High Performance Employee Behaviors: What's the Recipe for Business Success?
What if you could bottle that high performance magic and sprinkle it throughout every team in your organization? What would that mean for your company's performance, innovation, and overall success?
This guide discusses:
- some behaviors and characteristics that high performers have in common;
- the science behind what drives excellence at work;
- how to measure and improve it.
This isn't just a list of desirable behaviors; it's a guide to embedding these behaviors into the fabric of your organization.
🌟 8 High performance employee behaviors
High-performance employee behaviors refer to the actions and attitudes exhibited by employees that consistently lead to exceptional results and positively impact the organization's success. These behaviors go beyond just meeting job requirements and demonstrate excellence, initiative, and commitment.
High-performing employees are often recognized as valuable assets and can inspire and elevate the performance of their peers.
High performance behaviors are essential for teams who want to meet shared goals in any organization. These behaviors go beyond technical skills and qualifications to include elements such as communication, adaptability, leadership, and teamwork.
The Psychology of High Performance by the American Psychological Association defines high performance as…"...resulting from demonstrated engagement and achievement in a domain at a level acknowledged by domain experts and gatekeepers as meeting benchmarks of exceptional performance for a particular stage of the talent development trajectory."
Competency models are a great place to organize desired employee behaviors based on your company culture and the necessities for specific roles.
Assess your employees for the skills and competencies they need to succeed in their roles.
These might include some of the following:
Proactivity and initiative
Proactivity and taking initiative show that an employee is motivated, can take responsibility for their work, and wants to contribute to the team's success.
In a team environment, proactivity could look like:
- Identifying new opportunities and suggesting ideas for improvement.
- Taking on additional tasks or projects without being asked.
- Anticipating potential problems and finding solutions before they arise.
Effective communication
High-performance employees have excellent people skills and can effectively communicate with others. In a team setting, this could involve:
- Active participation in meetings and discussions.
- Providing constructive feedback to team members.
- Displaying clear interpersonal and relational abilities.
Adaptability and flexibility
Adaptability is being able to adjust to changing situations and environments, never more crucial than since the turn of the decade. High-performing team members are:
- Open to new ideas and approaches.
- Quick to adjust to unexpected changes or challenges.
- Willing to learn new skills and take on different roles within the team.
Reliability and consistency
Being reliable and consistent provides peers and managers with the reassurance that they can depend on you to deliver results and meet deadlines. High-performance employees demonstrate reliability by:
- Fulfilling commitments and following through on tasks.
- Maintaining a consistent level of quality in their work.
- Meeting deadlines and communicating any delays or issues proactively.
Continuous growth mindset and hunger for improvement
Being hungry for improvement is a hallmark of having a growth mindset, which is the belief that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through consistent effort. People keen to continuously learn do the following:
- Actively seek out feedback to improve performance.
- Constantly look for ways to develop new skills and knowledge.
- Embrace challenges and view failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Leadership and influence
High-performance employees are not just focused on their own success but also carry out leadership tasks that help others reach their full potential. They support the organization by:
- Mentoring and coaching team members.
- Empowering others to take on new challenges and responsibilities.
- Advocating for the team's goals and promoting a positive work culture.
➡️ Check out these 18 leadership skill examples for further insights.
Self-awareness and introspection
The ability to reflect on one's strengths and weaknesses is crucial for personal growth and development. Self-aware employees practice introspection by:
- Seeking feedback and taking criticism constructively.
- Regularly evaluating their own performance and identifying areas of improvement.
- Being open to self-development opportunities.
Motivated by development goals
High-performance employees are driven by personal and professional expectations and development goals that align with the organization's objectives. They are:
- Proactive in exploring new training opportunities for learning and growth.
- Keen to reach each development milestone to stay on track with their learning journey.
- Invested in achieving long-term career success within the company.
➡️ Check out these 28 inspiring development goal examples to see this in action.
🧠 The psychology behind high performance: What drives employees to go above and beyond
It's interesting to explore what makes employees strive for excellence. In an era where workers applaud quiet quitting as a way to set boundaries and prioritize well-being above all else, what motivates employees to push themselves to achieve high performance?
