Category: Leadership

Leadership

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Culture Leadership

Key Ingredients of a High Performance Culture

High performance culture must haves

Welcome to the official YouTube channel launch of Caras Consulting where we talk about the key ingredients of a high performance culture!

In today’s video, I’ll be talking about:

  • Details about the channel
  • The key ingredients for a high performance culture

AND

  • I’ll be dropping little snippets about me and Caras Consulting
  • Stick around to the end when I’ll open it up for some Q&A

If you don’t know me, my name is Sadaf Shaikh and I’m the owner of Caras Consulting.

I’ve been working alongside CEOs and senior execs for pretty much my entire 20+ year career, first as their trusted EA and then as their trusted HR business partner.

I’ve learned a thing or two about what the really great leaders do to create a high performance culture and engaged employees.

This channel is ALL about the things I’ve picked up over the years around building and leading high performance teams.

I’ll share my research and personal experience on this subject AND I’ll bring on other leaders on the channel from time to time to hear directly from them on what’s working today.

Key ingredient #1 of a high performance culture – have a shared set of goals

The goals of the organization are clearly articulated and shared with everyone

This will be a recurring theme of this channel. Shared goals are crucial to a high performance culture and company

If you went out there and asked any of your employees, they should be able to articulate exactly what those shared goals are and what their role is in the achieving those goals

Every successful company that boasts a high performance culture has shared goals. One, two or three things that everyone works towards

It doesn’t matter so much WHAT those shared goals are, as long as everyone knows what they are

As we head into 2021, it’s time to start thinking about what your goals are going to be for next year.

I have a free guide that helps you set your top 3 goals in 30 minutes. You can download a copy here.

Key ingredient #2 of a high performance culture – get the right talent in the door

In order to get the right talent, you first have to be clear on WHO you need to invite into your organization

You need people who will not only have the skills and experience to help you achieve your top goals, but also fit in with your culture

So, you need to know what goals you’re working towards, and the skills and competencies you need to achieve those goals

Then you need to define your culture. And culture is all about HOW you do things in your company. Forget about the fluffy descriptive adjectives. All you need to do to define your culture is look at how work gets done in your company. 

Here are a few things to examine

Another way to really understand your culture is to speak with employees on the front line.

Book time with them, either in a group or 1:1, though I prefer 1:1, and just chat with them about how they perceive work gets done at the company

This does 2 things:

  • Allows you to really connect with your employees, especially those you wouldn’t normally interact with
  • Boosts employee engagement through the roof.

People just want to be heard and when their top leader takes time out of their busy day to speak with them, listen to them, they feel like they’re being heard. 

Try it and then come back here and comment below to let me know how it went and what feedback you got.

Key Ingredient #3 – nurture the talent you already have

You start with having a stellar onboarding program to welcome any new talent. I’ve worked with a lot of companies both as an employee and as a consultant and I can tell you that very few companies get this one right

So, what does a good onboarding program look like?

In a nutshell, it’s where the new employee begins performing at a high level as quickly as possible. 

When employees are equipped with the RIGHT tools and information, performing is the easy part. The key is knowing what the right tools and information is. One way to find out is to ask your existing employees on how their onboarding was and what information and tools would have been useful to get them up to speed faster

The next component of talent nurturing is developing employees. There are many aspects to this, but the easiest way to get started is to create development plans for your employees. 

Now I’ve been in many organizations and I see too many leaders and employees do this as a check mark exercise. If you’re committed to building a high performance culture and company, then approach development plans with a view to getting you there.

It starts with asking the employee where their career aspirations are. Then go back to your business objectives and see where the two intersect. That’s where your development plan comes alive

Finally, it’s about building leadership capabilities and constantly pushing your leaders to be better for themselves and the employees. To constantly strive for better.

I run a program to help leaders take their teams to the next level by maximizing the performance and potential of their people. If you’re ready to do that in 2021, then book a call with me to enroll into our program that helps you do just this.

Those are my key ingredients of a high performance culture. If you like this video, be sure to share it with others who might find it useful.

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Leadership

The #1 Reason for Stagnant Business Growth

The No1 Reason for Stagnant Business Growth

If you’re leading a company going through a stagnant business growth period, then you know the solution is not simple to solve. A quick google search gives hundreds of possible solutions and almost all of them involve fixing strategy, sales, marketing and product innovation in some way. In this blog post I’m going to give you an alternate solution that you may not have thought to explore.

