The Workplace Equation for Success

Hiring well is step one. Leading well is step two. Performance is the result.

Building a productive, loyal, high-performing team isn’t a mystery. It’s psychology, leadership, and smart recruitment working together.

High performance happens when people feel their basic human psychological needs are being met; these needs are connectedness, autonomy and mastery.

When employees feel connected to their colleagues in a meaningful way, when they feel like they have a say in how they do their job, when they are supported to grow their skills, they become intrinsically motivated and consequently, become more productive, more engaged, and more committed. They start to see their work as part of who they are, and that’s when high performance shines through.

Workers who are intrinsically motivated enjoy coming to work and find the work rewarding and satisfying. They want to do well, and they care about the outcomes. Team members back each other up, help each other, share information, and cover jobs for each other.  The quality of the work experience hinges on whether leaders create an environment where these psychological needs can be fulfilled.

Further to that, any job can be psychologically fulfilling. You can have an incredible job as a bank teller and a miserable job as a business analyst. In other words, the quality of your experience hinges on whether your psychological needs are fulfilled, and no one has more sway over the degree to which psychological needs are fulfilled than a team’s leader.

That said, even the best leadership approach won’t land with everyone. Some people simply won’t engage — due to arrogance, closed-mindedness, or incompatible values. This is why good recruitment decisions matter just as much as good leadership. Hiring people who are capable of thriving in a psychologically rich environment is the first step in building a high-performing team. 

Good recruitment + meaningful work experiences + empowered employees + skilled employees = productivity & retention.

That’s the workplace equation for success.