COVID = Caught Inside

COVID = Caught Inside

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Reflecting on the current employment environment as we emerge from COVID makes me think of “Being Caught Inside When a Big Set Comes Through.” Why?

For those who don’t understand the analogy, it is something that surfers experience when paddling out when a large set of waves appears. The first wave appears in front of you, and it is a monster. So you put your head down and paddle like crazy to get over it before it crashes on you. You paddle up the face of the beast, hoping to get over the top before it breaks and drags back down “over the falls.” You make it, and you look up to see the next monster, larger than the last, bearing down on you. Tired, you have to paddle harder to make it over that one before you end up in the “impact zone.”

2020 was the first wave that appeared. We all put our collective heads down and paddled hard. We made it over. However, talking to many in early 2021, I don’t think we realized how much effort that had taken. Everyone was tired, many a little depressed. But as we looked up, the next wave was there blocking the entire horizon. That wave is the increase in business activity.

Some of my clients are experiencing more business in Q1 than they did in H1 last year. So we need to paddle hard to make it over this one. However, with everyone tired and depressed from the last one, it is getting harder. Everyone is looking for employees right now, but you are asking more of your employees when they are already working flat out and dealing with the stress until you hire.

The Current Situation

As a result, many are thinking about moving. A new survey reported by Fast Company found that 52% of U.S. workers are considering a job change this year, and 44% have plans in place to move. What is interesting when breaking down the data is that:

  • 59% of those whose annual household income is between $50,000 and $75,000 (the middle-income bracket) were thinking about moving.
  • 76% of those under 30 either looking or open to new opportunities.
  • 48% of six-figure salaried workers were planning their change, and 66% of them are feeling more confident about their decision to change jobs than they did six months ago. 
  • 21% of those surveyed felt there were “better opportunities available to [them] at other companies.”

What I have also seen recently is not only that people are considering leaving, but who. The “Who” here are those centers of influence within the organization. To understand that, look at your “shadow org chart,” which shows employees who have disproportionate levels of impact relative to their hierarchical position. To develop one, ask your employees these three questions:

  1. Who energizes you at work? (list four or more people)
  2. Who do you go to for help and advice? (list four or more people)
  3. Who do you go to when a decision needs to be made? (list four or more people)

If key influencer leaves, then many others may decide that the time to move on has come. One executive told me this week that his concern was that if two of their top influencers left, that would be the beginning of the end.

A recent HBR article suggested asking both the departing employee and the rest of your team questions, listening attentively, and acknowledging their concerns. Focus on goals and reassure your team that they’re still important and achievable, and provide them with educational opportunities to show that you care about their long-term effectiveness.

Regardless, those looking or considering a change are looking for:

  • A stable organization and where they are sure they’re growing and changing within that organization. 
  • More pay. Pay is the main factor that entices employees to look for a new role.
  • Work-life balance is also an essential requirement. 68% of employed workers and 43% of women said that remote work and work-from-home options are “very important,” versus 33% of men. 18% want to have more flexible hours in a new job.
  • Finally, the overall work environment is an essential factor.

However, employees say that the most critical factor that keeps them with their employer is engaging work.

Furthermore, a recent study from Ceridian reports that the cost of onboarding a new employee can range from $2,000 to $4,000, and talent expects a rise of 29% to change roles. I have mentioned before that everyone I know is looking for people. So if a 30% increase is required to change, and 50%+ are looking to move, expect salary and wage costs to increase.

The Challenges

So given the above, the critical challenges for organizations today that want to get over that second wave are:

  • Recruiting.
  • Onboarding.
  • Engagement.
  • Growth path.

Recruiting

I have written before about recruiting and ways to make it better and more of a system. However, I think some of the critical factors to consider right now are:

  • Stand out above the crowd. How do you attract the best talent and not just one of the many looking for a new opportunity? To achieve this, you need to produce job ads that create interest in your organization and the opportunity to attract everyone, not only those considering moving. 
  • Using your employees, customers, and suppliers to help find new talent. These people all know you. They know your culture and values. So they are the best people to refer people to you if you are looking. However, first, you have to tell them what you need. If you have a great job ad, share it with them. Encourage your employees to refer people.
  • Employee testimonials on your website. Again I have mentioned this before, but it still amazes me how few companies have employee testimonials on their website. The first thing a prospect will do is go to your website to find out about your organization. Having no employee testimonials is not a good way to entice them. Worse is only having stock photos of employees other than the leadership team.
  • Ensure your reputation is good. Check Glassdoor and other sites to see what has been said about you. While you cannot always change the negative posts, understand them and be willing to address them in an interview.
  • Interviewing. With many people looking to move and the cost of replacing large, make sure that you are getting the right person. A term I prefer is “auditioning.” As many have said, the key is culture and values. Concerning ability, ensure they can do the job. Given how busy everyone is, it might be harder to defend hiring someone capable but requires training. However, getting the wrong person just because they have the skills is a more expensive proposition in the long run.