When I was doing my HR courses back in 2003, my organizational behaviour text book featured Nortel Networks as an exemplary business in leadership, innovation, and market share. Just over 5 years later the company filed for bankruptcy. Mired with issues surrounding accounting irregularities, conflicts of interest, environmental damage, the company declined so stunningly, the fallout is still a cocktail conversation topic over a decade later.

In 2009, Blackberry was at its height of prosperity and pretty much held 100% of the market share for business smartphones (you get bonus points if you remember Research in Motion!). Just 2 years later it started shedding market share to Android and iPhone and by Q4 2016, had a nearly 0% market share. I was a loyal Blackberry user all the way to 2014, but their slow-to-catch-up app store, clunky devices and small screens pushed me and so many others into Android’s and iPhone’s waiting arms.

So what causes companies to struggle or lose momentum? What causes them to decline so spectacularly after seeing such phenomenal results? 

 

Reasons for Stagnant Business Growth – the Experts’ Opinion

There are, of course, many reasons, but I wanted to talk about a few of the ones experts talk about. 

Then I’ll share the one all-encompassing reason that company’s never seem to get right. The ones that do, turn themselves around from the brink of expiration.

 

Inability to respond to market changes

Arguably the number one reason companies fail is because of their inability to respond to changes in the market. Their inability to read their customers and disambiguate passing trends from permanent preference changes. Kodak is one company that was unable to respond to the growing digital trend. A more recent casualty is Toys R Us. They were unable to adapt to customers’ preference or keep up with the likes of Amazon. It will be interesting to see how Toys R Us fares with their restructuring efforts. 

However, even companies that have managed to adapt to shifting markets don’t rely solely on a strategic change to overcome their decline. There are always other things at play. Simply shifting their products or services is not enough. These companies adopt a full shift in their makeup.

 

Poor sales and marketing

Sales and marketing are the bread and butter of a company and if those are broken for too long, there’s almost no chance of a company succeeding. While marketing can sometimes jumpstart stagnant business growth, unless companies look deeper, this isn’t going to sustain long term growth for them. Companies need to change other parts of their organization in order for the marketing changes to be successful, for example, operational practices.

 

Poor leadership

There’s a reason why CEOs get fired and why companies turnaround after hiring a new CEO. Apple is the classic example here. The company had almost gone under before they called Steve Jobs back to take the CEO chair. CEOs make a difference and their leadership makes a difference. A company can have a fantastic product, great marketing, great sales, but without a visionary leader, it won’t be able to keep the top spot for long. Leadership matters but leaders need to be able to infuse the entire organization with their brand of leadership. The behaviours of the rest of the organization must match the leader’s or even the best leaders fail at growing a company. 

 

Poor product

A poor product happens when there’s a misalignment between customer wants and what you are offering them. Basic quality aside, it’s important to give customers what they want and not what you want to give them. This happens very often and I see it in big and small companies, both service-based and physical product-based businesses. Of course, if the quality of your product sucks, you’re not going to grow. But when there are no buyers for your product, it’s time to pivot double time. And in order to get the right product into the hands of your ideal customers, your people need to listen and be innovative. Not just you, the CEO, but your employees too.

 

Stagnant Business Growth – the #1 Reason

The 4 items I listed above are the most commonly cited reasons for stagnant business growth. This is what the experts tell us, this is what Google has in its search results. But the one thing that encompasses all these reasons, the one thing that nobody seems to talk about explicitly, is culture. 

Looking at all the fantastic business turnarounds in economic history, the ones that standout all took a long hard look at their current culture and changed it. Without changing your current culture, the culture you have in place while you’re going through a stagnant business growth period, there is no way you’re going to get out of this period. 

When you look at some of the most successful companies in the world, the ones that really excel have outstanding organizational cultures. Google, Netflix, Shopify, Costco, Microsoft, WestJet. And the companies that are at the top that didn’t adapt their culture, or neglected it, get called out. This harms their brand. Even if the flak doesn’t cause significant damage, it does slow down their growth. Some of the companies that come to mind: Uber, Amazon, Airbnb. People want to do business with companies that treat their employees right. People want to do business with companies that have a strong stance on doing the right thing, whether that’s through philanthropy or great HR practices. 

What CEOs Can Do

I’m partial to HR’s position in a company, of course, but I’m not partial because of my background in HR. I’m partial because I see the results of a strong HR presence in a company and their results. I see leaders like Gary Vaynerchuk, Sundar Pichai, Matt Mullenweg who actively advocate for strong HR practices in their companies and we see their success. These leaders, and others, understand that in order to build great companies, they have to pay attention to the culture they’re creating. 

