7 March 2025
How to create a high-performance culture
Business leaders and employees have always strived for efficiency, productivity, growth and impact, but in the age of rapid technological change and economic uncertainty, achieving these goals requires a fresh approach.
To achieve and sustain high performance, you need to build a culture in your organisation where leaders and employees have a clear vision and shared goals. You need the right people and the right technology to make it happen. You need employees and leaders to be aligned on what high performance really looks like. Here’s how to get started.
Defining high performance
No two high-performance organisations (HPOs) look the same, and how you measure high performance in your organisation depends on sector, size, services and products. High performance is also impacted by the wider economic climate, which is not currently at its brightest in the UK.
However, globally leading business theorist André de Waal has defined a framework for spotting an HPO: “[It’s] an organisation that achieve[s] both financial and non-financial results that are increasingly better than those of its peer group over a period of five years or more.” Essentially, high performance means sustainable productivity, but to achieve this you’ll need to build a high-performance culture where employees and leaders are working towards the same goals.
De Waal’s five factors of high performance
So, how do you go about creating and sustaining a high-performing organisation? De Waal’s framework is a good place to start. His research shows there is a direct correlation between these 5 HPO factors and organisational results:
1. Management quality
Managers of an HPO will treat employees fairly and respectfully. They are honest, consistent, and action-focused decision makers. They coach employees in achieving better results and maintain clear accountability for performance.
2. Openness and action orientation
In an HPO, management frequently opens the dialogue with employees and involves them in all important business processes.
3. Long-term orientation
An HPO prioritises long-term gain over short-term profit and maintains long-term relationships with stakeholders and customers.
4. Continuous improvement and renewal
People at an HPO continuously strive for the best results and innovate new products or services to meet market needs.
5. Employee quality
An HPO has a diverse workforce and continuously develops by training employees to be resilient and flexible.
Creating a high-performance culture
To create a high-performance culture, you need to start from the foundations of your organisation, and this can sometimes mean unlearning old ways. “If you look at leaders, entrepreneurs, athletes, performers – anyone at the top of their game – they leave strategies behind and adopt new ones to get to the next level”, says award-winning entrepreneur Anisa Morridadi.
She believes learning from mistakes is a key factor: “A critical element of high performance is visionary leadership. You have to create an environment where people can recognise the boundaries, push past them and learn from the results”. When managers allow employees to take risks and learn from mistakes, you’ll start to create a high-performance culture.
De Waal echoes this, citing continuous learning as one of the most important behaviours that drives high performance. What’s the only type of mistake you’re never allowed to make in an HPO? “The same mistake,” he says.
Prioritising learning to achieve high performance
As well as learning from mistakes, employees need to learn new skills, too. Learning is one area where the UK has fallen behind. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, average employer spending on training has fallen by 27% since 2011. This directly impacts productivity and performance at all levels of an organisation.
According to Dan Morris, CEO of Cornwall Insight, high performance looks like “matching someone’s skills with their passion and the needs and the purpose of the organisation”. To ensure your employees have the right skills to suit the purpose of your organisation, it’s worth identifying skill gaps and implementing upskilling or reskilling programs.
Digital learning, social learning, and on-the-job learning are modern ways of training employees that have long-lasting effects, and when employees have the skills they need to succeed, they’re better equipped to fuel high performance in their organisation.
How technology contributes to high performance
Morridadi believes that strong systems are a key element of high performance: “You don’t rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.” At MHR, our aim is to bring people and technology together to drive sustainable high performance. Our recent research revealed that 100% of leaders and 99% of employees surveyed believe that technology is a vital factor in achieving high performance.
Ultimately, organisations must harness the relationship between people and technology in order to achieve – and sustain – a high level of performance. While good technology alone won’t deliver an HPO, De Waal acknowledges it’s hard to deliver and sustain high performance without it: “Without technology, I don’t think you can become an HPO, but it’s not enough [on its own]. It’s got to combine with the people.”
This is a shortened version of an article produced by and published on Telegraph.co.uk – read the full article here.
Uncover the secrets of high performance
Put theory into practice with the next webinar in our World of Work 2050 series. We’ll be talking to globally leading business theorist André de Waal to give you the next steps to take to become a high-performance organisation.