Onboarding

Onboarding is more critical than ever, and it is more challenging than ever with COVID. However, now you have to ensure that your new members can absorb your culture and values and know your strategy and expectations.

I have discussed onboarding with many CEOs and find that all are struggling to do it effectively. A few thoughts are:

  • Ensure they know your culture and values, and strategy first. With this knowledge, they can make better decisions that benefit the organization.
  • Ensure they understand what is expected of them and have regular check-ins for the first year to ensure that both of you are on the same track.
  • Understand their objectives and needs. These are both professional and personal, but you can build a plan together to help realize them if you know them. That is not to say the company has to give them more but enabling them to see that they have a path to what they seek will show interest on the organization’s part. Right now, several companies are offering an extra day off a month or large bonuses. Figure out what you can offer to make your employees feel appreciated and not cause trouble in your organization.
  • Make sure they feel welcome. Remember, a majority of people regret the move after the first day! Make sure your new employees don’t. 

Engagement

Keeping all employees engaged is key to keeping them, those that you have and those that you are hiring. That means they need to know:

  • The current situation. Your employees need to know where you are today. Now is time for the truth because they do know, just not necessarily from the leadership team. Telling them everything is okay when they see chaos around them means that the leadership team is out of touch with reality, and now is the time to move on.  
  • Where is the company going? Make sure they know the company’s BHAG and 3HAG. Knowing where you are going provides more energy for the task, and right now, we need everyone to paddle.
  • What is their role? Make sure they know their role in the organization. First, make sure they can answer the following:
  1. What do we do, and where am I in the process? 
  2. How do we make money, and what do I do that helps that? 
  3. How will we succeed?
  4. What is most important right now that my team has to do? 
  5. Who must do what? Accountability and reporting roles and 
  6. How can they help? Seek input from them regularly on how to improve processes and actions to perform better. It is incredible how often employees know a better way, but no one ever asks. However, please don’t ignore their feedback because they will never give it again. If you don’t want to use it, explain why.

Growth Plan

As part of the onboarding, understand what they want in their life. If they wish to grow to a new role in the next X years, help them develop a plan. If they are contented at their current position but want to move flexibility, work on that. Understanding their wants and needs shows interest by the company, and that builds attraction. If they feel you care about them, they will care about you. 

Given all that is happening, this is not the time for the Mushroom Theory of Management!

Finally, given that many people are thinking of leaving, if you can afford it, maybe this is the time to prune some of that deadwood.

Good luck paddling out, and I hope you make it through the set.

 

Copyright (c) 2021 Marc A. Borrelli

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3 Ways You Could be Undermining Your Core Values

3 Ways You Could be Undermining Your Core Values

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As we have all struggled through 2020 and the difficulties of lockdowns and WFH, our core values are guiding decision making and holding us together as organizations. Talking to a senior executive recently, he said that COVID had destroyed his organization’s comradery, and no one felt connected. However, on further investigation, it appeared that the company has no core values, as they thought them irrelevant.

I find companies without clearly articulated core values can rarely define, “Why do you exist?” If you have no core values, no guiding mission, and everyone is now working from home, what bonds the team together? The only thing is the paycheck. However, we know that money is a terrible motivator. Scholars at the London School of Economics looked at 51 studies on pay-for-performance schemes and concluded:

“We find that financial incentives may indeed reduce intrinsic motivation and diminish ethical or other reasons for complying with workplace social norms such as fairness. As a consequence, the provision of incentives can result in a negative impact on overall performance.”

So, core values are fundamental. I hope you have some, and they are clearly articulated in your organization. Remember, as Jim Collins says, core values are those things we would rather lose profit over than breach. If you are undermining them, your team loses commitment to the values, and it becomes a Lord of the Flies environment with finger-pointing, denouncements, and everyone for themselves.

