Leading & Developing High Performance

So many times when talking with people about this fabulous system, which is part of the Leading & Developing High Performance approach, they have said to me, “WOW! Can I just buy that?”

And now you can – please click on the buy button on the right sidebar. But don’t do that yet. Have a look below to get a feel for how it will help you.

It has instant appeal to busy leaders because …

• It is a robust and powerful way of managing poor performance
• It stands up to scrutiny and many have tied it into their disciplinary and grievance procedures
• It presents a sound system for helping people to develop in the best possible way
• It helps managers to free themselves from the draining frustration and emotion involved in sorting out performance issues
• It brings clarity, structure and focus
• It inherently builds high performance

Chapter 5 of the Leading & Developing High Performance book walks you through the chart, guiding you, step by step, through the process – leaving nothing to doubt or guesswork.

Essentially, to make this process work properly, a few underlying principles apply:

Your approach to dealing with performance issues must be with a solid mindset of High Challenge and High Support, with positive regard and genuineness, with vision enough to be able to see the person performing at their very best. Without this the person will be doomed to failure, no matter how hard they try.

Start by writing down what the performance issue is, then make a list of the present undesirable behaviours – this could be one or two things or a long list!

Now imagine, and write down, the observable behaviour of the person when they are performing at their very best. What is it that they will be doing that is different from their current behaviour? By writing these things down you will gain the clarity you need.

Once you have done this you are ready to use to use the chart. Start at box 1 and rigorously go through the process, visiting boxes 2, 3, 4 and 5, and taking the action you need, until you reach the critical bar, the acid test, the 64 million dollar question ….. “Could the person do what is expected of them if their life depended on it?”

Your response here will indicate whether it is a skills issue (they can’t do it even if their life depended on it) or an attitude issue (they could do it if their life depended on it but for some reason are choosing not to). Once you have decided this you will then know which side of the chart to go down.

Failure to absolutely follow this process means you are selling them short.

Following the process ensures success for you, the team and the organisation. You are taking positive action to manage performance up … or out, depending. No more are people allowed to coast along or put in mediocre performance. This is about enabling people to be the best they can be.

For the skills needed to properly support the process, call us for training, or get yourself accredited through us to deliver training to your internal or external clients.

And buy the book, it will really help you along the way.

“The diagnostic flowchart helped me to deal with a capability issue.  It enabled me to decide what action to take with an underperforming team member.  I could easily show them why we needed to take action and help them to develop the skills they needed.  The end result is that I now have a happy, productive and well respected member of my team who is still with our business making a positive contribution to our outcomes.  We have a strong working relationship that supports and challenges them where it’s needed.  That is success and that is what Leading and Developing High Performance can help you to achieve with your people.

This flowchart will help you to understand what action to take using your own capability or disciplinary processes and increase the chance of getting acceptance to the process involved and achieving a win:win outcome.”

Suzanne Jones, founder L&DHP practitioner and manager at the Environment Agency

Good luck with the chart. We would love to hear how you get on using it, and hear your stories.

The next 2-day intensive accreditation programme for trainers is to be arranged soon – contact us for information on accreditation or follow Ali Stewart and Co on Twitter