3 key steps to creating a high-performing culture in 2024
Wednesday, January 10, 2024 - Dignify
As leaders, we have an opportunity to take 2024 by storm. That opportunity lies in our ability to create a high-performing culture within our teams. No matter how many people we’re responsible for, whether it’s 5, 50, or 5,000, we can all take steps to create or incrementally improve the culture within our teams to drive performance. Here are 3 steps that you can take to get started:
Practice candor
As a leader, the most important thing to build between yourself and your team is trust. Trust is gained in a variety of different ways, but the best thing you can do to get started is to listen to them and act upon what they tell you. Give them a safe haven to practice candor – you want their feedback to be as honest and accurate as possible so that you know precisely what to address and how to proceed. When your team members can trust you to take their feedback and turn it into action that supports them on both the individual and collective level, they will know that you have their back.
On the flip side of that coin, provide your team members with the honest, transparent, and meaningful feedback that they need to improve on a regular basis. According to Oak Engage, the overwhelming majority of people (92%) agree that constructive criticism is effective at improving their performance. Furthermore, most employees see feedback as valuable and want more of it. When you regularly provide them with praise for what they do well and advice as to what they could do better, you will further display that you have the best interest of your team in mind by empowering them to refine their performance and grow in their role.
Create and/or reinforce core values
The basis of any high-performing culture is a set of strong core values. It’s important that these core values aren’t just words plastered on the wall for the sake of feeling or looking good – that doesn’t do anything to create a real culture. Doing the bare minimum and slapping up four or five platitudes with little elaboration isn’t enough. These values need to be actionable, trackable, representative, and supportive of the company’s unique wider missions and goals.
If you haven’t already established these values at your company, take time to sit down and deeply assess what you want them to be with the above considerations in mind. If you already have them in place, think about what you can do in your teams to help them live the core values set forth by the company. Do you need to hold people accountable to the values more often? Do you need to offer more volunteer opportunities? Do you need to recognize your team’s work more frequently and show them how it forwards the company’s mission? Take questions like these into consideration and make your core values felt. Studies done by Leadership IQ show the difference that strong values can make. To list just a few, employees are:
- 115% more engaged when their company has a well-define set of values
- 107% more engaged when their company has outlined what behaviors constitute living the company values
- Substantially more likely to stick around
- Embrace continual learning
High performance is achieved on the back of sustained competitiveness over time, adaptability, and innovation. Your teams and employees need to be empowered to continuously upskill and enable themselves to add substantial value no matter what changes or shifts happen in their industry. By empowering your teams and employees to continuously stay at the cutting edge of their particular skillset in the industry, you will strengthen your company’s staying power and competitiveness substantially. Furthermore, you will show your employees that they can rely on you to provide them with what they need to grow their careers in the company.
2024 is the year to get after creating or reinforcing a high-performance culture in your organization. By practicing candor, re-emphasizing core values, and embracing continual learning, you can realize many tangible and impactful competitive advantages for your organization. What steps will you take?
“Employee Feedback Statistics you need to know” [Article]. 2023, March 21. Oak Engage. https://www.oak.com/blog/employee-feedback-statistics/ [Accessed December 11, 2023]
“Why Company Values Are Falling Short (New Data)” [Article]. Leadership IQ. https://www.leadershipiq.com/blogs/leadershipiq/why-company-values-are-falling-short [Accessed December 11, 2023]