Workplace culture was heavily transformed due to the occurrence of the COVID pandemic. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible.
The pandemic has forced the adoption of new ways of working. Organizations are reimaging their work and the role of offices in creating safe, productive, and enjoyable jobs and lives for employees.
Employee productivity and high performance is a consistent challenge that many businesses continue to struggle with. Many managers feared that employee productivity would take a huge dip with the introduction of a work-from-home system.
An article from Forbes (2021) shares research that clearly showed that was not the case, and in fact, productivity generally grew as people gained more control over their workday and were stripped of the various distractions that blight us in a physical office. Productivity throughout the COVID period remained stable, or in many cases actually risen, during the Covid-19 pandemic in which remote working has become the norm for many knowledge workers.
Further evidence comes from the University of Southampton’s Work After Lockdown study, which aims to take a more objective look at the productivity of remote workers during the pandemic. The survey asked over 1,000 people about their productivity while working from home. Labor productivity was gauged using output per hour worked.
This method aimed to overcome focusing just on the number of hours worked. Respondents were asked whether their productivity felt higher during the pandemic than it was before. The results suggest that 54% of people thought it had gotten higher for every hour they worked than it was before the pandemic.
We can appreciate from the above-stated facts that remote working for employees had a surprisingly positive turnaround. Resources from SHRM however shares that despite the positive results recorded during the pandemic, many employers want employees to return to the workplace. Some employees, feeling isolated, want to return. Managers and business owners are currently considering how these transitions will be affecting high performance among employees.
Whether your team will be adopting a hybrid work culture of both remote and in-office work systems, or taking up either of the two options, it is pertinent that teams are well adapted to the changes to perform optimally.
Here are some of the best contributions from some Forbes Contributors on how the aspects of high-performance can be brought together cohesively to help our teams achieve their personal and corporate business goals.
Genine Wilson, Kelly Services speaks on personal excellence. She reiterates that although many factors play a part in a sustainable high-performing team, personal excellence is a must. Individual team members must hold themselves accountable for showing up in excellence every day.
By doing this, other teammates may be positively influenced to thrive. It is true that “iron sharpens iron”. A consistent culture of excellence amongst the entire team driven by personal accountability is the way to go.
Rohini Shankar, CIOX Health touches on respect and trust. He says, “To be a high-performing team, it is really critical for the team to have respect and trust, be able to throw blind passes and hold each other accountable with hard candid debates and conversations to get to the best answer for the business. High-performing teams look forward to solving together, winning together and having fun together.”
While there are many elements that make up a cohesive and successful team, communication is one of the most essential building blocks. Especially now, as so many teams are forced to work remotely, employees and managers must make an extra effort to communicate regularly using video and messaging software in order to ensure projects are completed and team unity is maintained – John Feldmann, Insperity.
To add to John’s take, now that employees may be coming back into the office, in-person communication may also pose a challenge to many and employees must be armed with the requisite soft skills to effectively communicate with one another.
High-performing teams have the freedom and flexibility to make decisions in real-time rather than waiting for management approval. While some decisions may need to be rolled back upon review, team members who work in specific areas of the company on a daily basis are the best equipped to make processes more efficient, and allowing them to do so will help the team pivot faster and perform better – Laura Spawn, Virtual Vocations, Inc.
The life of a high-performer is not about the past or even the future; it is always about the present. The present is the most important chance we will ever get in creating the future we want for ourselves. Our lives are driven by our habits and mindsets. What we continually do is what amounts to the results we have.
Our habits can slow our momentum, destabilize us emotionally and bring our lives to a complete halt. But our daily activities do not need to wear us out to the point where we do not want to live anymore.
Here are my keys for how both employees and managers can perform optimally regardless of where they work from.
- PRESENCE
As busy corporate workers or entrepreneurs, it is very easy to get stuck in the routine. Many of us have developed bad habits we did not realize existed until things got terrible. This is simply because we got stuck in the routine of doing things.
