Frequency and duration of one-on-ones 

The frequency and duration of one-one-ones are usually left to the manager’s discretion. It is recommended to have weekly meetings of 30 minutes with each employee. Some managers find one-on-ones time consuming and will not do it. However, they need to perceive these sessions more as regular “reality checks” to ensure alignment of employees’ goals to those of the company. These sessions will result in more motivated employees who know they are being recognized for their contributions to the company. Employees will feel that management cares about their ideas and career advancement within the company. A high retention rate of high-performing and motivated employees will save your company money in the long run.

Constructive feedback sessions

Both employees and managers dread one-on-ones when they know it involves constructive feedback. As a manager, remember that the session is about the employees. Talk about the issue in an objective manner and allow them to share their perspectives. The most important thing to do next is to MOVE FORWARD. Don’t stall on what they did, focus on what they will do in the future. Encourage them to come up with a plan to remedy the issue. Keep in mind that all employees react differently to constructive feedback. Offer your support in developing a plan if they are struggling to come up with their own. Finish the discussion by setting a follow-up session to keep track of the employees’ progress. Show enthusiasm that they can achieve what they have set to do — you want to leave the session on a positive note.

Body language during coaching sessions

Body language is important in setting the tone for the meeting. Don’t separate yourself from the employees by sitting across a conference table. Have an open presence by sitting facing them with arms uncrossed. Be open and receptive to what they have to say. Make eye contact to show them that you are actively listening and that you are genuinely interested in what they are saying. Be respectful and do not look at your phone or watch throughout the session. If you have an important call, set that expectation at the start. Take notes. It will help you remember the important points of the conversation and is useful for follow-up sessions. It is also a way to show the employees that you are listening to them.

Six-Question Process

Coaching is not only about giving positive and constructive feedback. It is a chance for executives to gather suggestions from direct reports on the bigger picture. Marshall Goldsmith, best selling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There? talks about using Six-Question process for better coaching. He recommends executives to conduct one-on-ones quarterly with their direct reports to focus on understanding disagreements with the company’s strategic alignment. I think that this process can be applied to all levels of the organization.

1. Where are we going?

Ask the employees for their input on where the organization should be going. This is an opportunity to ensure that strategic objectives set by each member of the organization are in alignment with the company’s vision. Employees have the opportunity to come up with new ideas and share them with the executive teams. They also may have better insights on how the organization is doing since they are the primary contact with customers.

2. Where are you going?

This question has two levels. The first one is where the specific functional teams are heading towards. What are they trying to achieve to support the company’s mission, vision, and goals? The second level is the direct reports’ individual goals and priorities. Knowing where your employees are aiming towards can help you build your succession pipeline.

3. What is going well?

Ask your employees what they think the organization as a whole is doing well and what their teams have been doing well. Recognize them for their achievements and contributions to your overall objectives. You may have missed out on some positive accomplishments and this is the perfect setting to learn about them.

4. What are key suggestions for improvement?

Encourage employees to provide constructive suggestions for the future. You should pick the key opportunities for improvement and focus on them for the quarter. Next, ask your employees, “If you were your own coach, what suggestions would you have for yourself?” By listening to their suggestions, you can then modify your own suggestions to better reflect the strategic objectives of the company.

5. How can I help?

By listening to your employees, you can provide the appropriate support to ensure that their suggestions are being implemented effectively. You can also participate by suggesting approaches and asking whether the approach will be helpful to become more effective. Managers need to remember that improvement is not measured by the frequency of one-on-ones, but by the quality of them. They key to improvement is to provide coaching to the right people on the right topic.

6. What suggestions do you have for me?

This question makes the one-on-ones a two-way conversation. Managers who ask for feedback and focus on improving the key behaviours are more likely to have an increase in leadership effectiveness. Employees are more open to the idea of being coached, when their managers are are willing to be coached by them.

Becoming an effective coach  requires trial and error. There is no perfect formula on how to be the best coach since every company and person is different. Therefore, don’t hesitate to ask for feedback from your peers, your supervisors, and your team members. Practice different coaching scenarios with co-workers to discover  your strengths and to work on your weaknesses. The end result of effective coaching affects both the employers and employees. For the employers, one-on-ones provide a structure for guidance and focus which leads to higher productivity. Employees have greater satisfaction as coaching allows them to share their ideas and career plans.

No matter how talented your employees are, they will not perform their best unless they have the personal desire to do so. Gen Y employees are looking for companies who share the same core values as them. Use your organization’s core values as a competitive advantage. Include them in your branding when hiring for potential candidates. Give real examples during onboarding of new hires on how your organization uses its core values to achieve their mission. It is important for you to sustain the desire after the novelty of working at the organization wears off. This is where coaching is crucial. Conduct one-on-one sessions to understand what your employees’ goals are and to support them whenever needed.  A clear organizational chart can help your employees figure out where they want to be in the long term, and fuel their desire to grow with the organization.

2. Drive

One of the main reasons we set goals is to create a drive to work as hard as possible to achieve the result. Employees want to have a clear line of sight on how their efforts contribute to the overall success of the organization. Involve your employees when setting quarterly objectives. Make sure that your objectives are aligned with theirs. Sit with each of your employees to listen to their ideas on how they plan on contributing to the overall goals. Recognize them when they have reached their milestones to help keep the desire and drive going.

3. Determination

Facing hurdles is part of every business’ story. Embrace your employees’ mistakes and encourage them to learn something from them. Create a culture where you value your employees’ voices by having regular coaching sessions. This is the opportunity to see where you can help them achieve their goals. Determination is hard to maintain when your employees are scared to make mistakes. In cultures like this, people panic whenever they face difficult situations, or shy away from taking risks. Provide feedback to your employees and give them the opportunity to learn from the mistakes. My old manager always said to me, “Ask for forgiveness, not permission.” By having an error-embracing culture, you are removing a barrier to your employees’ determination to achieve excellence.