However, even if you do have core values, there may be three ways you are undermining them.

You Breach Them

The first possibility: you breach your core values! If one of your core values is, “We treat everyone with respect” (which I often see in companies) and you do something disrespectful to an employee, customer, or just someone outside the organization, it causes issues. The perception among your employees is that:

  • The CEO lacks personal commitment to the core values;
  • The CEO is a hypocrite; and
  • All corporate statements around behavior, mission, and values are only words and not taken seriously.

Therefore, you and your leadership team must live your core values at all times. If one of you cannot, then either they have to leave the organization, or you have to change your core values. Pat Lencioni talks of a company where once they had defined their core values, one of the leadership team resigned, saying, “I cannot live that value, and if that is the value of the organization, then I should go.” It can be hard to enforce them, but it is better for the organization in the long term.

You Allow Others to Breach Them

As mentioned above, the CEO and leadership team must live the company’s core values. However, if you allow others within the organization to breach them, it leads to the issues described above. I have often seen that the leadership team provides a pass for some employees because they are high performers, e.g., top salesperson or IT person. The rationale is that we cannot survive without them, and so we will tolerate their failing to behave because it is more important to keep them than maintain our core values. However, as Jim Collins points out, you should be prepared to take a loss to live up to them, so you should be prepared to lose these employees to keep your core values.

I often have CEOs and leadership teams struggle with what to do about such “toxic” people, and at the end of the day, after much pushing, they let that individual go. What usually happens is that company morale improves, core values become believed in, and productivity increase above the levels that were there when the toxic person roamed the organization.

Your Employees Are Confused as To What They Mean

Of the three reasons, this is probably the most common, because it is the easiest to do. I have said the worst two inventions for the corporate world were Excel and PowerPoint. The former encourages accuracy without precision, and the latter because we have lots of presentations where everyone has their interpretation of what the meaning was. This lack of definition is pervasive with core value statements.

You need to explain the meaning of core values. Reinforce them by recognizing examples of the team’s correct behavior, and explaining why specific actions are not core values even if they appear to fall within the definition. If you don’t, employees will weave their interpretations and ideologies into them. The employees’ ideologies and interpretations may take the core values further or in a different direction than the CEO intended. However, once the employees have taken them there, the CEO and leadership team’s opportunity to breach them increases dramatically.

If a core value is “employee growth and belonging,” without being clear as to what this means, it may be interpreted as:

  • Employee empowerment to do more than they should.
  • A family environment where the growth is limited to ensure that family feeling
  • Communication is equal, and everyone has a voice at all levels.

If that is not what the CEO intends, but it is what the employees now believe, it becomes only a matter of time before the CEO crosses the line and breaches the core values in the employees’ minds.

The problem that most often happens is that the employees don’t consider if their interpretation of the core values was wrong; instead, they assume that the CEO is a hypocrite and doesn’t care about the core values. Employees are unlikely to raise the issue that they think the CEO and leadership team have breached the company’s core values because the values of “Open Door” and “Bring me the bad news” are now just considered words rather than values. Thus, the negative spiral starts.

To prevent this, leaders must spend time asking employees what they are thinking and feeling, as well as sharing their own thoughts so that the employees will feel comfortable expressing their concerns.

To ensure that the understanding is correct, the leadership team needs to reinforce examples of behavior that supports their definition of the core values. When they see actions that don’t mean the intent, call them out and explain why it doesn’t fit the core values. Also, recognizing individuals’ living core values within the organization reinforces the organization’s commitment to the core values. Finally, the CEO and leadership team need to be aware of when they breach the values, admit their failures, and commit to living to those standards in the future.

I hope as we end the year, you CEOs and business leaders will take time to recognize those in your organization that has lived your corporate values during the struggles of 2020 in your one-on-one meetings. It will provide a great deal of goodwill and encourage the behavior far more than the usual “Rally around the flag” speech at the end of the year.

 

Copyright (c) 2020 Marc A Borrelli

 

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We all know the flight attendant’s instructions to “put your oxygen mask on first,” before helping others. Why is this an essential rule for ensuring survival? Because if you run out of oxygen yourself, you can’t help anyone else with their oxygen mask.

