3. People

Three critical aspects of the talent resource drive organizational performance: attitudes, capacity, and behaviors.

Attitudes
Trust in a leader is a big factor in motivating employees to perform above and beyond what’s expected of them. People who trust their leader and buy in to what he or she is trying to achieve will perform at a higher level, enjoy their job more, and show more commitment to the organization than those who don’t trust their leaders to act in their best interests.

And workers who are committed to the organization put in more effort at work. Job satisfaction and high performance are inextricably linked. Simply put, people who enjoy their work try harder; their attitude drives their behavior. Values are key, too. People will work hard and perform well if their personal values are aligned with the organization’s values. “Values fit” correlates with higher performance levels among employees.

Capacity
Companies need people with the necessary ability or capacity to do their job — a blend of knowledge, experience, and technical capabilities, as well as “softer” characteristics like mental toughness, confidence, and emotional intelligence.

Talent assessments, quite naturally, tend to focus on technical skills and knowledge specific to the role, but it’s important also to evaluate emotional intelligence (the ability to perceive, understand, and regulate emotions) and mental toughness (the ability to consistently perform to high standards through times of personal and professional pressure).

Behavior
People are more likely to give extra effort and commitment if their leader inspires them and has created an effective performance environment. In the right circumstances, employees will regularly go beyond what’s expected of them for the benefit of the organization and will demonstrate high levels of energy, dedication, and absorption in their day-to-day work. These behaviors will lead to improved collaboration within and among teams and throughout the organization.

4. Focus

At any one time, an organization has a finite capacity level. There is only so much time and there are only so many resources available to achieve tough targets, so leaders must take responsibility for distributing focus appropriately.

They will make these often tough decisions with the current and future needs of the business — and a thorough understanding of the economic climate and marketplace — in mind. For example, the implementation of a new IT platform to support growing numbers of employees, which may have been deemed vital at one stage, will likely lose focus if the economic climate dictates that layoffs are necessary.

Lane4’s High-Performance Environment Model identifies four areas of focus that compete constantly for an organization’s attention:

• Achievement: an emphasis on short-term productivity and goals.
• Innovation: an emphasis on creativity.
• Internal processes: an emphasis on formalization and internal control of systems and procedures.
• Well-being: an emphasis on the development of people within the organization.

These competing foci generate tensions that the organization must manage. Leaders are therefore accountable for maintaining an appropriate relative focus across these four areas in relation to organizational priorities, objectives, and timeframes. At times, it may be necessary to prioritize innovation in a crowded marketplace to develop competitive advantage; as a result, the other three areas will drop down the agenda. This prioritization is essential, but leaders must constantly reevaluate their focus to ensure sustainable levels of performance.

For example, an organization with an excessive focus on achievement is likely to have relatively low well-being because it’s imposing intense demands on its people. And an organization that prioritizes internal processes and procedures risks stifling innovation and creativity with unnecessary bureaucracy.

Organizations from different sectors generally prioritize different values. For example, a pharmaceutical company will likely focus more on innovation, an investment bank may be highly achievement-orientated, and a public-sector organization may find that a focus on internal processes is the most appropriate choice. Interestingly, research shows that a focus on well-being is the most significant predictor of long-term productivity and profitability.

The four foci provide a useful framework for leaders who want to explore their organization’s current focus and to compare it with what they should be focused on. They can then set goals within each of the four focus areas, creating a framework for performance management.