Caring Enough To Create Peak Performers

Humans are wired to learn, grow, and improve, and each of us is motivated by being valued and cared about as an individual contributor. From our experiences at FS/A, we will share what we have witnessed to be the most effective ways to help your team members become peak performers.

Alignment with Purpose and Mission

Peak performance requires energy. The greatest source of energy is the intrinsic feeling, What I am doing is making a difference and I bring value to a desirable outcome. We need to start by ensuring we have team members passionate about our organization’s purpose—why we do what we do—and our mission—what we do and for whom.

Metrics of Success

There may be no more explicit way to understand success than through clear metrics that align with the organization’s purpose and mission. Challenging but achievable clear metrics identify the gap between where we are and where we desire to be. Through identifying and defining that gap, we can then develop initiatives to close it.

Trust and Autonomy

Leaders must believe that most people are doing the best they can. In our hundreds of interviews with team members, we have not found anyone who desires to be average. We all want to be exceptional, and we strive to be trusted to make decisions on our own and learn from them.

Positivity is the key to opening the door to growth, enabling team members to feel safe and proactive. Positivity engenders a culture of safety in which team members know they can try new things, and if they fail, can use the experience as an opportunity to learn and improve. Encouragement to stay on this growth path fosters a growth mindset.

Closing the Performance Gap

Leaders who are most effective in closing their team members’ performance gaps start with curiosity. They are curious about the gap exists and take responsibility for it. They stay focused on the performance metrics above to assess what performance improvements may help most. What strengths does each team member possess that could be built upon to close the gap?

As a leader, you must be sensitive to those improvements each team member feels will have the greatest impact on their own performance. The growth opportunity that each feels strongest about will receive their natural energy. Each team member is unique in how they are best motivated. Tailor and capitalize upon their passion for learning, growing, and being a more valued team member.

Frequent two-way, open communication reinforces caring and builds trust that reduces misunderstandings. Timely, positive, constructive feedback is vital. The attention means the leader cares, accelerating the growth desired.

Build Their Self-confidence

We all feel insecure at times. Building on the team members’ strengths gives them the confidence to learn and grow to become what they desire to be and what their organization needs them to be.

Next week

Being cared about and valued as an individual contributor provides intrinsic energy for each team member to go places that would be impossible otherwise. Likewise, there are times when a team member, like a plant, is in the wrong garden and will not thrive. Next week, we will talk about what genuine caring and being valued as a person means and looks like for those in the wrong garden.