In a corporate environment, I consider this to ensure that the business model and processes are working before embarking on a new venture, product, or market. With COVID, I see several CEOs, moving their organizations in new directions without the company having its core culture, business model, and processes working. With COVID, all CEOs are now what Ben Horowitz referred to as “Wartime CEOs.” To understand the difference, read Horowitz’s Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO. However, as a wartime CEO, you need a robust organization framework to provide the agility to win.

Without a robust framework, it will be difficult to:

  • know what is driving any change in performance;
  • push decision making down the chain of command;
  • be agile in responding to market conditions; and
  • make informed decisions.

Many companies have problems with their culture, business model, processes, or just the wrong employees. As I have said before, COVID is ripping back the curtain and exposing these weaknesses. Business leaders don’t have the luxury of ignoring them anymore.

Many CEOs I know have avoided addressing the problems within their organizations for years as the growing economy helped paper over them, and I think they hoped the issues would right themselves with time. This failing to deal with the difficult choices is a failure by these leaders because dealing with hard decisions is why they get paid the big bucks. As Ben Horowitz so aptly put it, CEOs make decisions that not everyone agrees with, because if everyone agreed, then they wouldn’t need the CEO. Now is the time for many business leaders to face those hard decisions and do what is right for the organization.

Examples I see are that plague some companies are:

  • Wrong people in the jobs they have. They need to be moved
  • No core values or corporate culture. During COVID there are more crises because “the employees are not stepping up.” This will get worse.
  • Bad financial reporting. You can’t change direction and know the results if your financials are 6+ months late or usually wrong.
  • No idea about the underlying product or service costs. Thus focusing on nonprofitable items and clients during a cash crunch.
  • Headquarters in another country has to approve all online content and publish the website and online stores; however, they are distracted and don’t understand the U.S. market. In this instance, there is no agility, which is essential.

If you are struggling with this, I would recommend joining a Peer Group like Vistage and presenting the issue to your Peers. When I was a Vistage member, I found the advice was what I deep down usually knew was needed, but hearing it from my Peers provided me no choice but to commit to something I was avoiding. Also, I would have to do it, as I could not face them again, having committed to doing it, but then backing out. As I tell Vistage prospects, “there is no public flogging in Vistage, but monthly humiliation in front of your peers may be worse!”

While COVID is creating chaos in many companies, business leaders need to ensure they have repaired their underlying problems first before trying to adapt. As the old French proverb says, “A stitch in time saves nine.”

 

Copyright (c) 2020, Marc A. Borrelli

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Your Core Values Will Make or Break You

Your Core Values Will Make or Break You

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I have often repeated Peter Drucker’s quote that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This week someone said they thought is statement wrong as, without a strategy, you cannot achieve anything. I believe this is a misunderstanding of Drucker’s point. You need a plan, but if the culture is wrong, the strategy will fail because the culture is more important.

Like many things, COVID is accelerating the importance of corporate core values. During COVID and, more recently, BLM, many companies have not lived their core values. For example, if your core values are:

  • Do the right thing: What do you do when no one else is looking? Our teams act with integrity and honesty and focus on putting ourselves in the shoes of others; or
  • Make something better, today: We’re hungry, we’re passionate, and we love tough problems and new challenges. You don’t hear a lot of “I don’t know how” or “I can’t.” When faced with a hurdle, we jump.

Then how do you respond to the COVID crisis and BLM? I believe that doing nothing is not in keeping with your core values. Therefore, you must react and in a way that reinforces your values. Many companies are stuck not knowing how to respond to the BLM protests, to which I think the best answer is to look to your core values, they should guide you and will not allow you to make meanless statements, but do something that reflects the values.

Again, many companies that have their core values posted all around the office and on corporate stationery, but most employees couldn’t tell you what they are. One CEO I know went around such an office and offered any employee who could state the core values without looking at it $50. Out of 30+ employees, only one succeeded. In such an environment, you are not living them and using them to define your organization. Remember Enron had its core values – Integrity, Communication, Respect, Excellence engraved in its lobby. Then it collapsed and its many of its leadership team went to jail, so obviously its core values were not something it lived. If you want to see a great presentation of core values and culture, visit “Netflix Culture: Freedom and Responsibility.” Netflix says that its success and growth are down to its culture and it lives it.

