Recent Research About Sustaining the High-Achieving Professional (Part 1)
While organizations prefer to hold onto a high number of top-performers for the long-run, those same high-achieving professionals recognize a serious need for sustainability and stress management, says Culture Amp people scientists (Luc & Jackson). These top-performers also are the kind of people that are more likely to want to stay in their roles and organizations, so it’s crucial that businesses of any size look into the type of relationships they are creating in order to best support their top-performing employees.
Through a massive research project done by Culture Amp recently (Luc & Jackson) researchers found that top-performers benefit most from solid and genuine relationships within the organization, specifically with their managers. These top-performers reported that their expectations for their roles were clearly-communicated and suited them well; their managers consistently provided accurate, constructive feedback to boost performance; and they enjoyed what they did so much so that what they lacked the most was more energy and time to work more (leading them to acknowledge out right that they desperately need additional support in managing burnout). This all aligns well with research in another field of psychology: relationships.
Attachment Theory was first developed in the mid-to-late 1900s by John Bowlby and posited that human children bond with their caregivers emotionally within the first 6 months of their lives (Beckes, Simpson, Augustyn, & Duignan, 2017). Within the caregiver-child bond, the parent creates a secure and safe bond through attentiveness, clarity in communication, and positive affect when around the baby. This modality of psychology is often used to support and navigate therapy sessions in that the client and therapist create a strong rapport, based around Attachment Theory science. Attachment Theory, as well as other modalities--such as Somatic Experiencing and other trauma-informed practices--provide evidence that creating authentic safety in relationships (and in this case, even an individual’s relationship to a work organization or environment) creates the opportunity for sustainable performance. In short, relationship safety and security leads to longevity in the workplace.
So, how does CultureAmp and their scientists suggest creating workplace safety?
Well, they suggest a few things to managers/leadership:
Give clear, consistent, and constructive feedback and provide opportunities for employees to actually achieve what you’re asking of them.
In performance management processes, offer clear and goal-oriented performance reviews. In this, focus on goals that will genuinely improve them in the roles they have set out to accomplish, that you are consistent in what you tell them, and any form of bias or prejudice is cleared.
Offer support in your employees’ overall wellbeing to help sustain them for the longevity of their time employed.
Pairing the above three recommendations with Attachment Theory concepts, it becomes clear that the more that company leadership provides clarity, consistency, attentiveness, and genuine care to their employees, the more safe and top-performing they can be overtime. As a leader, you will repetitively hit your top goals over and over if you look after your team. It’s as simple as looking at the basic concepts of relationship psychology and linking them to the workplace. The people who work for you are human. It only makes sense to look to people science to gain strength in overall performance management.
Next week, I’ll post an article on what you can do if you are the employee attempting to sustain your high performance!
References
Beckes, L., Simpson, J. A., Augustyn, A., & Duignan, B. (2017). “Attachment Theory”.
https://www.britannica.com/science/attachment-theory
Luc, K. & Jackson, F. “Exploring the Relationship Between Engagement & Performance”. CultureAmp.
Luc, K. & Jackson, F. “Top 3 Ways to Engage and Retain High-Performing Employees”. CultureAmp.
Luc, K. & Jackson, F. “3 Reasons Why Your Employees May Be Underperforming”. CultureAmp.
Luc, K. & Jackson, F. “3 Ways to Turn Your Good Performers Into High Performers”. CultureAmp.