reality they are results-focused. The difference is not one of semantics. Rather, it illustrates what organisations value. In turn, this impacts what they spend much of their time thinking about and trying to achieve.
Cultivating excellence
An exemplar of this results-focused culture is how business reviews the performance of their employees. Performance reviews occur at regular intervals, largely entail assessing if targets have been achieved, and rating an employee’s performance. They are confidential, the details known only to the performer and their boss.
Such an approach is the antithesis of high-performance. Not only is the review process distinct from everyday work, but it also creates a conflict of interest between team and individual performance. It is based on the premises that competition between employees’ cultivates excellence, and that people need to be motivated. Both beliefs are seriously flawed, with pernicious consequences.
High-performing cultures use performance reviewing to serve one purpose only; to help performers improve. It is part of the holy trinity of learning any skill. Reviewing is tightly interwoven into daily work, with the process being congruent to both individual and team success.
Creating motivation
High-performance cultures create climates that support self-motivation. They don’t ‘try to motivate.’ Churchillian speeches serve little purpose in these cultures, as do promises of financial rewards conditional on targets being met. A preoccupation with meeting targets leads to companies focusing on the
‘wrong kind of excellence’, with damaging consequences both for the organisation and employee talent development. It has also been suggested that a results-focused culture has contributed to the UK’s problem of low productivity in recent years.
Performance and results are not synonymous. Companies would be better advised to expend more energy understanding how they plan to achieve the core purposes of their business. Results will then look after themselves.
Paul Berry