What makes a high performance organisation?

Six steps to success

There are six factors that we believe contribute most to the performance of any organisation. Here we’ve summarised the practical things you can do to ensure your business is a high-performing organisation and how you can unlock opportunities for growth.

Strategy

Strategy is all about making choices for your business – what you will do, and more importantly, what you won’t do. Everyone in the team is essentially a strategist in their own role and it’s important that they’re aligning to the same outcome. Making strategy a team effort helps foster new ideas and is a great way to engage your people. It can help to first define your ‘winning aspiration’ – what winning looks like to your company – and go from there. Display your strategy around the office – your team will work together better when they share a common goal.

Once a year is no longer enough when it comes to focusing on your business strategy. Start looking at this more frequently. Consider what’s most important for your business. Is it offering the best client experience? Being available in the most number of locations? Or perhaps offering the best value in the market. When it comes to your business strategy, less is more. Focusing on specific, measurable outcomes will help you achieve your business goals.

External focus

How could your data help your business grow? Making sense of your data and using it to make smarter decisions could be key to offering your clients a better experience.

Some of the types of data you can capture include behavioural, transactional and preferences. Start simple – look at the information you’re already capturing and then build on that with additional insights. Ask your clients to fill out a survey or send them a feedback request. If you talk to your clients regularly in person, ask if they’d be happy to answer a couple of questions – you’re working on enhancing their experience, so more often than not they’ll be happy to help.

Another way to improve your clients’ experience is to put yourself in their shoes. Take a step back and look at how they’re experiencing your service. Examine data to see where they’re engaging and where they’re not. You might be able to simplify certain processes while working on features that aren’t being used to their full capability.

Leadership

Many high-performing businesses are rethinking the way leadership works. The role of a leader is shifting from a ‘top down hierarchy’ to one of empowerment. Good leaders know that a good idea can come from anywhere, so it’s important to ensure that everyone within the business has a voice and feels comfortable sharing ideas. Spend time coaching and mentoring others – this is how you cultivate the next generation of leaders. When your team has a sense of ownership of their roles and responsibilities, this helps create a culture of collective leadership.

Environment

Does your business environment shape the way your people work? The quick answer is yes. The essential ingredients for a high-performing organisation are flexibility, mobility, simplicity and agility.

Today’s workplaces are about bringing people together to collaborate and share ideas. While a big open-plan workspace is great for working on projects together, it’s also important to ensure your office has smaller, more private areas that can be used for quiet work, phone calls and meetings. So when you’re redesigning your office space, think about what the appropriate space should be for specific functions of work.

Technology is a crucial part of making your workspace a highly functional one. Your people should be able to move around the office effortlessly with their devices, and those working flexibly need to be able to engage with the rest of the team. Consistent Wi-Fi connectivity and video conferencing are fairly simple ways to make this happen. Other details like standing desks, ergonomic furniture and natural light help to create a high-functioning environment. 

People

You don’t have a high-performing organisation without high-performing people. But how can you ensure you attract, recruit and retain the right people for your business while empowering them to achieve their full potential?

First of all, money isn’t always the top driver. Flexibility, such as the opportunity to be able to work from home or choose their own hours, is important to people and boosts productivity. Other drivers of engagement include a belief in leadership, clarity of expectations, and a sense of respect and recognition.

Every person in your business plays a part in making your organisation a high-performing one. When it comes to hiring, don’t rush in and hire someone just to fill the gap; taking the time to ensure a new team member is the right fit is crucial.

Encourage all your staff to contribute ideas and be as productive as they can be. Open their minds to new opportunities, whether it be a new role that they wouldn’t typically see themselves in or a secondment to another part of the business.

Culture

Businesses often have a deeply entrenched culture that can be hard to change. So what does a high-performance culture look like? An engaged and energetic team that’s delivering results is a key indicator of a culture that’s working. If your workplace culture isn’t at the level you want it to be, it’s important to know how to recognise opportunities where you could improve it. Try sending your staff an engagement survey – make it anonymous so you can get honest feedback on what’s working and what needs to be improved.

Ensure your leaders are walking examples of the culture you’re striving for. They should be setting the behaviour for the rest of the team. It’s also important to do things as a team outside of work tasks. Celebrating events together is a great way to help everyone feel motivated and included – it might be getting together to celebrate a birthday or promotion, or even Friday morning coffee runs. 

How can we help you?

We offer a range of solutions to help your business become a high-performing one, including:

• funding a business acquisition
• restructuring debt or equity release
• regearing the balance sheet to impact valuation
• funding a buy in or succession plan
• effective cash flow management tools
• cash flow or goodwill lending
• improving back office efficiencies
• leadership networks and insights.