As a business owner I have often been frustrated with how my business is going and I’m amazed at how often this is more to do with people than the tasks that are being performed.

So below I’ve given you 5 easy tips to help you get better workplace performance in your business.

1. Seek to understand
In business we are often taught to be decisive and assertive which has the tendency to encourage quick decision making. In doing this we often fail to apprise ourselves of all the facts before coming to a conclusion.

Understanding another person’s point of view is often the first step in truly understanding the context of a conversation. Feeling judged is an emotional killer and a significant reason for a lack of workplace performance from employees.

2. Don’t rush your decision
How many times have you made a decision and then found out later there were more facts that had not been fully investigated or taken into account.

Certain personality types are far slower at coming to a conclusion and are sometimes seen as withholding information. My experience has been that their input is often devalued and given little weight because they have not kept up with the pace of the decision.

One of the best methods I have used is to ‘wait twenty fours hours’ on any major decision. Sleep on it and come back the next day and see what the decision looks like.

This has often meant slight changes which have made a significant difference in how the people around the decision have related to it. When people react badly to a decision it can take a long time to recover from that fallout and I’ve always been happy about waiting the additional time.

3. Create a safe environment
How many times have you thought, ‘Best to say nothing because if I say something it will only get shot down in flames!’

Great workplace performance is always supported by a safe environment where people are free to make the occasional mistake. It is not commonly acknowledged that our best learning comes from making mistakes.

We have been brought up with the stigma of making a mistake and are too frightened to try things that might really take our business forward because it might not work. What would people think if I tried something and it didn’t work?

How many experiments did it take for Albert Einstein to invent the light bulb? Imagine if he had become discouraged and given up along the way.

A safe environment will also bring out the unique differences in different personalities and allow all of them to make a contribution without being ‘run over.’

Sometimes the people who can’t express their thoughts well verbally get overridden so often they never try and put their views forward.

This is a tragedy because they are often very creative people and could add their intellect to many business issues.

4. Encourage self development
Many business owners get trapped in their business and so busy that they don’t take any time for self development. If this happens then the employees around them feel they can not or ought not seek out self development opportunities.

The best way for any business owner to encourage behaviour in their business is to model it themselves.

The people in a business is where all the creativity will come from and if there is no self development then you’re falling into the old trap of insanity. ‘Doing the same thing and expecting different results!

Workplace performance will always be enhanced when the people in that workplace are continually upgrading their own performance.

5. Reward behaviour as well as outcomes
How do the reward systems work in your business? Are they focused on the completed tasks only or do they have an element of HOW the task was completed.

Often we can become so focused on getting the job done that we trample all over people to get there and wonder why that performance is not sustainable in the future.

As a business owner, do you find that jobs go really well when you personally are focused on them and then when you turn your eye to something else they never go as well and you have to keep going back to get the required performance?

Consistent behaviour of people is a large part of dependable workplace performance and yet often we never reward it in business. To get the best workplace performance we need to reward outcomes AND behaviour as together they will provide sustainable performance for your business.

What are your thoughts on this?

Do you have any tips you would like to add?