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – culture doesn’t come from words on a wall in the lobby. Culture is defined by the way you do business. How you treat your employees, your customers, your vendors, your partners, your shareholders. It’s the way you speak to them, the way you service them. If all that is lacking or deficient in any way, you’ll see it in your financial results. 

There’s a misconception that HR only has jurisdiction over HR policies and practices. The reality is HR has influence over every single person that walks into the company. They have influence over your operational practices because of the people they bring through the door. If you’re a small business owner that doesn’t have an HR department, then that responsibility falls on you. Even if you have an HR department, you have the ultimate responsibility, an obligation, to focus on company culture. You set the tone for the organization. HR can help, but it starts with the CEO. 

 

Closing words

If your business is experiencing stagnant growth, it’s time to examine your company culture first and foremost. What do you stand for? What does your company stand for? Are your practices and processes in line with those beliefs and values? If not, then which ones are misaligned? Start revising those first. Are your employees embodying those values? If not, then start communicating the values and show them what they look like in real life. As the CEO, that’s your job, not HR’s, not your executive team’s, not your middle managers’ – it’s on you.

If you’re unsure of how to start examining your culture, take a look at this blog post. It’s meant for executives starting a new job, but the cultural assessment process applies here.

If you want to talk about your specific situation, book a call and let’s chat. Give me 30 minutes of your time and I’ll give you at least two things you can do right away to fix your culture. Start taking control of your stagnant business growth and let’s turn it around!

If you found this valuable, please share this with your network using the links below. The more CEOs and business owners that see the significance of company culture, the closer we’ll be to creating awesome workplaces all around.

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Leadership

Why Leading Without Authority is Easier Than You Think

Leading Without Authority

If there’s one profession in which people are expected to lead without authority, it’s Human Resources. We have clients, not unlike many other professions, however, our clients are our colleagues, and sometimes people more senior to us within the organization. HR professionals have a hand in changing culture and enhancing the employee experience for leaders and individual contributors. Above all, we are expected to be the standard for professional behaviour at work.

Last week I spoke about taking advantage of the opportunities to put ourselves out there and get noticed by senior leaders. Today’s post will build on that because any good HR Business Partner knows that it’s not enough to impress senior people. In our work, we have to work with others across the HR team and other departments in order to fulfil our mandate. We have Centre of Excellence partners, finance partners, legal partners, administrative partners, and others across the company that we have to work with and negotiate with to get our jobs done.

A big part of leading without authority is influencing skills. How do you influence people when they absolutely do not need to listen to you? More importantly, how do you influence people to act in a certain way, or do things a certain way, when you have no authority over them? It’s actually more straightforward than you think.

An Art Form

I’m not minimizing the efforts of really good HR Business Partners. Influencing and leading without authority is an art. And like any art form, it requires practice and patience. Above all, it requires a genuine desire to create an outcome that’s pleasing to the artist and the receiver. So, this blog post is not about coercing people to do things they wouldn’t do. This is about showing people that another way is a better way. Or simply showing them alternatives and guiding them to make the choice that makes most sense in the situation.

One thing to keep in mind as you read this: when you influence people or convince them to behave in a certain way, you will rarely, if ever, get any credit for bringing them along. So, you need to have a genuine desire to simply do the right thing when you start practicing this art. Influencing and leading without authority is not about personal glory or gain.

That said, you will get noticed and you will grow personally and professionally when you show that people are willing to follow you even when they don’t have to.

Peer Influence is More Effective than Authority Influence

I remember when I was in middle school, grade 6, I befriended a girl in my class. She was new to the school, and from the first day, we just clicked. She was a quiet sort of person, much like me, an introvert, and we had long philosophical discussions about life. As much as you could when you were 11 years old. She quickly became my best friend and over the course of grade 6, we were inseparable.

Perhaps what I liked most about her was that she was an honest, hard working, diligent person. She was kind and she was gentle-mannered, and she cared about other people. Not necessarily what they thought, but she genuinely wanted to please others, in a selfless manner. In other words, she was exactly the type of person I wanted to be.

Now, I should clarify that I grew up in Dubai. Dubai was back then much as it is now: a vain, showy sort of society. Girls in my class were all about the pretty hair, the best notebooks, the fanciest pens, the coolest lunch boxes (and the lunch that went into it). I didn’t go to a fancy private school, but it was private school nonetheless. And this girl was rich. To put it into perspective, I lived with my parents and sister in a very comfortable two-bedroom apartment in a nice building and neighbourhood. She lived in the same neighbourhood, in a fancier building, in a six-bedroom apartment. Yet, she was more down to earth and spiritual than anyone else I knew.

