PERFORMANCE    MANAGEMENT

10 tips to drive the bottom line

The LA Lakers. The Detroit Red Wings. And the NY Yankees. Without a doubt, three of the most successful professional sports franchises in recent memory. These three teams are filled with not just superstars, but most importantly, superstars who have consistently produced exceptional results.

No question—strong teams are the foundation of success. But team strength alone does not ensure success. For example, in hockey, the New York Rangers have consistently had one of the strongest teams on paper, yet failed to reach the playoffs for the past five seasons. And consider the New England Patriots, winners of this year’s Superbowl, yet few considered them the strongest team in football.

So, what’s the difference between a strong team and a champion? Mostly, it’s leadership. It takes people at the top who are able to sustain a high performance culture—that is, a culture that maximizes the results produced by the available talent.

Want to build championship caliber performance in your organization? Consider these 10 tips to get people to stop making excuses and start delivering exceptional results:

1. No Excuse is an ‘Acceptable’ Excuse

Most managers are too tolerant of excuses. Don’t be. An excuse means the job didn’t get done. And if you are truly committed to results, then you cannot be willing to accept excuses. Acceptance allows failure to persist. While it may sound cold and unfair, when you stop tolerating excuses, you force people to develop solutions.

2. Think in Terms of Priorities

Get people in your organization to think in terms of priorities instead of excuses. The next time you hear, "I didn’t have enough time," try substituting this excuse with, "I’m sorry, it was not a high enough priority." This simple change of perspective will help you better manage your time and responsibilities, and eliminate the number one excuse in business.

3. Make Mistakes Acceptable

As a rule, employees don’t like to report bad news because they fear the repercussions. If employees fear repercussions, they are less likely to be honest and more apt to make excuses. People have to feel free to say, "I made a mistake." So to get excuse-free behavior, make mistakes acceptable and treat them as opportunities for learning. Don’t look to place blame, instead, focus problem discussions on "what" and "why" issues not "who." And be willing to praise and recognize risk-takers, even when the outcome fails to achieve desired results.

4. Create Clear Expectations

Establish mutually defined expectations for job performance. Explore what success and failure look like for each position in your company. Ensure that every job and project has specific, measurable goals.

5. Connect the Dots

People are much more motivated to succeed when they feel connected to the big picture and understand why they need to do something. As a leader, it is your responsibility to show them how their actions have a direct impact on the company’s success.

6. Acknowledge Responsibility

Hold people’s feet to the fire. Require them to commit to their responsibilities in writing. And even more importantly, follow up to ensure commitments are met and to establish accountability.

7. Plan Contingencies

Never ignore Murphy’s law. Things can and will go wrong. Take time to anticipate potential problems and set contingency plans. A proactive approach to problem solving virtually eliminates opportunities for future excuses and maximizes the probability of success.

8. Pay for Performance

While it’s fine to recognize people for hard work, reward them for results. Structure reward systems to only provide tangible compensation based on achieving measurable results. Ideally, offer rewards on an "all or nothing" basis. Simply put, if the goal is not FULLY met, no reward is earned.

9. Create Support Systems

Let the employee know where to get help when problems arise. Failure most often occurs when employees don’t know how or where to get assistance. Even superstars need coaching. Provide your employees with the resources they need to get things done. These resources may include in-house or off-site training, formal mentoring programs, and internal "help desks" and "expert directories" listing people who can be called for assistance about specific issues.

10. Conduct Post-Mortems

At the end of every project, debrief your employees. If they succeeded, praise them and discuss why the project was a success. If the employees didn’t succeed, turn the failure into a positive learning experience.

Performance Coaching

Every successful team is lead by a great coach. To become a championship caliber coach, take the following steps:

1. Meet with your managers regularly—at least once a week.
2. Limit meetings to 20 minutes.
3. Stick to a fixed agenda, in which you:
• Exchange weekly goals, review the previous week’s successes and failures, and identify needs for the coming week.
• Ask direct reports about the best and worst things that happened last week to reinforce the positives and discuss ways to eliminate the negatives.
• Plan for challenges in the coming week and offer support where it will be needed. Specifically ask your direct reports what they will need from you to be successful this week.

Superstar Leadership

Superstars are hard to find. Whether you’re employing Shaquille O’Neal or Larry O’Neal, your success depends on maximizing the talent that’s available. For most of us, the best way to drive performance is with superstar leadership that eliminates excuses and delivers results.