OPINION | Wednesday, 18 July 2007

Dr Vanessa Borg

Stewardship Drive for Performance Optimisation

Management by objectives, appraisals, key result areas, key performance indicators, ratings, reviews, performance gaps, leadership competencies, succession planning and other performance related tools have all, at one time or another, been used to measure and cultivate higher performance levels. In spite of this, however, the difference between the real meaning of the term ‘Performance Optimisation’ and its interpretation is still not clear to many.
For employees to go that extra mile and improve their performance, their set
of skills and talents need to be recognised and optimised to their full potential. This is where ‘Stewardship’ comes into play.
Stewardship is not just about having motivated and committed employees, but about taking these same qualities to a higher level. Employees who evolve into ‘Stewards’ are in a better position to ensure that their organisation’s vision is achieved. In so doing, they will take the organisation’s interest to heart and even place it before their very own interests. They will accept it as part and parcel of their own psyche and self-image, and will perceive the organisation’s successes as their own.
In order to nurture a ‘Stewardship’ frame of mind in every employee, organisations need to add a key ingredient to their existing strategy for success - the employees’ cumulative strength in its full force. By bringing to the fore all employees’ talents, the human resources muscle of the organisation will grow. This will make employees want to carry high the organisation’s flag and at the same time, give them the same exhilaration as when they succeed within their own personal lives.
By building on this stewardship drive, employees will think like entrepreneurs and come to understand that they are constantly in a position to enhance the organisation’s market value through their actions. In so doing they will embrace the organisation as if it was their own. Once they believe in their product, they will master it and became ‘Product Enhancers’.
Employees need to feel and own the brand, but in order to do so, they need to feel more empowered. ‘Being the Brand’ and ‘Empowerment’ are like Siamese twins. ‘Being the Brand’ is something vibrant, something all employees need to care about. It requires passion. When the brand identity is owned by employees, empowerment becomes part and parcel of the formula, as employees become even stronger Brand Leaders, with an appetite to do things that matter to all stakeholders alike.
Some organisations cast their employees as stars of performance optimisation, with little, if any, backing support to help them achieve challenging objectives. Developing a performance-oriented culture is certainly the way forward to sustainable growth. However, the process of asserting that employees’ output becomes strongly aligned with organisational goals requires a structured approach that is strong enough to provide strategic direction, yet flexible enough to allow employees to be and act extraordinary…in other words, to be ‘Stewards’.
For organisations to recognise extraordinary behaviour, they need to have structures in place that will identify their employees’ capabilities. Of equal importance to ‘Budget Week’, organisations need to organise a ‘Talent Review Process Week’. During this ‘Talent Week’, executives sitting at the Strategic apex will meet up with employees that have been short listed as ‘high-fliers’. They will review the talents within that particular group for potential opportunities, challenging projects, organisational representation and other openings that could be of mutual benefit to both employer and employee.
In order for employees to go the extra mile and perform better than ever, organisations need to do more, and think outside the box. Many managers are sent on performance management courses, where they learn valuable new skills, only to go back to 300 emails at the office and promptly forget all about their newly acquired knowledge. The first step in improving performance is to get the buy-in from the ‘entrenched’ managers. They need to develop a performance process that facilitates this journey and fires-up employees’ enthusiasm and potential to reach higher targets. They need to gain an ‘edge in understanding’ of how they can meet current market conditions, stay ahead of future market changes, and set industry best practices along the way.
Organisations need to identify their ‘unique selling points’ and analyse which of these differentiate them from their competitors to the extent that they stand out as leaders in the industry. In any organisation, during the process of conducting an intra-firm analysis, one core competency will, almost certainly, keep surfacing above the rest - ‘Talented Employees’.
Competitors may be in a position to copy products, services offered and other organisational brainwaves, but there is one crucial element that is not easily copied; the composition of the organisation’s workforce.
Stewardship drive needs to be evident in all levels of employees, be they on the front line or at the strategic apex level. Everyone needs to sit side-by-side in making tactical and strategic progress. Organisations must unleash the capability of their employees, enabling them to provide results in ways they were not required to do in the past. In today’s embattled business climate, companies are struggling to maintain the main outcomes; profit, survival, growth.
In this day and age, when employees come and go, loyalty is more important than ever. But in order for employees to feel they belong to the organisation, there needs to be ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ loyalty; loyalty to the organisation and loyalty to the trade or industry. For this to grow, organisations must believe in quality of work life and constantly be in possession of an ever-expanding basket of goods that will keep the knowledge pool of people close to shore and the stewardship drive at its maximum.
By taking human resources practice to the next dimension, performance management models, supported by stewardship drive, provide strategists with a clear direction on the behaviours to be nurtured in the process of aligning employee effort to organisational goals. Structured performance models serve as a powerful insight for business leaders who are endeavouring to drive their organisational resources towards optimum outcomes. They also provide them with tools for conducting an in-depth fitness test of their organisation. ‘Historically, smart people have always turned to where the money was. Today, money is turning to where the smart people are’ (Financial Times, June 2003).
In order for the organisation to attract enterprising individuals, it must pay attention to people, their actions, their stories, their outcomes and display passion for them. For the marriage to work between employer and the employee, there needs to be a human resources chemistry that will serve as a ‘magnet’ in building a quality work-life that thrives on its successes.

Dr Vanessa Borg is a Council Member of the Malta Institute of Management and Director on the MIM training arm. She is also general manager research and development at Corinthia Head Office