Up until that point, I never really studied for exams or tests. I paid attention in class but pretty much winged tests and exams landing squarely in the B zone. It was sheer laziness and boredom.

She showed me, not through her words, but through her actions, that being respectful of the education we were getting was our only job at age 11. My grades skyrocketed that year. My final report card was all As that year and I attribute that, not to my smarts, but to her ability to show me that hard work was not only not all that bad, but also our responsibility for the time, money and effort our parents and teachers were putting into our education.

Two points here: First, an eleven-year-old girl influenced me to study and subsequently get good grades without any authority, when my parents, who had full authority and power, could not. Two, while my parents praised me for my grades, they knew it was my friend’s company that helped lift me.

When you think of your own career, how much have people shown you, rather than told you what to do? When kids find themselves stealing or cheat, it’s not because someone told them to those things. It’s because that’s what they saw worked for other kids to avoid a negative situation or get something they wouldn’t have the legitimate way (in their minds anyway). So, if we use that power of peer influence for the betterment of our workplace, imagine what the organization would look like?

A Point on Selflessness

I couldn’t talk about influence and leadership without talking about selflessness. It’s the foundation that the entire art form rests upon.

The thing is, when you lead without authority, you’re not telling anyone to follow you. People gravitate towards you because they know, like and trust you. I followed my friend and studied with her because I wanted to spend time with her. I wanted to spend time with her because I liked and admired her. It’s really as simple as that.

When you lead without authority, most likely you don’t even know you’re doing it. You simply do and people follow. You’re not actively telling people to follow you and they’re under no obligation to follow. When someone does something that they’re not forced to, it’s because they believe in that thing. When they start believing in something, that’s when change really happens. And if you want change to happen in your organization or within a client group, that’s the place you need people to get to.

How to Lead Without Authority

 The cornerstone of leading effectively with or without authority is trust. Trust is a big word and a complex concept. It’s an elusive thing too, not really definable. Why are some people inherently trustworthy while others are not? Why do we get a “feeling” about someone’s trustworthiness before we even know them. When you’re building trust in a relationship (no matter what kind of relationship), there are a few things to expedite the process:

  1. Be consistent

Have you even encountered a person who did something really nice for you one moment and then threw you under the bus the next? Would you trust that they would have your back? What about a person who was always late to a meeting? Could you trust them to be there for you in a time of crisis? Or what about the person who is super sweet to you one day, and then ignores you the next? Would you dread interacting with them because you wouldn’t know their mood that day?, The answer to all is a resounding no.

Trust is earned by being consistent. Period. Consistent in your behaviour, your attitude, and your actions. It’s as simple as that.

  1. Be credible

Have you ever met a person who told tall tales of how wonderful they were and how they climbed every obstacle and never seemed to mess up at all? Did you tend to be skeptical of their stories because you were never quite sure if they were true? Credibility is being truthful and genuine in everything you do. If you accomplished something great, you’ll gain people’s trust faster if you also tell them what went wrong. You’ll gain credibility faster when you show a vulnerability. Because no one is ever perfect. And people who appear to be perfect are not trustworthy.

Trust is earned by being credible. In your actions, in your words, and in the stories you tell about your life.

  1. Be reliable

If there’s one word that seems to be synonymous with trust, it’s reliability. Do you do what you say you are going to do it and by the time you say you are going to do it? Nothing diminishes trust like telling someone that you’re going to deliver by Friday and then not delivering by Friday. Now, things happen and sometimes we genuinely can’t deliver by Friday because of unforeseen circumstances. But if those “unforeseen circumstances” seem to always come up when we’re up against a deadline, then we’re not reliably accounting for those circumstances. People can’t trust us if we don’t learn from our mistakes.

Reliability and trust are synonymous. If you make a mistake, learn from that mistake and do better next time so that people can count on you. No one trusts someone who can’t be counted on.

Trust is the cornerstone of leading without authority. You can’t lead anyone without gaining their trust first. And trust is gained easier than most people think. Focus on these three areas and practice mindful selflessness. You’ll see people gravitate towards you and you’ll have the added benefit of seeing people succeed.

 

Beginning next week, we are starting a new format to the blog. We will have a monthly theme and weekly blog posts to focus each week on 1)managing the function, 2)working with the business on the function, 3)elevating your career with the function, and 4)self care while performing the function. I’ll also sprinkle in some personal experiences as I run my consulting practice.

 April’s theme: Recruitment

 

If you like this post, sign up for our weekly emails that deliver awesome content directly to your inbox.

