Creating High Performance Cultures for Highly Specialised Scientists

Guest Author: Mikael Trolle - Dreams & Details Academy

In a fast changing business environment where it is key to be ahead in the competition and attract talent to be a successful Explorer, one approach that has proven its advantage within sports, art and other businesses, is to build a High Performance Culture.

Most geologists and their friends within geophysics and engineering are passionate about their job – they simply love what they do, and many experience to feel that they have some kind of ‘calling’ in their work. This is the same ‘call’ that police officers, teachers and doctors experience, where they feel part of something bigger than themselves.

The flipside is that highly specialised people can also be very demanding, have high requirements for their bosses and want to work in specific ways, because they are convinced that it is the best way to achieve the target.

The 3 psychological factors that are essential for a well-functioning person: Competencies, autonomy, and feeling of belonging.

(Research by Ryan and Deci, 2000)

But what is it that truly motivates highly specialised scientists, and how can we get people to run in the same direction, unleash their potential and help each other to achieve the best result possible for the team?

How do you get your team to unleash and perform their full potential?
How do you create an engaging and motivating environment?
What kind of leadership model is needed to achieve exactly that?

The Secret Lies In The Motivation

To explain what drives humans to achieve high performance within work, sports and business, we have to take a look at what truly motivates and engages us. In the digital world we live in, employees can easily and continuously discover alternatives and job opportunities that might be more fulfilling and desirable than our current employer has to offer. Nowadays, one can argue that external reward systems, as for example result-oriented bonus systems, are not enough to truly engage and motivate employees to achieve high performance. Why is that?

In Western Europe, 90% of employees say they are satisfied with their job, yet only 15% are actively engaged.

(Gallup Survey ‘State of the Global Workplace’)

Considering Basic Human Needs

On the one hand, we all want a sense of purpose and meaning in our work, a feeling of contributing to something bigger. On the other hand, we want to achieve certain things for ourselves. As basic needs, humans strive for competence, a sense of personal development and autonomy, and a feeling of belonging. If these needs are fulfilled, we reach a feeling of acknowledgement and appreciation, from which we draw a sense of meaning. In short, employees more than ever need their basic human needs fulfilled to find work meaningful.

The Motivational Keyboard To Highlight Challenges and Possibilities

Motivation can be seen as a continuum, ranging from demotivation to extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation (see figure). When motivation is integrated and meaningful, it is a strong driver of engagement. In that case, it responds to our psychological needs, and we see our work as part of our identity.

On the other hand, when motivation is only externally controlled, this bears the risk of developing apathy and alienation, since the work itself is not seen as meaningful. It is then the responsibility of the leader to play the keyboard according to what the situation demands, while trying to hit the high note as much as possible in order to ignite the employees.

Why Traditional Performance Management Is Losing Relevance

The key drivers of a company’s performance are motivation and engagement. Yet, detailed plans and processes dependent on result-oriented rewards, do not usually coincide with integrated motivation. They often become redundant in a changing reality, marked by innovation and disruption, where outcomes are not controllable. Externally controlled motivation, such as bonus systems, only creates a short-term change of patterns. Fully integrated motivation only occurs when there is harmonic interaction between a sense of purpose, and a feeling of development, achievement, and performance on an individual and collective level.

Business units in the top half of employee engagement have a 113% higher success rate within their own company and a 170% higher success rate across business units.

(Gallup Q12)

Establishing a High-Performance Culture

We believe that in order to stay relevant, it is necessary to change focus from externally regulated to integrated or inner motivation. By addressing the psychological conditions for integrated motivation and engagement, it creates the environment for high performance through decentralising decision-making in alignment with organisational strategy.

The responsibility of leaders is to communicate an inspiring and ambitious dream, align the organisational mindset and framework, and thereby translate the dream into identifying and training crucial details that are necessary to achieve the ambition set out for the team or the company.

The Dream: setting the ambition
Establishing and communicating a dream that is clear in direction, ambitious, and inspiring responds to the employees’ need for meaning. This is key in creating integrated meaning-driven motivation, leading to high performance.

The Details: identify what it takes to achieve the ambition
At the same time, a leader has to pay attention to the details constantly. She or he has to help the employees develop those skills and competencies that speak to the highly ambitious dream. This enables the continuous process of optimising the current performance while developing the competencies needed for the future direction. Simultaneously, the leader has to foster collaboration across departments and ensure each individual knows their meaningful role. This drives the continuous development of competencies in relation to strategy and is highly motivating to an employee.

The Platform: enabling people to achieve the ambition
By setting, communicating, and aligning the organisational mindset and framework, employees are empowered to act, make their own decisions, and carry more responsibility. The Platform reflects in increased autonomy from the employees. Making sure that employees internalise the shared mindset and framework will enable them to become decision-makers, creative thinkers, and solution finders.

Organisations following this approach foster employees that engage autonomously through collective mindset and meaning-driven motivation. The leader’s job is to establish a meaningful and relevant dream or ambition as the organisational anchor, create the conditions for employees to succeed in, and continuously develop their competencies.

That way, the leader will unleash the full potential of his or her highly motivated and skilled employees – which is the foundation for a high-performance culture.

Case stories are available in the book Dreams & Details, and you can learn more about the Dreams & Details Academy and be inspired at dreamsanddetails.com