Creating a High-Performance Culture

As a leader, one of the most important gifts you can possess is an ability to bring out the best in your people. 

Creating a high-performance culture in any business, big or small, is about putting your people first…because your people are the ones that directly influence the reputation of your business.

There are many ways to do this, but the one I want to talk to you about today is your ability to set an example. Whether you are the business owner or you manage a group of people in a business you have set an example for how you expect people to be treated. 

How Do You Treat Your Team Members?

Those people that work for you, work with you…how you treat them is everything!  

Your job is to create an environment that excites people – a place where they enjoy being every day. When you treat your people with respect, they will respect you, they will respect your business and they will respect your clients / customers.

Many years ago, when I worked with a big customer service department one of my managers came to me to complain about one of his representatives. The staff member was middle-aged woman who was married and had two children. She was friendly and, in most cases, came to work did her job. 

Was she giving 100%? 

I don’t think she was, and I quickly found out why once the manager gave me the first set of clues. “She has to be told what to do on every call. Every time she has a simple question, I end up taking over the call because she doesn’t know how to handle the customer.”

I was in the break room the next morning and she came in to get some coffee. I said, “hey you, how are you doing?”  

She shrugged her shoulders and said okay. She guessed.

We started chatting and I invited her into my office and invited her to sit down. I asked her how her kids were doing, and she beamed from ear to ear as she shared some wonderful news about her oldest and how proud she was of her youngest in starting a new school. 

I remembered hiring her and how intelligent she seemed when we interviewed her and just now in my conversation with her…this behavior that the manager described to me seemed out of character for her. 

We chatted for a few minutes more, when she thanked me for the time and signaled that it was almost 9AM. She needed to get to her desk to prepare for her day. 

That day I made a point to be out on the call center floor and in her section. 

And then I saw it… 

She put her customer on hold and raised her hand for assistance. I saw her manager roll his eyes when he saw her hand go up. I got a sick feeling in my gut when I saw her reaction to his behavior.

As he made his way over to her, his body was sending some concerning signals. He seemed bored, uninterested and especially bothered. And he made her feel like an intrusion in his day.

Her request was to have an authorization removed from a customer’s credit card account - these were standard customer service requests and representatives could request manager approval to have the hold removed. 

A simple request that any representative on the floor could handle. As she described the circumstances for her request, he dropped his shoulders and reached out his hand to take the phone from her. He finished up the call, handed her back the phone and walked away.

She hung up the phone and dropped her head. I could see the feeling of embarrassment on her face. And then she lifted her shoulders and put her head up and took her next call.

I walked up to the manager and asked, “what happened there?”

He said…it was a request for an authorization removal, and I had to take the call to tell the customer that we couldn’t release the authorization.  

After some more questions I found that the representative was within her guidelines to ask for the removal. The manager simply had to approve the request and walk away, but that isn’t what he did.

As a leader you have to know how your behavior can affect those people around you. This manager was leaving someone that worked for us feeling deflated…every…single…day. 

I felt that we had let her down. I have no idea why she stayed.

Empowerment Over Everything

Empowering people you work with is critical, for so many reasons. Empowerment is about encouraging your team to use their creative talents when situations arise. But most importantly it is supporting them to do their best work – not swooping in to save the day every time there is a sign of trouble. (And in this case, even when there is no trouble.)

Being a high-performance leader is about managing the people process and empowering your team is a huge part of the people process.

This manager understood empowerment – but he wasn’t using it and his team suffered. He forgot the most important leadership practice…bringing out the best in your people. 

Remember, you can’t do this alone. Most businesses require a team that works together and collaborates to make extraordinary things happen.

Leadership Guidance Review:

• Make your people feel strong and powerful. 

• Make them feel capable to handle issues when they arise.

• Find ways to empower your people so they can use their creative talents.