 

Categories
Leadership

“Peoplekind” is the Future – How to Make Sure Leaders are Ready

How to make sure your leaders are ready for diversity

I generally don’t like to discuss politics; it’s not considered an HR-friendly topic. The reality, however, is that our current world leaders give us too much fodder to ignore, and so much of it is linked to HR and the treatment of people.

Last week, our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who as been touring Canada doing town halls, told a woman that she should use “peoplekind” instead of mankind because it’s more inclusive (I’m paraphrasing). I watched the video. It sounded like a joke, the people in the room took it as a joke, but the internet went mental. They lashed out at him for calling out a woman for not being feminist enough. A self-proclaimed feminist, Justin Trudeau had, it seemed, finally reached the limit on what is considered politically correct, and feminist. What might be worse, is that he dismissed it as a dumb joke today.

How many times have you sat in a meeting while a boss, colleague or executive has said something politically incorrect? I was at a meeting a few months ago when the CEO was recounting a story and referred to the subject of his story as Oriental. In case you’ve been living under a rock (or you are that CEO in question), you don’t call people Oriental anymore than you call Natives “Indians”. Besides, unless the person’s ethnicity is relevant to the story, leave it out!

Then there are other leaders who, like Trudeau, go a little overboard, if that’s a thing. There was nothing inherently wrong with Justin’s comment, except for the fact that the word peoplekind doesn’t exist (yet). And the fact that he interrupted the woman in question. In the political arena, as in the workplace, the reality is that we do all need to be careful about what we say. I remember I was chastised once for using the term “manhours” when referring to the time a project was going to take. So, how is that any different than peoplekind?

I promised this wasn’t going to be a political ramble, though, so I’ll get to the point. Political correctness is here to stay. Canada is on the verge of changing their national anthem lyrics to be more gender-neutral. The Prime Minister is touting peoplekind instead of mankind. Ladies and Gentlemen is being replaced by… something, I’m sure.

You can’t even address a group of women as “Ladies” anymore for fear that someone in the audience may not identify as a female. Under the Charter of Rights, there are certain protected grounds and gender expression is now one of them. Which means that you can no longer assume that just because a person looks like a woman, that they identify as a woman. And people who are exercising access to this protection are sure to call people out on any misuse or representation. Rightfully so. Anyone protected under the charter should be respected and terms we use, that were acceptable in the past, are no longer admissible at work.

It would be extremely difficult to list out all the terms that could be considered offensive, so I won’t do that. My advice to leaders and managers in this highly politically correct world is as follows:

1. Lead by example

Think before you speak (and write). It is difficult to watch each and every word when you’re busy running a company, but you have to be conscious of them. There’s no need to curtail your speech, or your style, but educate yourself on politically correct terms. Ask for feedback from your direct reports and co-workers. Political correctness and inclusivity are here to stay, so you might as well get on board now. You don’t need to invent words like our prime minister, but certainly you need to be well-versed on the bare minimum.

2. Call it out

When you hear someone on your team say something that could be said in a different way, using different terms, please do everyone a favour and call them out on it. If you want to truly create an inclusive workplace, you need to stop the offenders. Pull them aside in private to explain how their comment was perceived. For the really offensive, you have to insist that they apologize either verbally or in writing, depending on the severity of the comment.

3. Hire for diversity

I remember an incident where an employee was teasing another employee about a dietary restriction related to her religion. He had never heard of that specific dietary restriction, and was asking endless questions about it, saying it was stupid and he didn’t understand. When the teased employee complained to her General Manager, the General Manager dismissed it as a joke. This type of dismissal is quite common, particularly in places where there is not much diversity in the workplace. While there’s nothing wrong with being curious (part of what makes Canada an enlightened society is the tolerance most of us have for things we don’t understand), it’s important to talk to employees about respectfully asking clarifying questions, and teasing. The latter is not to be tolerated at work, particularly as it relates to protected grounds.

Peoplekind hit a nerve with the public, but it’s not too far from where we’re headed. Canada has an ever-changing social landscape. The national anthem is changing, the term manhours is no longer acceptable, so why shouldn’t we replace mankind with peoplekind? As leaders, we just have to make sure we’re ready for the next wave of political correctness!

