“Inspiring increased performance has always been my battle cry. In my years as a human resources executive, it was what I got up to do every day. If I didn’t help inspire performance, then I did not do my job.”
– Joleen Goronkin, President & CEO
People & Performance Strategies has the same battle cry. This is our mission: Inspire increased performance, one person, one team, one organization at a time. This is what we do and how we do it.
Our role is to partner with the leadership of an organization to develop strategies to increase performance, which leads to increased profits. We talk constantly with CEOs, executives and managers about how to help everyone get better at what they do. Yes, training is important. Employees need to be trained to do their jobs well. It makes everyone feel good and creates higher morale. But are they inspired to perform well?
Certainly, vision and mission statements that define an organization’s purpose and goal can be inspirational. However, for individuals to be truly aligned with that vision and mission, they need to see themselves as a part of it. They need to understand that what they do matters to the organization.
Getting back to PPStrat’s mission “… one person, one team, one organization at a time,” we start with the individual. We have an array of human resources tools at PPStrat to assist organizations, from training program development to leadership coaching, and one of our most effective programs to help organizations inspire increased performance is the Everything DiSC® suite of training and assessment tools. We conduct personal assessments for employees, so everyone understands their personal traits and those of their coworkers. This is one of the building blocks in creating high performing teams.
Everything DiSC® is based on the groundbreaking work of William Moulton Marston and his book, Emotions of Normal People, published in 1928. Marston identified what he called four “primary emotions” and associated behavioral responses, which today we know as Dominance (D): direct, strong-willed and forceful; Influence (i),sociable, talkative and lively; Steadiness (S), gentle, accommodating and soft-hearted; and Conscientiousness (C), private, analytical and logical.
This assessment not only helps people understand themselves better, but helps them understand their team members better as well, making it easier to get along with each other. Once I understand the personal traits of someone I thought was difficult to work with, I can communicate with him or her in a more effective and productive way.
I’ll go into more details about the Five Behaviors in future blog posts, but for now, I’ll tell you that effective workplace teams demonstrate trust, conflict management, commitment, accountability and results. We’ve facilitated the Five Behaviors assessment for many of our clients and it’s helped them understand how to improve teamwork and performance.
When people understand their personal style, they see how who they are and how their work contributes to the overall goal and mission of an organization. This leads us to another effective tool PPStrat administers to help organizations inspire increased performance – the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™. This is an assessment-based learning experience that focuses on the characteristics of high-function teams.
When there is an expressed vision and mission for an organization, when team members know how to effectively work together, and when an individual understands how important his or her contribution is to the organization, performance increases. Now that’s inspiring.
What inspires you? How have you tried to improve team performance? What’s your daily battle cry?
Learn how People & Performance Strategies can help you build a solid, focused team.