The New Performance Environment - Employee-Led
“The problem with specifying the method along with the goal is one of diminished control. Provide your people with the objective and let them figure out the method.”
― L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
In a traditional performance environment, much of the role and responsibility for ensuring performance results, conducting performance feedback, developing accountability and providing effective change management resides with formal leaders in the organization. In addition, training focused on developing core leadership skills, activities and behaviors is generally reserved for these leaders and not the general employee population.
This leader-led performance model, unfortunately, limits true performance ownership and we limit the potential and impact of having everyone no matter what their title or position lead from where they are.
Employee-Led performance is the key to shifting performance results from top-down driven to one that is employee owned, leader supported and enabled by the organization. As a foundation, it is important for an organization to create a baseline of expected leadership skills, activities and behaviors that everyone from senior leadership to entry level individual contributors understand and exhibit. This creates a foundation of common leadership expectations and a “language” of leadership that defines your organization.
Of course, roles and responsibilities vary and the level of leadership impact changes but developing a core set of leadership competencies in everyone and giving control and responsibilities to create ownership is critical to tapping into and leveraging the value of every employee leading where they are.
Tips for implementing an employee-led performance environment:
Create awareness and set an expectation that everyone can and should lead where they are.
Support developing the leader in everyone with coaching and training.
Establish cross-functional employee-led teams chartered to improve a specific issue or process. Provide resources and support the team. Give the goal, not the method.
Reward and recognize employee-led success.
Come back next week as we discuss how to own your own performance!
If you’re looking for help in administering your employee survey, or just need help in building an effective survey question list, don’t hesitate to contact us! We’re here to enable your success.