What makes people excel at their job? What drives performance? Organisations and companies often do not spend time with their best to understand how they work, what they are motivated by and what environment they require to be at their best. Instead, we focus and try to control those who are average or who underperform. But that is not how you achieve peak performance.
Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in their international Bestseller “First, break all the rules” reference a Gallup study, that has the most surprising results. Gallup worked with the largest health care providers in Europe to help them find more nurses similar to their best. As part of the research, using supervisor ratings, one hundred excellent nurses and one hundred average nurses were identified. Among the many talents excellent nurses had, one stood out: Patient response. Great nurses need to care. They enjoy when they see a patient getting better. Its like fuel and their psychological pay off. This love for the patient helps great nurses from getting beaten down when patients suffer, or treatment does not work. It is the talent that enables them to find the strength and satisfaction. When managers were told about the surprising findings, they responded: “We are not organised this way. We want our nurses to spend less time with patients to keep the beds occupied.” While there is no quick-fix solution, how often do we truly sit with our best staff and find out what makes them excel and see how the organisation needs to fit their needs, not the other way around?
In an increasingly competitive global economy, your human capital is the most asset you have. But that’s not enough. When you measure progress and performance, imagine what excellence looks like. Often, in our day to day work, we forget, where we should be, what excellent performance looks like but that should always be our goal, to deliver the best possible service to the costumer. Focus on the top performances, understand their talent, needs, what motivates them and sit down with them to help them grow further, in their own way. Don’t prescribe the how but the goal and they will know how to get there.