We failed to be present, to bring our consciousness and thinking to carefully analyze our decisions and our actions. Being present does not mean focusing on all the troubles you are facing currently.
Being present means recognizing that you have challenges, tuning your mind to accept the circumstances, and more importantly thinking forward to find solutions to those challenges. In the case of work, employees and managers must be able to tune their minds to adjust to the possible changes that may present themselves as different workplace transitions occur.
- BUILD NEW HABITS
According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40% of our behaviors on any given day. Understanding how to build new habits (and how your current ones work) is essential for making progress in your work. High performance is a lifestyle. Day in and day out, you have to ask yourself how the day went.
What worked well and what did not work out so great? Why did things not go as planned? If you achieved an extraordinary feat, how did you get it done? Do not wait for your whole life to come to a halt before you analyze your habits. Reflect on your day on a daily basis so you can build new habits where there are loopholes.
- TEAM ALIGNMENT
While elaborating on the success factors that drove a group of high-performance teams, Francine Katsoudas, chief people officer for Cisco – a company renowned for its growth and innovation – says, “Teams with shared values in where they are going perform better.” It should not matter where employees work from.
What matters is alignment, shared values and clear communication. Managers and leaders must consistently communicate what the values and goals for the company are, and encourage employees to work in unison towards those goals. When team members start believing that they can win together, they get more done.
Shared values, a high-level of interaction, and a sense of trust among members – aspects that constitute a cohesive team, increase productivity in great measure. The Harvard Business Review recommends this based on results garnered from work advising some of the world’s most high-performing firms on how to accelerate transformation and drive growth: successful leaders strive to identify shared values and build change upon common ground.
This means that managers need to not only evaluate technical skills but also to clearly communicate their organization’s shared mission and hire people who will be inspired to dedicate their talents to it.
- ADAPTABILITY
When you are able to change something or yourself to fit occurring changes you demonstrate adaptability in the workplace. You can apply adaptability no matter your field of work or business operation. It is one of the processes that is highly appreciated when it comes to work and even your personal life.
It is therefore one of the traits every leader, manager and those aspiring to get to the top need to learn, and practice continuously until it becomes part of their lifestyle. Being to adapt at the workplace is important for a number of reasons. For one, employers value employees that are successfully able to manage changes in the workplace. In addition, the more adaptable you are, the more productive you will be overall.
To sum up this article, I reiterate what is necessary for every organisation to succeed. Very little matters about where our people work from, and more about the culture of work being nurtured in the diverse talents being hired. “The difference between success and failure will not be in the formulation of job descriptions and compensation packages but in the ability to articulate a higher purpose. That begins with a clear sense of shared mission and values.” – Harvard Business Review.
Are you ready for TRANSFORMATION?
Dzigbordi K. Dosoo: The H.E.L.P. Coach
Dzigbordi K. Dosoo is a Soft Skills Expert, Personal Impact, Professional Growth and Influence Expert specializing in Humanness, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Power – H.E.L.P.
A career spanning over two decades, she has established herself as a Certified High Performance Coach, Speaker, Author, Wellness Expert and award-winning Entrepreneur with a clientele ranging from C-Suite Executives, Senior Management, Practitioners and Sales Leaders spanning 3 continents.
She is the Soft Skills Expert and Founder of Dzigbordi K. Dosoo (DKD) Holdings; a premier lifestyle business group with brand subsidiaries that include Dzigbordi Consulting Group& Allure Africa.
Dzigbordi has been featured on CNN for her entrepreneurial expertise. She is one of the most decorated female entrepreneurs in Ghana having being named “CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year” in 2009; “Top 10 most respected CEOs in Ghana, 2012; Global Heart of Leadership Award and, Women Rising “100 Most Influential Ghanaian Women”, 2017.
She can be reached on [email protected] and @dzigbordikwaku across all social media platforms.
