Feb 10, 2023
6 min read

How to Leverage High-Performance Management to Improve Your Team's Productivity

In this article:

According to Gallup, 70% of the variance in team engagement directly depends on how managers do their job. Proper performance management techniques can boost employee satisfaction and improve organizational culture. At this point, high-performance management is viewed as a top priority. This shows companies recognize its importance and benefits. 

Businesses that have already recognized its importance go even further and seek high-performance management. Let’s explore what the concept entails, how to leverage it to boost high-performing team productivity, the best practices for adopting it, and what pitfalls you should avoid. 

What is high-performance management?

High-performance management is an ongoing process in which you track and improve employee performance to build high-performance teams. The key point for adopting the practice is to create a workplace environment where high performers can succeed and reach their potential aligned with the company’s objectives. High-performance management is not something you just do once a year. It is a continuous process that needs to be constantly updated. 

In turn, this method leads to improved performance by setting specific individual and team goals aligned with the company’s business objectives. Overall performance management should be based on careful planning, reviewing, and assessing of employees’ performance, strengths, weaknesses, and other crucial factors. As a result, high-performance management is the concept of making your high-performance teams even better. 

When it comes to the key principles of high-performance management, the following are worth mentioning:

  • Focus on long-term goals
  • Continuous improvement
  • Communication
  • Recognition
  • Development
  • Feedback

High-performance management strategy focuses on long-term goals that align the company, team, and individual objectives to create an overall sense of purpose and belonging. In turn, it also entails continuous improvement and adaptation to ever-changing conditions. For instance, in the post-COVID-19 world, adapting your marketing and business strategies to market fluctuations has become as crucial as ever. 

Finally, it is worth noting that high-performance management works best with clear goals, constructive feedback, and support. Setting clear goals aligns the company, team, and individuals. It also helps people see what they need to achieve. Two-way feedback, perhaps with the 360-degree review, is a great way to see whether the current path toward high-performance management meets the expectations. Lastly, support is vital for helping a high-performing team stay on track. 

How to leverage high-performance management to improve your team's productivity?

When it comes to leveraging high-performance management, here are the four steps you should take:

  1. Establish clear goals and expectations for team members
  2. Offer ongoing feedback and support 
  3. Foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning
  4. Identify and address any performance gaps or issues within the team 

1. Establish clear goals and expectations for team members

Setting clear goals is important for every team member to have a unified company vision, which means getting a hold of the bigger picture. The same is true for expectations. With clear priorities and expectations, you have key performance indicators to use when determining whether high-performance management works. 

2. Offer ongoing feedback and support 

Actionable, constructive, and continuous feedback is important for leveraging high-performance management and improving employee satisfaction. Basically, you guide employees through their improvement process and support them to make their journey less stressful. 

3. Foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning

Fostering a culture of continuous improvement and learning is a direct way to decrease conflict and make employees better prepared for high-performance management processes. With less resistance, you get better results from the method. 

4. Identify and address any performance gaps or issues within the team 

Finally, by detecting any performance gaps, you can make high-performance management more effective. See whether particular employees are lagging behind and discover the reasons behind such gaps. Addressing them in advance creates a great foundation for high-performance management to deliver the results you expect.

Best practices for implementing high-performance management system

Along with distinct aspects for leveraging high-performance management, certain practices are needed to implement the concept and ensure its effectiveness. Here are the best practices for implementing high-performance management:

  • You must communicate the importance of a high-performance management approach to your high-performing teams. Offer solid evidence and anticipations. Avoid being vague and abstract.
  • You need to involve all the team members in setting clear goals. In addition, when developing an improvement plan, ask employees for input. It will give a broader and more objective perspective.
  • You need to encourage open communication and collaboration. All team members should be able to access people in management and other employees to give valuable insights into the process. 
  • You need to regularly review and assess the process effectiveness to ensure that it moves in the right direction. 

Keep these practices in mind, and you won’t have any issues making the best out of it. Yet, to go even further, it is important to consider some potential pitfalls that might occur. 

The potential challenges of implementing high-performance management

After leveraging and adopting the best practices for implementing high-performance management, it is time to do the last thing - deal with all the potential challenges. There are three obstacles to watch out for:

  1. Insufficient time and resources 
  2. Resistance to change among team members
  3. Lack of strong leadership and direction to support the transition

The success of high-performance management often depends on whether you have enough time, resources, and a strong leader. Besides, setting clear goals and expectation is crucial for reducing resistance to change among employees.

Conclusion

High-performance management can be a game-changer in the right hands and with the right tools. Respectively, to tap into the system, it is necessary to set clear goals, focus on the feedback, and don’t forget about support. Besides, keep your eye on leadership, resistance to change, and availability of resources. After all, thinking and preparing in advance is worth more than dealing with the pitfalls later. 

FAQs: High-Performance Management In A Nutshell

What is high-performance management?

High-performance management is a process of measuring and developing team performance while supporting the overall company objectives. Basically, the approach entails ensuring employees’ and the company’s goals align. Besides, in the process, the method is all about making sure employees reach the new performance objectives while managers accompany them throughout their journey.

What is meant by high-performance management?

When it comes to high-performance management, it often means leaders and managers use performance management techniques to motivate employees based on the performance assessment. This is vital for creating high-performing teams. 

What are the three types of performance management?

There are three key types of performance management:

  1. The balanced scorecards
  2. Objective-based management
  3. Budget-driven business planning
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