Categories
Leadership Performance Management

How to Deal With a High Performing Jerk

6 ways to deal with a high performing jerk

You know and the type. They’re the ones who solve the biggest problems or have the best sales records, but everyone inside your company hates them. They’re quite simply high performing jerks.
Here’s an example I encountered recently. A customer called saying the order they received was faulty. They said the salesperson misrepresented what they were going to get, and they wanted to return everything and get their money back. The company’s COO swooped in, spoke to the customer, empathized with them, and told them that the company was committed to full customer satisfaction or money back. He ended up replacing the product to the customer’s specification, somehow brought them back from the brink of losing them, and they ended up being a repeat customer.
Then the CEO heard the other side of the story. The COO went to the “misrepresenting” salesperson and gave him crap in front of his colleagues. He then went to the purchasing department and berated the manager there, telling her that he had to deal with her poor buying abilities and warned her that she had twenty-four hours to rectify the issue. He didn’t care how she did it, she needed to find replacement products, quality check them herself and get back to him. Then he left to go play a round of golf with a big customer he was courting.
This left the CEO with a dilemma. Should he praise him for his superior ability to do whatever it took to keep the customer? Or reprimand him for his methods?

This happens more often than you can imagine. Probably one of the most public scandals in recent years was the Uber disaster. Uber did a number of things wrong, which the CEO supposedly condoned. In one example, A former employee wrote a blog post about her experience at the company. HR said they couldn’t fire the manager who was allegedly harassing employees because he was a top performer. After the story became public, I can’t tell you how many people scoffed at Uber HR’s response and inability to act. But I can tell you that the Uber story is not the first and neither will it be the last. It was more shocking than others, but I can tell you that it happens all the time.

Take a hard look at your employees. Do any of them demonstrate poor behaviour? Here are 6 things you can do to ensure your company is safe from the potential reputational damage of a high performing jerk.

Look at Your Values

Do your values support only performance or do they also support team work and collaboration? I can’t tell you how many times leaders complain to me about their high performers’ bad behaviour. Then when I ask them what their bonus is based on, they tell me it’s 100% on the sales numbers, or on budget numbers.

If you want your employees to behave in a manner that exemplifies a sharing and collaborative environment, make sure your values reflect that. And, please, if you have good values, make sure your company follows them.

Evaluate on Results and Methods

One of the easiest ways to ensure your employees are not just driven towards the targets, but also towards team work, is to evaluate them on that. I’m a big proponent of measuring results and competencies. So, measure the what and the how. What did they achieve over the period, and how did they achieve those results?

Reward performance, but not at the expense of good behaviour.

Conduct 360 Evaluations

Most high performing employees manage upward very well. In other words, they make you and the rest of the management team look good. But the high performing jerks will make only the management team feel good. They will treat their staff horribly. I knew of one top c-suite executive who consistently berated people in large meetings. He got results and the board members and shareholders loved him for it, but he treated people very badly.

At least once a quarter (more often for shorter sales cycles), make sure you ask everyone the employee deals with to evaluate their performance. This includes their managers, their peers, their employees, and that their customers. Don’t assume that just because a manager loves her high performer, that the employee is not a jerk.

Talk to Them About Their Jerk Behaviour

I always find it amazing how many leaders will ignore the “talk” about a top performer’s behaviour for fear of losing them. “I can’t talk to him about his behaviour because he might leave, and I’ll lose my best employee.” Well, I ask you this: Is that person really your best employee if he makes everyone else feel like crap? And is that the type of culture you want for your company? Have you looked at how many other people have left because of him, or how many other people have lost their enthusiasm for the company because of him?

Don’t be afraid to talk to your high performer about behaviour. Praise their performance, but talk about the behaviour issues. Yes, there’s a risk of them getting upset and leaving, but that means they are not open to feedback. A high performer who is not open to feedback has stopped learning and has capped her abilities. Basically, that’s the best you will ever get out of them. On the other hand, if she takes the feedback in stride and improves her interactions with the team, think of the stellar employee you’ll have then!

When Talking Doesn’t Work

This happens quite often. A lot of high performers are high performers because they have immense amounts of confidence. When their boss points out that they need improvement in an area, they may choose to dismiss it, especially if the feedback was given in a casual, cursory manner. The performance continues, and so does the behaviour. It’s very easy at this point for managers and business owners to say, “She’s just like that and she’ll never change.”

Be persistent. Keep having those conversations and keep pressing the issues. Going back to my second point about evaluating on methods, if the behaviour continues, make sure it’s reflected in her bonus or salary increase. Sorry, but there is never a good enough excuse to be a jerk!

Lead by Example

Lastly, but most importantly, but make sure you’re leading by example. Are you, as the business owner or CEO, getting the 360 feedback? Are you demonstrating the right behaviours? Are you watching how you treat your employees? Sometimes jerk behaviour is learned behaviour and the top most leaders are setting a bad example. It’s not always intentional, so you need to take a close look at how you come across to your employees and model the behaviour you want to see from them.

