High performance demands a certain amount of pressure. Imagine you’re training for a 10K race. If you put no pressure on yourself, you don’t train, you don’t hire a coach or plan your calendar to prepare for the race, you will undoubtedly perform poorly. Conversely, if you put too much pressure on yourself, over-train and stress out, perhaps injuring yourself, you may not show up at the starting line.
Think of it as a bell curve; you need to establish the optimal level of pressure that will result in the highest level of performance.
If no pressure exists, and not much is asked of your employees, you will have a low level of performance. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if there is too much pressure in your organization and employees are afraid, then they are not nearly as concerned with high performance as they are with not getting yelled at or fired.
How do you create a high-performance organization where you can apply some pressure but not so much that you create a culture of fear?
Every EOS scorecard includes a WHO column—this lists the name of the person with the greatest influence over that measurable. They own that number and report on it in your weekly Level 10 meetings. When a measurable is off track, you have 3 options:
Are you challenging your team in a positive way? Are you applying positive pressure?