Sustain High Performance

“You can either tell me what to do, or you can tell me how to do it. But you  can’t tell me both, Sir” recounted my friend Nate Boaz, citing the words of  a soldier during his days in the defense forces. Nate has a distinct take on  life and leadership, having served in war torn regions during his years with  

the U.S. Marine Corps, before making an uncharacteristic pivot into the  world of Human Resources via a career in strategy consulting. Nate and I  were peers on the HR leadership team, and these debates were integral to  our work in crafting people practices for Accenture. So it was not  surprising that these words have stayed with me years later. 

Our large scale research on mind health in Sapien Labs bears out that  Autonomy is a crucial factor for performance. Yet it is treated by some  suspicion within organizations. Tune in to learn more.

A quick Google search on “habits” returns over 3.6 billion results. From  articles to videos to podcasts to books, there is a plethora of information,  and our desire for forming good habits knows no bounds as we constantly  seek help from peers, coaches and trainers.  

Yet, there seems to be a chasm between our intention to form habits and  our ability to make them stick. Most research suggests that no more than  8%-12% of New Year’s resolutions are successful. Having dealt with  serious health challenges, I too have grappled with forming healthy habits.  Since my career was all about enabling people and teams perform at high  levels, I have explored habits from an organizational lens too.  

Turns out that one oft ignored aspect of habit formation holds the key to  making them stick – our environment. Watch on to learn more… 

As a Human Resources leader, I have dedicated my three decade career to  exploring human potential and fostering high performance in individuals  and teams. In the early years, it appeared that performance was driven by  education and relentless hard work. However, as complexity and scale  increased, effective collaboration emerged as a crucial factor. Serving as  the Chief Learning Officer at Accenture, I recognized that learning and  performance were inextricably linked, and a scientific approach to learning  led to superior organizational outcomes. Later, when tasked with  overhauling an outdated performance management system, it became  evident that focus, leveraging strengths, fostering a strong team culture,  and cultivating honest conversations were the cornerstones of high  performance.  

In recent times, I have had the privilege of collaborating with world-class  scientists, organizational experts and high performance coaches. This  video shares insights into the foundational element that underpins  sustained high performance – a crucial topic for leaders as they navigate  unprecedented challenges. 

“He who has a why can bear almost any how”, said the famous German  philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Some time back I was asked why I do  these videos and what I am hoping to achieve. Here is my why… 

The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of mental  well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize  their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.”  

Our research in Sapien Labs, drawn from over 1.3 million people who have  taken the Mental Health Quotient (MHQ) diagnostic, shows three  concerning findings:

1. The state of mental well-being as described by WHO, i.e. the ability to  function, is declining globally  

2. This crisis is profoundly affecting younger generations. Young adults (18  – 24) are 3-5 times worse off than the oldest working generation. They will  become the largest workforce demographic within the next 5-7 years 

3. Mental well-being directly correlates with performance. People with low  MHQ have 3-5 times lower productivity, and 10-12 times lesser ability to  show up for work, than people who are thriving 

Organizations will increasingly contend with this phenomenon as a greater  proportion of people have lower mental well-being than at any time before.  

So what can they do? We believe that a fundamental mindset shift is  needed from viewing this as an individual phenomenon to an  environmental one. Fostering a healthy environment within organizations  leads to enhanced well-being, and thus better individual and collective  performance. From our research, we have identified four factors that  organizations can directly influence towards sustaining high performance.  Watch on to learn more. 

Do these resonate? Are you actively taking steps towards these?

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” Thomas Edison. 

In my recent videos, I explained why performance management systems  have failed. I also outlined the six universal truths that drive great  performance. So how can these principles be applied in organizations?  

I believe that performance management ought to be architected to elevate  individual and collective performance. The first and possibly biggest  barrier to overcome is arriving at a way to pay people without using  performance ratings. Here is an approach… 

• Separate different components of compensation, i.e. base pay,  bonus, equity 

• Write down principles for each component. They serve a distinct, yet  complementary purpose, and should not be conflated 

• Align compensation budgets according to these principles 

Transparently communicate principles across the organization. In the  words of French philosopher Michel Foucault, “The greatest barrier to trust  is opacity.” 

• Bring leaders together to make compensation decisions on their  people. Principle based decisions when made collectively will have  more fairness than those made individually