Categories
Culture Leadership

How to Stop Your Star Employees From Leaving

Picture this scenario. Your star employee, the one with the best customer reviews, the one that makes your company look amazing, and has the best stats out of all your other employees, avoids eye contact during your weekly update meeting. You know something is up, and ask her, totally expecting her to talk about a troubled client, or an employee issue she’s dealing with. Instead, she raises her eyes to yours and says in a quiet voice, “I’m resigning.”

While you would all like to be that boss who would be genuinely happy for her, happy that she found something worth moving for, your world still comes crumbling down. For the first few seconds, you’re in shock. Then the reality starts to sink in and you panic.

“How much?” you ask, hating yourself for thinking that your star employee could be bought. But you know everyone’s got a price and you’re willing to pay it for her.

Then she says that she’s not getting that much of a raise, and even if you counter offered, she would still leave. Flabbergasted and jaw hanging only slightly open, you ask her why. What could she possibly have found at another company?

She then goes on to say all the things that you should have known before she signed on the dotted line with the other guys. Things that were completely within your control. Things you could have given her very easily. The freedom to make decisions, broader responsibilities, more accounts.

So, how exactly do you make sure this never happens to you?

Look at your compensation plan

Most often, employees don’t leave for money. However, there are times when they the salary they are making at a company is so low for the work they do and the revenue they bring in, that it’s not feasible (or fair) for them to stay. You need to look at the market at least every other year (more often for high-growth industries) and pay accordingly. Compensation data will usually provide salary information in quartiles. The median (or 50th percentile), is the middle of the road salary. That means that 50% of people get paid less than that and 50% get paid more. If you follow a pay-for-performance philosophy, you need to think about where in that spectrum you want to be.

Communicate

This is something that comes up repeatedly on this blog and I can’t say it too much. Talk to your employees. All the time. There’s a misconception that good employees need less attention. Sure, they don’t need you to monitor everything they do. You never need to follow-up with them on outstanding items, because they’re never behind. Your clients and their colleagues only have the nicest things to say about them. But you still need to talk to them. Talk about their careers, where they see themselves in three years, five years, ten years. Then do your hardest to make it happen for them.

 

Showcase them

It’s great that you know your employee is great. And it’s great that clients tell you how great he is. But if you don’t share that intel, it’s as good as not there. Having a star employee is cause for celebration, so celebrate his successes. Take his best practices and share them across your organization. Give him credit for his ideas. Ask him to mentor and coach people who might benefit from his help. Have him represent your organization at industry or alumni events. I know many high performers who stay at companies for years because they like the fact that they are the face of the organization at places that matter to them.

Give them responsibility

I’ve heard many small business owners lament the fact that their good people leave because of lack of opportunity. While smaller companies don’t have the same hierarchy that larger companies have, many employees prefer smaller companies because of the breadth of work they are exposed to. It’s not uncommon for a sales person to also manage customer service at a small company. Or for the receptionist to also manage accounts payable. So, if you have a small company, take advantage of that, and give your high performers the breadth of work that will keep them engaged. I’ve seen so many small businesses operate like an enterprise operation, and it just doesn’t work. So, look at your org structure and leverage your small company to ensure your high performers stay (and continue to make your business profitable).

Respect their knowledge

This should be obvious, but it’s amazing how many leaders undermine the experience their employees have accumulated over the years. If an employee has been with you for three years, five years, ten years, then seek their opinion on all matters, both routine and important. The time you take to get their input, and the importance you place on it, will directly influence their job satisfaction. Ask them how a process is working, gather feedback on your own leadership style, or whether the structure of the company makes sense. Then, when you implement those ideas, give them credit. Not only will this make your star employees feel like their ideas are welcome, it will encourage other employees to also voice their opinions on matters.

 

Manage your low performers

This one surprises many leaders. While taking care of your star performers will ensure that they stay put and continue to contribute to the success of your business, it’s equally important to manage your low performers in a timely manner. Managing performance thoughtfully is important, but it’s equally important for you to take action quickly. Many times, high performers feel like they are “penalized” for being a high performer because they get the high-profile projects that require them to work extra-hard, while low performers cruise through and continue to stay employed. This is just good leadership in general, but the way you manage your low performers has an impact on the morale of your high performers.

This is not an exhaustive list, but I guarantee that if you keep your star employees happy and spend as much time with them as you would a lower performer, the chances that they’ll stay with you longer and take your business to new heights.