Researchers have long explored different motivation theories, including the following:
- Instinct theory: The idea that behaviors are innate and driven by our natural, automatic, and unlearned responses to specific stimuli.
- Arousal theory: Yerkes-Dodson Law suggests that performance is best at a moderate level of arousal and decreases at high or low levels.
- Expectancy theory: When people feel motivated to act in a certain way based on their expectation that the effort will lead to a desired outcome, such as achieving a pay rise or promotion.
- Self-determination theory: Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's theory focuses on the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. For example, intrinsic motivators might be a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction, while extrinsic motivators could include rewards or recognition.
- Goal-setting theory: The idea that setting specific and challenging goals can increase motivation and performance.
But what do any of these theories look like in the wild? Google had the same question in 2012 when they launched Project Aristotle to reveal the secret sauce behind high performing teams.
The company had previously cared about "who" was part of a team, for example, highly skilled engineers, people with PhD level education, and the right blend of extroverted and introverted characters.
However, the project research revealed that this focus on team composition was misguided.
After conducting 200 interviews with Googlers from 180 teams, where they studied 250 attributes such as interests, rewards, and team socialization, researchers discovered only two behaviors that mattered:
- Equality in team conversations: The research found that the team's collective intelligence decreased if only one person or a small group regularly contributed to discussions.
- High social sensitivity: The ability to read non-verbal cues, such as tone of voice and facial expression, to foster an environment of psychological safety. People feel comfortable suggesting new ideas and challenging the status quo when they sense their contributions will be valued.
So, while motivation theories are an interesting starting point for understanding what drives high performance, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. It's important to recognize that individuals and teams have unique dynamics, but focusing on these two core behaviors is essential to success.
📈 How to translate high performance behaviors into measurable outcomes
Now you understand what high performer characteristics look like, how can you encourage these behaviors to achieve individual and organizational success?
Here are some ideas.
Set benchmarks for high performance
Create a behavior anchor scale that outlines the expected high performance behaviors. Providing real-world examples can help employees recognize the tangible actions they need to take and identify areas for improvement.
➡️ Check out these performance rating scale examples to learn how to do this.
Use tools and platforms for documenting and monitoring performance
While you could manually collate and monitor high performance behaviors, technology can make this process more efficient. Use tools and platforms to:
- Set development goals.
- Track progress towards these goals.
- Share feedback and recognition.
➡️ Learn more about the breadth of features available in performance management tools to help build high performing employees and teams.
Enable continuous feedback and communication flows
It's easy for employees to read and understand what high performance looks like. But it's another thing to keep these behaviors top of mind and demonstrate them throughout the working day. A great way to make this happen is through ongoing feedback and communication flows, which might include:
- regular one-to-one meetings between managers and employees;
- team check-ins or huddles where high performance behaviors are discussed;
- 360 degree feedback from multiple sources;
- automated reminders or microlearning nudges for employees to track progress toward development goals.
Use this feedback to encourage ongoing high-performance behavior development rather than a one-time goal.
Implementing continuous performance development means regular check-ins on progress, creating new development goals as circumstances or roles change, and regularly revisiting what high performance looks like in your organization.
📝 Run more structured and motivating check-in meetings with 15+ free one on one meeting templates.
Create recognition and rewards programs
Recognition and rewards programs can increase motivation and encourage high performance behaviors. This could be through monetary incentives, promotions, or simpler gestures such as a public thank you during team meetings for demonstrating specific behaviors.
📧 Learn how to craft a promotion announcement email for your star performers.
🕵️♀️ Why identify high performers and their behaviors?
There's a solid chance that many of your employees are already exhibiting some high-performance behaviors without you putting in any extra effort.
So, why go all out and invest in this pursuit? Here are the top benefits for your organization.
Building a workplace culture focused on learning and growth
Investing in high-performance behaviors requires opportunities for growth and learning, which can create a strong sense of belonging. Employees encouraged to develop new skills or take on exciting challenges feel valued and appreciated, leading to higher job satisfaction and retention.
