Increasing Performance through Motivation Coaching: Maximizing your team’s performance is the result of addressing both ability and motivation. When performance isn’t what it should be, experience tells us that lack of motivation, not lack of ability is typically the primary cause. Usually people know what to do, but they are not motivated to apply that knowledge consistently. When they are, you tap into their discretionary effort that drives higher levels of productivity and performance.
Consider a bell shaped curve. In any organization the performance distribution of teams follows this curve. To the right of the curve you have a relatively small group of high performers 15-20% (approx) of your team. These people consistently achieve or exceed targets. Coaching observations show them using all necessary behaviors and techniques. These people can be managed on their results as they are consistently doing the right things to achieve organizational target outcomes. To the left of the curve you have a relatively small group of low performers 15-20% (approx) of your team. These people rarely achieve their targets. Often these people are simply in the wrong job. Your organization’s “Performance Management System” is designed to assist you to effectively manage these people. The Untapped Potential: This leaves most of your people sitting in the middle. Between 60-70% of your staff are Core Performers. This group generally accounts for most of your product, service and revenue results. Recent research suggests that a 5% shift in productivity of this group yields over 70% more product, service and revenue than a 5% shift in high-performer productivity. Therefore, taking the traditional management approach and attempting to manage these people on their results is simply ineffective. Moving your core performers to high performers is where your organization will make the most gains!
Move the Middle (Core): The key to managing your core performers and unleashing their potential is to manage their day-to-day behavior. The results you want, don’t just appear. If you want the results of your people to change, then their work behavior needs to change. The way you do this is by reinforcing the critical behaviors you want your people to consistently use. The word “reinforce” means to “strengthen”. So we move the middle by strengthening the use of critical behaviors in your core performers.
