How to create high performance
The FidesOak® HPT® Model is rooted in a comprehensive study conducted by the Center for Evidence Based Management (CEMBa) in the Netherlands. This study utilised various research sources, including the ABI/INFORM global business database, organisational research, and psychology papers, with a particular focus on high performance and related organisational culture. The study identified five key elements that were consistently found to influence high performance. These elements were then tested for their strength in predicting and influencing organisational culture performance, with Team Cohesion emerging as the most influential factor. However, all five elements demonstrated a significant strength of relationship, underscoring their importance.
The five elements identified in the study form the core of the FidesOak® HPT® Model. From these elements, FidesOak® developed the HPT® Habits Framework, which outlines specific habits that, when consistently demonstrated, contribute to cultivating a high-performing organisational culture. FidesOak® measures organisational culture against these elements and habits, monitoring and trending them throughout project execution. These elements and habits also inform the content of FidesOak®'s workshops and guide our coaching, ensuring a consistent and integrated approach — referred to as the "golden thread" — throughout our programs.
Cohesiveness is the extent to which team members stick together and remain united in the pursuit of a common goal. A team is said to be in a state of cohesion when its members possess bonds linking them to one another and to the team.
Members of a highly cohesive team focus on the process, not the person, they respect everyone on the team, assuming good motives, and they fully commit to team decisions and strategies, creating accountability among the team. Morale is also higher in cohesive teams because of increased team member communication, friendly team environment, loyalty, and team member contribution in the decision-making process.
In supportive leadership, the manager is more interested in giving employees the tools they need to work autonomously. While delegation is a vital part of supportive leadership, leaders do not simply assign tasks and then receive the results. Instead, they work through the tasks with employees to improve skills and talent until the employee is fully empowered in that area. Supportive leadership styles are defined by their approach to emotions, training, and time. They listen carefully to their employees and help them deal with stress and the conflicting personalities of other employees. This requires empathy and a degree of sensitivity that is difficult for some leaders to achieve. Supportive leaders then train employees to deal with issues themselves, as they arise, relying on the leader when necessary but dealing with the problems themselves as much as possible. This requires significant time investment by the leader.
Leaders adopt a blend of Visionary, Affiliative and Coaching styles that improves team skills, trust, adaptability, agility, and accountability.
Recipients of a supportive leadership style report being respected and appreciated, motivating team cohesion, increased commitment and satisfaction with work, reduced stress, increased performance.
Information and knowledge sharing is critical to organisational success. Leaders openly foster an environment of trust to enable information & knowledge sharing behaviours. Trust is particularly important when examining the role of a team leader related to knowledge sharing in teams because an individual’s belief about how honest, reliable and trustworthy their team leader is has a direct influence on the individual’s willingness to disclose information and the extent to which they do so.
High Performing teams create competitive advantage through their ability to produce superior results using the information available and the knowledge that is embedded in the interactions among team members. A combination of utilising information and the cognitive diversity of the team to maximise innovation regarding problem solving and goal execution
Purpose is a powerful driving force of daily behaviour. It’s what drives us forward. There is nothing more powerful than purpose in directing the collaboration of the workforce across multiple channels within an organisation. Purpose comes from having a vision for the organisation, and goals that will deliver it. The vision should be so compelling that your employees can see, and even feel the opportunity that the future holds.
Leaders need to articulate the vision vividly, and support their teams in connected what they do to how this contributes to the delivery of the vision, through a set of goals.
A vision gives team’s a clear sense of purpose so that all members are completely clear about what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how their work relates to what they personally believe in. Individuals in the team see themselves as part of a larger whole and they see where they fit in.
Psychological safety is not about being nice, it is about the ability to be honest with candour, a climate in which people are comfortable expressing and being themselves. More specifically, when people have psychological safety at work, they feel comfortable sharing concerns and mistakes without fear of embarrassment or retribution. They are confident that they can speak up and won’t be humiliated, ignored, or blamed. They know they can ask questions when they are unsure about something. They tend to trust and respect their colleagues. When a work environment has reasonably high psychological safety, good things happen, mistakes are reported quickly so that prompt corrective action can be taken, seamless coordination across groups or departments is enabled and potentially game-changing ideas for innovation are shared. This approach and the climate it creates is at the heart of what builds, motivates and inspires High Performing Teams.
A team enabling psychological safety will always state problems as observational facts in neutral language and engage with the team to explore the problem, ask for solutions and offer support. Encouraging the team to share and discuss problems, errors and failures, and to ask for help.
Within your organisation we can offer 1:1 Executive, Management coaching, as well as ‘feet on the ground’ workforce coaching which is dynamic and within context, using activities and routines as opportunities to coach. Our intent is to leave a legacy where our presence is not longer required as the change has become sustainable by the client, and our withdrawal is unnoticed once the agree outcomes have been delivered.