Categories
Delegation Leadership

5 Steps to Maintaining Control Without Micromanaging

Female hand holding a pen and writing a plan in a planner

Bob is the CEO of a small IT consulting firm. Bob built the business from scratch by himself in the spare room of his 1700 square foot townhouse in East Toronto. Over the past 5 years, Bob’s company has grown to a six-figure business and employs about 50 people. Bob’s business model is unique and has attracted customers from around the world. He now has clients in Hong Kong, Sydney, Texas, LA, New York, Vancouver, Montreal and, of course, Toronto.

About a year ago, Bob realised that his company was getting too big to keep track of everything. Sometimes he didn’t even know they had secured a client and done work for them until he got his monthly budget from his CFO showing they had received money. Further, he didn’t like some of the smaller projects his team had worked on. They didn’t fit with his vision of the company’s direction. They should be working on larger projects, not smaller ones. He felt like he was being pushed out of the company’s operation, and his entire company was going rogue.

One morning, he called an all-staff meeting and told everyone that moving forward, any action related to a client needed his final sign off. That meant people had to discuss when they wanted to court a new client, send him proposals in advance so he could vet them, send him project plans so he knew what everyone was working on and show him invoices before they were sent to clients. He felt this way he would know exactly what was going on, and he would be able to move the company in the direction he wanted.

As the months went on, Bob’s days got longer. His senior team members weren’t pulling their weight. His calendar was jam packed from 7am to 8pm every day, and he was frequently on calls over the weekend. His team was constantly asking him questions and waiting for him to give them direction. He was no better off than he was before and, to add to things, revenue was lower than it was before. Still, he felt he had made the right decision because his team needed his help.

Then, about 6 months after he implemented this “final sign off” rule, his VP of Sales resigned. He was one of Bob’s first hires and Bob was extremely upset that the VP was leaving him. During his exit interview, the VP shared with Bob that he felt his responsibilities were being taken away and he wanted more responsibility, not less. Over the following six months, another 2 senior team members resigned, citing similar reasons.

Let’s look at this case study in detail. As Bob’s company grew, he was not able to be involved in every project and client interaction. He wanted his business to grow, but he didn’t want to lose control. The fact that his team was signing on projects that didn’t align with his vision was problematic. And the fact that he didn’t know all his clients was also problematic.

Unfortunately, Bob’s solution to the problem, the “final sign off” rule resulted in half of his senior team leaving within a year. That was certainly not part of Bob’s plan, nor did it benefit his business.

So, what could Bob have done differently to ensure that he still had his finger on the pulse of his business, without being completely buried in the details.

Clearly Define the Vision and Plan

Bob clearly had a vision of where he wanted the company to go. However, like most small business owners, he never set it down on paper. Writing out a vision means thinking it through and putting a plan in place to achieve that vision. A vision without a plan is not real. The only way to realize a vision is to put a plan in place for it. Bob can consult with their senior team, or a mentor or coach, or just do it themselves, but a vision and plan need to be defined.

Communicate the Vision and Plan

Once the vision and plan are defined, Bob needs to communicate this vision to his team. He should call an all-staff meeting and tell everyone what he sees for the company and the plan he has put in place. He should ask employees to ask questions about his plan. After all, they’re the ones who are going to execute it. Bob should tell them exactly what types of projects he wants them to work on, what types of clients he wants them to work with.

Request Regular Updates Without Getting Involved

It’s completely reasonable for Bob to want to know what’s going on. However, he can do this without having “final sign off” on all items. Once he has communicated his vision and execution plan, he needs to leave it up to his team to execute on the plan. He can monitor their activities without needing to approve everything. He will know exactly what is going on, and offer advice and coaching, but does not need to take over the responsibility of making the decisions.

Course Correct and Communicate Again

When Bob receives regular updates, he can decide whether his employees are moving along in the right direction. If he still feels they’re taking on projects or clients that don’t fit with the vision, Bob should go back out to his employees and tell them again about his vision and what he wants. There’s no such thing as too much communication, and when that communication comes from the CEO, and the message is consistent, it does work. There’s an old marketing adage that says a prospect needs to hear from you seven times before they act. The same can be said for your employees. Don’t be afraid of reiterating the same message if you feel things aren’t moving in the direction you want them to.

Appreciate Good Work and Provide Feedback

I can’t say this enough, leaders need to appreciate and commend their high performing employees. CEOs should also go out of their way to praise employees who are trying to do better. All employees need to be appreciated. They need to know that they are on the right track and that their jobs are valued at the company. They also need to know when they’re not performing.

 

Following these steps will allow Bob to focus on finding new business opportunities and ways to expand his business. Over the next few months, we’ll expand on the topics that I’ve touched on here: rust, delegation, empowerment, appreciation. Stay tuned!