Staying people AND performance focussed
It doesn’t matter what type of organisation it is, finding the balance between being people focussed and performance focussed is a challenge. And obviously the two are completely linked.
If people are not valued and engaged then the performance of the organisation is going to suffer. And yet, if we become so people focussed that we stop challenging, setting goals, and raising standards, then the performance will also drop.
Of course, if the entire focus is on endlessly improving the performance, then we are going to end up losing people and leaving them behind. Then we are left without the very people who are essential to the performance of the organisation.
So the question we need to grapple with is: how do we keep a healthy balance between focussing on people and focussing on performance?
To propose an answer, here is a paragraph from an article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject. After studying lots of different CEO’s handing the balance between people and performance, the ones who did it best did so my combining four strategies:
“First, they earned the trust of their organizations through their openness to the unvarnished truth. Second, they were deeply engaged with their people, and their exchanges were direct and personal; employees in the companies we studied had a particularly close connection with the CEO and were seldom surprised to meet him or her. Third, having earned legitimacy and trust, these CEOs were able to mobilize their people around a focused agenda. Finally, while they were all strong individuals, these senior leaders realized that they could succeed only as part of a committed leadership team, and they devoted considerable efforts to building their firm’s collective leadership capabilities.” (Emphasis mine)
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Hello Sam!
Can I just start by saying how truely pleased I am to hear the news that your giving up some of your paid work in Sheffield in order to roll up the sleves, pitch in, and get down to business an extra day a week with Mosiac! Thats bloody commendable stuff that is and should go unrecognised or rewarded! Good leaders always have to make these kind of tough decisions, often when the heart and brain are saying entirely different things! But you stuck with it and seen it through. Good show old boy.
As for the timeless quiery of focussing people against focussing performance, you’ll be pleased to know I have a few ideas of my own! You see I once owned a cat. Sebastian. Wonderful creature, we were hardly seperated untill Patty, bless her, ran my poor old kitty down while nipping out for humus. Put a damper on that house warming I can tell you! Anyway I wanted to learn from the experience I really did. Tears were shed, and plenty of them but I did recognise TWO very important things. The first is that it should have been me nipping out for humus, not Patty, and I would have made exactly the same mistake, and second if we had identified the lack of humus as an earlier point this whole dastardly mess might never have occoured! So in conclusion, BE people focused and not people critical. People will make mistakes, but they are also capable of the most amazing of ideas and insights. They are your most important comodity, treat them with respect. The second is PLAN AHEAD which really seems quite bleeding obvious but I suppose its the idea of focussing performance. IF I’d planned ahead, I wouldn’t have had the problem with the staff (Patty in the case), IF I’d spoken my plans through with the staff (still Patty) then they might have noticed humusgate before poor old Sebastien so tragically lost his life.
Keep up the good work! Hope I didn’t rabbit on too much!
Warmest regards,
Simon Slive