➡️ Learn how to create a culture of continuous learning on autopilot with these 16 learning culture examples, and check out our case study on how to build a professional growth organization like BCG.
Enabling performance and career development
Regular performance and career development conversations enable you to set development goals, track progress, and ultimately encourage employees to strive for excellence in their careers, regardless of the obstacles in front of them.
Taking an example from the sporting world, ex-Arsenal and England football player Alex Scott spoke on The High Performance Podcast about a challenge in her career and how her high performance attitude overcame it.
"A lesson that I learned when I went to America, I got drafted to the Boston Breakers and the Pro league was set up. I got drafted into the same team as Heather Mitts, who was the best right back in the world at the time. And straight away, everyone's pitting us together. How's this going to work? Who's going to play? People were telling me you can't go to America, you're not going to play, you're going to sit on the bench. But I was lucky enough to be drafted into the Pro league where all the best players are going to play. Heather ultimately lost her place to me in the team, but Heather would stay behind, and make me stay behind with her all the time. She was like, okay, you're great at this, but your left foot should be better. And she would have me pinging balls with her after training to make me better."
Ensuring transparency
Defining high-performance behaviors provides transparency for both employees and managers during performance evaluations. This clear understanding of key performance indicators helps to assess and reward employees objectively, contributing to a fairer workplace culture.
Enhancing organizational productivity and growth
When employees operate at their best, it boosts overall team and company performance. This increased efficiency and effectiveness drive business results, accelerating the organization's growth trajectory. However, the role of leadership cannot be undermined in this process. Leaders serve as catalysts, establishing the right culture, setting employee expectations, and showcasing behaviors that set the performance bar high.
Business owner and best-selling author Maddy French explains:
"How do successful leaders inspire their teams? It often comes down to one essential quality: Leading by example. Specifically, embodying the behaviors and values you want to see in your team. If you seek punctuality, be on time. If you value transparency, be open."
Improving employee retention
Who wouldn't want to work for an organization that rewards high performance?
In organizations where churn has been a problem, acknowledging excellence gives employees all the more reason to remain committed to the organization. This reduces employee attrition and enables team members to work alongside others who want to achieve the same.
➡️ Zavvy, your partner for building a high-performance workplace
Need a helping hand creating high performers in your workplace?
Zavvy has all the tools you need to promote a culture of excellence:
- 🔁 360 Feedback software: Collecting multi-source perspectives from peers, managers, direct reports, and business partners allows you to identify the high performers in your company.
- 💬 1:1 meeting software: Regular catch-ups promote a culture of continuous improvement.
- 🎯 Goal management software: Setting targets and tracking progress is vital to achieving excellence.
- 🌟 Competency management software: Measure, manage, and assess for the key traits of high performers.
📅 Ready to build your high performance culture? Take Zavvy for a spin by booking a demo today.
❓ FAQs
What is the difference between a high performer and a top performer?
A high performer is someone who consistently produces superior results, has a positive attitude, and is committed to growth and learning. Ideally, you'll have numerous high performers, and your top performers will be the best of your best.
What is the difference between a top performer and a bottom performer?
Top-performing employees are proactive, often taking the initiative to solve problems and improve processes. A positive attitude, strong work ethic, and a commitment to continuous learning and growth characterize their behaviors. At the other end of the spectrum, bottom performers may struggle to meet the set expectations and deliver the desired results. Their behaviors may include a lack of initiative, low engagement, and minimal effort toward personal growth or skill development.
What qualities differentiate a high performer from a low performer?
High performers possess strong job-specific skills, exceptional problem-solving capabilities, effective communication, and adaptability. On the other hand, low performers lack proficiency, are resistant to change, and have low resilience in challenging situations.
What is an important characteristic of a high performing worker?
One of the most important characteristics of a high performing employee is their drive and motivation to improve, learn, and grow continuously. They possess a growth mindset and strive for excellence in their work.An elusive quality can transform ordinary teams into exceptional ones. This magic potion propels individuals and groups to business success. We're talking, of course, about high-performance employee behaviors—a set of key traits that, when cultivated effectively, can lead to great things.