Activity
Close your eyes with me for a moment and think about your year ahead and your vision for a successful year in the midst of all the transition we are going through. Imagine your team. Imagine them all knocking it out of the park, having the best year possible. Now think about the grit, achievement, and wow factor each member of the team—and yourself—has shown. Think about the things you have overcome together. Think about how fulfilled you will feel when you look back at the end of 2025. Open your eyes and write a plan for your year. Take 20 minutes and don’t overthink it. Iterate. Focus.
High Performance
I realised as I reviewed my LinkedIn posts from 2024 that I’d spent most of the words on the power (what others call soft) skills of leadership. You can find the list of those at the end of this article - if you missed any! As the best leaders out there will know, only too well, it's in these power skills that you really have the strengths to be a great leader. All leaders also know that you have to deliver results and with all the power skills in the world you won’t substitute for missing performance. So how do we square this? How can we measure, manage, and lead for high performance?
So you’ll be wondering why I started you with the closed eyes activity? The first step to squaring this is to have a strong perspective of what high performance means for this year in your head and plans. Check out the articles and AI Coach here at Change-Maker.Coach that lead you through getting clear on purpose, values, methods, obstacles, and measures. Basically the exercise is getting you to be ambitious and realistic with what you can achieve this year, and put it into something like a V2MOM - a great technique I learnt from my Salesforce days.
Now we’ve got that clear we have to start with the end in mind for measuring performance. The eagle eyed will have spotted the highlighted words: grit; achievement; wow. Too much focus in my experience - leading teams from sales, to customer success, to operations etc - is placed on getting SMART goals right. SMART goals are your basics, without them we don’t have the qualifying conditions for performance at all, let alone high performance. To get high performance and sustainable high performance at that we need to balance performance review across: the grit and work ethic people show every day in trying to get the job done through thick and thing; the achievement of those goals we set at the milestones we set; and the wows and surprises that we get from people as they do things and find ideas and connections that delight.
Some of you might be saying. I get you Stuart but I can’t measure all of these things so how can I be consistent and transparent? Perhaps an example will help. For many years I helped lead Sales teams and I’ve consulted on driving performance to many top organisations. Sales is perhaps the easiest function (especially with top class CRM software to help) to measure and incentivise performance. But the best organisations, who get the top growth, know that it goes beyond measuring the money against targets. Their top sales people are:
The most active and the most targeted = quantity and quality of engagement stats = Grit
The best closers = $$ vs target = Achievement
The most creative deal makers = deal size, product spread, new clients = Wow
All of these are measurable. Together they give you high performance that lasts. Add in some team deliverables and your mission is more secure. Together they give you a clear perspective of potential success too. Across each of these areas adding quality of decision making and you’re also reviewing your leaders.
Grit + Achievement + Wow = High Performance
Interesting? Need help developing and nurturing your workforce for high performance in these times of change and huge workforce transition. Get in touch!
Reviewing 2024 Practical Acts of Leaders Articles
Well that was 2024. #PracticalActs #ChangeLeadership
Taking risks and building agility - in risk adverse environments
Rules for Voting / Picking Leaders - be confident things can change!
If you would like things to get better, to change, vote for it!
Introducing Change-Maker.Coach: Empowering Leaders for Transformative Change
Further Reading
WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025: The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 highlights a pivotal moment for global workforces. By 2030, 170 million new jobs will emerge, yet 92 million will be displaced—a net increase of 78 million roles. The challenge? Bridging the skills gap.
Grit - High-grit employees consistently demonstrate perseverance and passion towards long-term goals. They view setbacks as learning opportunities, maintain their focus and motivation even in the face of challenges, and show a strong work ethic and commitment to their responsibilities.
Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101.
Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (GRIT–S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174.
Achievement - High achievers consistently exceed expectations by not only meeting their SMART goals but also demonstrating initiative and creativity in their approach. They proactively seek out challenges, effectively utilize resources, and consistently deliver high-quality results that contribute significantly to team and organizational objectives.
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717.
Rubin, R. S. (2002). Will the real SMART goals please stand up? The Executive, 16(2), 86-95.
Wow - High-Wow employees consistently go above and beyond expectations, generating innovative ideas and delivering exceptional results that surprise and delight both colleagues and customers. They proactively build strong relationships across the company, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing. Their work has a noticeable positive impact on team morale, customer satisfaction, and potentially even the broader organization.
Fleming, J. H., & Asplund, J. (2007). Human sigma: Managing the employee-customer encounter. Gallup Press. This book explores the link between employee engagement and customer satisfaction, highlighting the importance of creating "wow" moments that foster loyalty and advocacy.
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Harvard Business Press. While focused on organizational change, Kotter emphasizes the role of creating a sense of urgency and generating short-term wins to motivate and inspire action, elements that contribute to a "wow" factor within a team.
