The characteristics of high-performance organisations

When you step inside a high-performing organisation, you can often see and feel the difference. 

Yet what exactly are the characteristics that define and bolster a high-performing organisation, and are there any particular secrets to success?

Laying down a solid base

The Liminal Space Founder Shane Glasson FAIM said at the base of high-performing organisations were two equally important elements – trust and psychological safety.

“Trust is the belief in the truth and the reliability of yourself and the people you are working with, whereas psychological safety is a shared belief that it’s safe to try something new, to fail at it and to learn from the experience – of learning without fear of negative personal or professional consequences,” he said.

“Those two things lie at the heart, or the bedrock, of high-performing organisations and both must be authentically modelled and led by all leaders from the top down.”

Setting the foundations

Dr Glasson said building upon the pillars of trust and psychological safety were other equally important supporting components.

“Firstly, there must be a crystal clear vision, which is led from the top of the organisation,” he said. 

“You need to know what you stand for as an organisation and this vision must be simply articulated and not overly complex.

“If the vision can’t be explained in a sentence using simple language, it fails to meet this metric.

“People also need clearly defined roles, so they know exactly what their jobs are, where they fit in an organisation and what they need to do – individually and collectively – to achieve the vision.”

Dr Glasson said the organisation must be comprised of competent people with growth mindsets. 

“These are employees who are very good at what they do, but have a thirst to get better,” he said.

“People must also be able to come together collegially to solve complex problems via the use of their different gifts and skill sets.

“For example, we may be very different people – I might be transactionally very good, and you might be brilliant when working with people – but we come together with a sense of team to use our strengths to cover one another’s differences and solve problems.

“Members of the organisation also need to be willing and able to assist one another to reach their potential, which is about getting out of the silo of your own work to help others to get better at what they do.”

The importance of autonomy

Dr Glasson said employees must be accountable for their work, while effective decision-making processes were also vital. 

“This means not just making a decision based on the most dominant person with the loudest voice – it’s about being very clear about how decisions are made,” he said.

“People must have measurable, clear performance targets they strive to achieve. 

“Additionally, they need to be open to healthy conflict and debate the issue, not the person.”

According to Dr Glasson, engagement with professional challenges is also important to ensure the organisation is ready to tackle any situation it confronts.

“Just like a high-performance sports team, members of the organisation need to regularly take on challenging tasks to be primed to perform,” he said.

“Lastly, teams need to review their progress as a collective before undertaking appropriate professional learning – as individuals and as a team – to amplify identified strengths and close gaps.

“In a high-performance organisation, you have all of these elements happening all the time, underpinned by the foundational pillars of trust and psychological safety.”

Cultural change is the first step

Dr Glasson said a high-performance organisation had to be built and modelled through its leaders, with an absolute focus on creating a constructive culture.

“If you think about a traditional organisation – the chief executive officer and the executive team – they deliberately emphasise and build the culture around the elements mentioned,” he said. 

“They need to model it, hold one another and the members of their teams to account when they drift from high performance and appropriately engage in training and development to build and enhance the components of the high-performance organisation.”

Sir Winston Churchill Fellow, Presenter and Five Alive Program Creator Glenn Capelli agreed, saying the essence of a sustainable high-performance environment is its culture and character of true teamwork, plus an ongoing learning adventure.

He developed the Creating, Leading and Growing High Performance Environments program, where participants enhance their creative, analytical, practical and emotional skills through the Five Alive model.

“In the Five Alive model, there is a theme for each day,” Mr Capelli said.

“Day one is You the Leader, which starts with character and culture – how you do and how you be, as well as what you are about coming through in what you do.

“The research around focusing on character tells us that a genuine focus on helping people be better people affects attendance, productivity and sales in positive ways.

“Organisational Psychologist Adam Grant’s research attributes a 30 per cent improvement in such factors when people feel and know their organisation and team truly cares for their personal development.

“In many ways, the values around character are the foundation for sustainable high-performance environments.”

Dr Glasson said it was important for those in leadership roles to connect with their people.

“This builds what I call leadership osmosis,” he said.

“Lead by walking around and get to know your people well – personally and professionally.

“Connect with them authentically daily regarding issues of personal and professional importance – this will build trust and psychological safety almost automatically. 

“You can’t lead a high-performance organisation or a high-performance culture by sitting in your office.

“You actually have to get out there and build and nurture culture with your people."

Long live the high-performance organisation 

Dr Glasson said that building a well-thought-out internal talent pipeline would ensure an organisation continued to be high-performing.

“A low-performing organisation will not build the contingency into their workforce,” he said. 

“High-performance organisations are on the lookout for appropriate leadership successors within their ranks – they create a talent pipeline and prepare them well.

“If a member leaves the organisation, there’s a high-quality well-prepared successor ready to fill the void. 

“The benefits of this strategy – both in terms of cultural maintenance and financial prudence – are enormous. 

“If there’s a deliberate strategy in place to build and amplify the components for a high-performing organisation, as well as a structured talent pipeline, then you have every chance of creating and sustaining a high-performance culture and organisation.

“It requires an absolute coordinated effort from the leadership of an organisation and a laser-like unequivocal focus on high-performing teams to create a high-performing organisation.”