1. Creating a high performance culture
John Bull – Founder of Tall Tree

2. Focus and aims for this workshop
Insights on the key ingredients for creating a culture of high performance within the organisation
Self awareness around the impact of our style and approach as leaders, and what we can do to improve the performance environment in the teams we lead

3. Why investing in leadership matters
Hold yourself to a higher standard
The top 5% of managers have almost twice the impact on performance as there merely ‘good’ colleagues.
Key insight: Hold yourself to a higher standard; the most important thing you can do to raise performance is to develop your management skills 3 3 3

4. Building & sustaining high performance
Four key principles that underpin this work…
P = T x E The climate (Environment) we create as leaders profoundly effects how people behave & perform
There are a number of specific environmental conditions that will consistently stimulate improved performance in human populations
A key role of leadership is to create the right conditions for high performance
No matter how good we are, or think we are, we can always improve 4 4 4

5. Three leadership cultures…
Authoritarian
A stern I-know-best style where people are told what to do, little involvement…
Goals, standards and direction on ‘how to’ handed down from leadership
Little input into the strategy
Focus is on supervising/managing implementation
Laissez Faire
A pleasant leadership style but one which gives little direction
No clear leadership on vision, strategy or standards
Leaves people/structures largely to themselves
Avoids conflict or confrontation
Achievement Led
Ensures clear direction, high standards, involves people and builds responsibility
Leadership engages everyone in a common aspiration
Creates a performance environment with ambitious goals, standards & feedback to drive learning
Performance achieved through responsibility and accountability at all levels 5 5 5

6. A fundamentally different approach to leadership Thinking about our own style and how we need to develop it
Achievement led
Laissez Faire
Authoritarian

7. Challenge and support C H A L E N G SUPPORT Achievement led
(The aim is to make this positive,
PULL not PUSH; i.e. their buy in to the goal & standards creates the challenge & pressure)
SUPPORT
Coaching and mentoring support

8. Another take on challenge & support

9. 5 key ingredients of a high performance culture
Engage people behind a clear meaningful challenge &/or purpose
Clarity of purpose - People understand exactly what we’re trying to achieve, what we’re trying to make a difference to
Challenge – goals create a positive creative tension between current performance and what we are aspiring for, driving a culture of innovation and continuous improvement
Engagement – people buy into what we’re trying to achieve, and are energised by it
Clarity of focus & high standards
Performance insight - absolute clarity as to what we need to focus on in order to drive success.
High standards. Okay is not okay! The goals & standards we set provide a constant challenge to continually improve in these key areas of performance
Individual clarity of roles – each individual has a clear focus for how they can best contribute
Responsibility – distributed leadership
Involvement –Everyone is encouraged to think about our key challenges & contribute their ideas; these ideas are listened to and acted on. i.e. People feel their experience is valued and used to shape our approach
Distributed leadership - People are given a lot of responsibility & autonomy; and are encouraged to act on their initiative in pursuit of our goals
They are supported with coaching and mentoring to develop their ability to act on this responsibility
Feedback and recognition
Frequent, high quality feedback drives learning & improvement – enabling people to accurately judge (and learn from) the effectiveness of their actions
There are clear consequences attached to individual and team performance
Recognition - good performance is recognised and rewarded
Accountability - underperformance is held to account
Teamwork – shared goals drive effective collaboration (including with partners)
People see their role within a bigger picture; they understand their accountability to both their individual goals and overall team performance 9 9 9

10. Key leadership qualities and skills
High standards, ambition and drive
Ability to engage people behind the goals
Gives clear direction
Ignite ambition in others and build confidence
Performance insight
Ability to distil into a clear and simple strategy what success depends on
Coaching mindset
Believes in people’s potential and sees role as leader to unlock that potential
Delegates responsibility
Exceptional coaching skills
For drawing out and developing people's ideas and talents
Facilitating reviews
skilled and disciplined approach to facilitating reviews to drive momentum and learning
Feedback skills
Gives frequent recognition/positive feedback
An ability to challenge people and give difficult feedback in a way that inspires rather than invokes defensiveness. Willing and effective in challenging poor performance.
Getting people to work together
able to pull people together around common goals, and create an environment where collaboration is a defining strength
And finally, a never ending commitment to keep developing their own leadership skills
self aware of their effectiveness and impact, open to feedback, aspire to be exceptional 10 10 10

11. Igniting people’s motivation, and focusing that energy
Engagement
Igniting people’s motivation, and focusing that energy

12. What’s the purpose of a goal or plan
To create ‘positive performance pressure’
Which engages people, and inspires action
To focus and direct that energy
Focusing where we invest out time and energy to maximise our impact with the limited resources we have
Giving clear roles and responsibilities etc.
To give an effective benchmark to review and hold ourselves accountable against

13. Setting out a clear focus for the team
Set out a clear, compelling purpose, challenge or ambition:
Make sure it is…
Clear and measurable
Challenging
Creates positive performance pressure
Motivating/emotive
Something people can get excited or passionate about
Define measures
What ‘curve’ are we trying to have an impact on?
Define your strategy in terms of what success depends on
Set out what we need to focus on and excel at as a team to maximise our success?

14. To learn more about our research and work visit our website