To make best performance possible in the digital industry, we need to make sure we change the organizational setting in a way that allows individuals to act autonomously, easily acquire and access the needed competences and understand the purpose of the work they do. For some organizations this sounds like a difficult, tedious task, whereas others consider this the basics of a good management practice. Wherever you and your team are on this scale, let’s highlight the 5 golden rules allowing for great performanceespecially in today’s digital economy:
Clarify the Goals
The mission of the organization must be clear to everybody, including line managers and each individual subordinate. Make every possible effort to keep the lines of communication open, allowing plenty of time for talking and exchanging ideas. In this context it becomes even more important that leadership takes on the responsibility of “chief inspirer”, drawing a picture of the ultimate goal that looks so promising and irresistible that all employees are fully engaged and eager to follow and create outcomes.
Allow for trial and error
People learn and perform best if they are given a large amount of autonomy to test and try things out, to learn by doing it themselves in their own style rather than following their supervisor’s guidance. Making great innovations possible – the ultimate necessity for any business if it should exist in the next 5-10 years – requires a new culture where the one who tries and fails is not damned but celebrated as a hero and admired for the experience–and admired for the courage to stand up again and give it another try!
Immediate feedback
To know what’s next it is necessary to understand where you are, how much closer you are to the goal or what worked well / did not work well in the past. Thus, the best information to receive – and to give – is immediate feedback. This could come from people around you or your work / work-related systems directly, which could provide feedback about the status of your performance. Feedback should also come regarding your own personal standard and how you are performing according to your own goals and core values.
Balance challenges and skills
The usage of each individual’s skills and the entire human capacity of a person should be matched with an adequate level of challenge. The balance of these two never remains stable for a long time but requires ongoing adjustment in order to keep up the performance. No doubt, the winners will be the ones who constantly build and work on their skills as they take on more and bigger challenges over time.
Concentration over monkey mind
For many, stress is not the result of too much hard work but of too much switching attention, handling constant interruptions and dealing with ever-changing requirements. Thus people should be given more control, access to the right skills and tools to reach the requested objective and the trust that they will make the best choices.
One can ask now if those requirements are an organization’s duty or the responsibility of each individual employee to make sure they are met and not overextended. The answer is simple: it’s both parties’ task to ensure that work at least close to a flow-state is possible! Why? Because it will be the individual who enjoys work much more and who can remain healthy while achieving great results and it is the organization that will benefit if its workforce outpaces competitors because of their high level of performance!