As Jim Collins says, “Core values and purpose define the eternal character of a great organization, the character that endures beyond the presence of any set of people or individual leaders. In the long run, individual leaders do not hold an organization together; core values and purpose do. In the best organizations, leaders are subservient to the core principles, not the other way around.  …  core values and purpose as a defining boundary will become even more important. Given the obvious trends in organizations—greater decentralization and autonomy, wider geographic dispersion, increased diversity, more knowledge workers, technology and travel that make going into the office a less relevant activity—the bonding glue that holds organizations together will increasingly be in the form of shared values and common purpose. No matter how much the world and its organizing structures change, people still have a fundamental need to belong to something they can feel proud of.”

Tyler Cowen further emphasized what Collins said if you don’t have core values in a recent Bloomberg post, “In essence, without a local workplace ethos, it is easier to commoditize labor, view workers as interchangeable and fire people. The distinction between protected full-time employees and outsourced, freelance, and contract workers weakens. A company can make the offer of, ‘If you hand in your project, we pay you,’ to virtually any worker around the world, many of whom might accept lower wages for remote roles.”

If, as I suggested above, the organization pushes decision making down, then if its employees know the core values, they will make decisions that in the best interests of the organization, increasing its agility. Right now, agility is critical as we try to learn the “new normal” in a world were we don’t have clarity on what is happening. However, if they don’t know them or believe they are just pretty words, you will get conflicting decisions and confusion.

Again, as Jim Collins notes, the first of five things to look for when hiring people is, “The whole task is to find people who already have a predisposition to your core values…They must share the core values … those who do not have a predisposition to sharing the core values get ejected like a virus. Get escorted out the door by the organizational antibodies.” As companies pivot and adjust their human capital to reflect a new normal, this must be a vital part of the hiring process. It is more likely now that unlike prior generations, Millenials will self select those companies that reflect their core values. However, a good check of a prospect’s core values is to look at their prior employment, did those companies share your core values?

Finally, use this time of COVID, BLM, and other events to ensure your employees know your core values and culture. Build your organization folklore around how you live your core values, because as humans, we identify better with stories. If there many stories of how the organization lives its culture, the easier it will be for employees to learn and know the culture.

If you want to see a great example of the effect of core values, find a copy of Eco-Challenge – Borneo (a summary is here, but the 4-hour show is hard to find). Eco-challenge was a Mark Burnett production before Survivor, which involved co-ed foursomes competing non-stop for 11 days with almost no sleep through some of the most outrageous obstacle courses anyone could imagine. It’s not all about the specific feats of strength, the devastating effects on the body are many, including head wounds, spinal injuries, and malaria cases are plentiful. Teams from New Zealand and Australia were annual favorites and winners because one of their core values was – “They never argue.” An American squad comprising Armed Forces members could not agree on leadership and values leading to many arguments and disqualification early because two of their players forgot a map and end up swimming away from one of the many checkpoints.

So as you chart a new direction, ensure your core values are correctly identified, shared by all, and reflected in your decisions.

 

Copyright (c) 2020, Marc A. Borrelli

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Customers are People Too

Customers are People Too

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In discussions with some of my clients, I have asked if they are reaching out to their customers directly, CEO to CEO. Some are, but some respond that everyone is so busy at the moment, they are just leaving them alone. I think this is a mistake.

Yes, we are all busy, and stressed. However, if you accept that how you act over this period will define you for the next ten years, then I think reaching out is a great investment. But don’t get me wrong, this is not about call up asking for an order. Rather, operate empathy-first. Ask how they are doing, is everyone in their family safe and well. Tell them what you are doing to get through this and what can you do to make their life easier. Prioritize in-depth relationships with customers and focus on quality over quantity, as we all know we should do when it comes to relationships.

You may find they are stress and have no one to talk to because they are the CEO. Talking, sharing ideas, being empathetic, and just listening may be the greatest thing you can do for them now. I remember a story my father told me when he had just started his industrial catering business. One day he at his largest and most important client, he stopped and asked a young junior executive how his meal was and was there anything he could get him as the young man seemed unhappy. The young man thanked my father and shared that he was anxious as his child had been taken seriously ill My father sat with him for an hour during my father’s busiest time of the day just listening to the young man talk. About twenty years later, that young man was promoted to CFO of this organization. My father sent him a bottle of champagne to congratulate him. The executive sent back a note which said, “I have never forgotten the lunch you spent with me when I was a nobody and was anxious about my son. The contract is yours for as long as you want it and I am here.”

Customers will remember how you treat them now and may do for ten plus years. A few calls is a small investment.

 

Copyright (c) 2020, Marc A. Borrelli

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