4. Discipline

Ryan Holmes, CEO at Hootsuite, wrote Is the Secret to Success Really 10,000 Hours? where he shared his discipline of working hard in order to reach his business goals. Discipline is not to be confused with micro-managing. Discipline needs to come from your employees themselves and not instilled by managers. You can achieve self-discipline by implementing individual and team accountability in your organization’s culture. 7Geese allows your employees to check in on their progress at any time. By having objectives set by your employees, they hold themselves accountable to deliver the results.

5. Dedication

I believe that dedication is what makes an employee give more than 100%. We spend more than half of our waking hours at work. Therefore, if employees aren’t passionate about their jobs or the company they work for, they’re more likely to do the bare minimum to get their salary, and probably start looking for other jobs. Peer recognition encourages dedication: it is positive reinforcement that their contribution is valuable to everyone. Employees do not always want financial rewards for their work. Real-time feedback on how they are helping the organization acheive success is priceless.

Employee engagement is key to the success of an organization. Creating a supportive culture and providing individual coaching requires resources and time. However, the benefit of having engaged employees who are working hard towards the success of your organization is priceless.

Gen Y employees are yearning more opportunities to learn and grow rather than focusing on salary. Many organizations still employ the archaic method of giving out a tangible reward for their employees’ contributions. These types of  rewards work really well for duties that are repetitive, do not require much mental effort, and are short term, but not so much for work that requires creativity.

I want to share with you a personal experience which may sound trivial, but demonstrates my point well. In a prior work setting, recognition and rewards were joined at the hip. The first time I was recognized for my work, I received a $10 gift card for Starbucks. Of course, I was ecstatic, “This is the best workplace ever. I work hard and get a gift card!” (NOTE: a $10 Starbucks gift card goes a long way for a university student). I started to think that the harder I worked. the greater the reward would be. However, the next time I got recognized, I was rewarded with a bottle of nail polish worth $6. It was a complete bummer for sure; why is my effort being valued less now? It was even worse when compared to other co-workers; why are their efforts worth more than mine? My performance lowered because I felt that my contribution was being valued less. This is an example of how monetary rewards can quickly turn a positive into a negative.

Many companies panic at the thought of removing the tie between financial rewards and recognition. Their first thought is, “How are we going to show our employees that we recognize their contributions if we can’t give them something tangible?” The answer is to go back to the roots of giving recognition – recognizing your employees is a way for you to tell them “I care about your success, I value your effort in making our company successful, and I appreciate your dedication.”

People crave positive feedback and acknowledgement from their leaders and peers. This warm feeling of being recognized for work that you have put your time and effort into is priceless. Abraham Maslow, the psychologist famous for developing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, teaches that people will first satisfy their most basic human needs. Once these are met, they move on to more interpersonal needs, such as esteem and belonging. Providing a compensation package which matches the industry average meets people’s safety need – safety for employment, health, and future retirement plan. But when that need is met, people search for esteem – self-esteem, achievement, and respect by others. A successful recognition program provides employees a way to satisfy these important higher-level needs.

There are several tips you can use to provide your employees with recognition that they will value:

In the moment – Be timely with your feedback and recognition. Think of yourself as a sports coach. Don’t wait until the end of the season to tell your team how they did. Whether it is positive or constructive feedback, your employees will have the opportunity to improve as of that moment. Also, feedback and recognition in real-time increases employee engagement at the workplace. If an employee finishes a project in the morning, giving immediate feedback can help motivate the employee to be engaged throughout the rest of day.

Authentic, not automatic – Show your employees that you know exactly what they did to contribute to the success of the project. Be specific and descriptive. Take the time to write a personal note with the recognition. This will tell your employees that they are not just a human body working for you, but they are part of your team. For example, Sheldon Yellen, CEO of Belfor Restoration, hand-writes birthday cards to every single employee. His deep caring for his employees has positively influenced the corporate culture.

In context – Link the recognition to the company’s bigger goals and core values. Explain to your employees that their effort is not only contributing to their team, but also to the overall success of the organization. You want to make them feel part of the team. For example, “You rock for making cookies,” means nothing to an employee compared to “We thank you for making the cookies as it gave the team good energy to work through the night, which ultimately allowed us to finish the client’s project before the deadline”. You want your recognition to help your employees have a clear line of sight on how their contributions benefit the organization.

Not everything revolves around money. By recognizing your employees for their accomplishments and not putting a dollar amount on their contributions, you are giving them the gift of esteem. In return, you will definitely get higher employee engagement and retention.

Be the leader in rocking your employees’ recognition program without tying it to financial rewards.

You may think that since your company doesn’t have a fancy office, beer on tap, or the biggest budget, it may be hard for you to attract the best Gen Y talent out there. But you may be wrong, because having a great culture can attract the best talent and culture is not about having a cool office or a keg in the lunch room.

Companies have been moving away from the 1970s Baby Boomers era where the mantra revolved around management: the workplaces where the traditional 4 walls offices; and employees planning their whole career for one employer until they retired. There was no need for a standardized performance appraisals as managers usually would micro-manage every little detail to their reports. Then Gen X started entering the workforce which led companies to start changing their culture to reflect what Gen X valued. Performance appraisals became a hot and every company started conducting a performance review once a year. Well this description fits the current situation of most companies these days. However, Brian Halligan raises a very interesting point: Should we not be moving away from the Gen X era to embrace the Millennials as they represent the majority of the workforce? There are hundreds of articles on the internet about what Gen Y values, what are their perspectives on working hours etc. But very few of them talks about what companies should do to align their operations and management practices to match the Millenials.

In this blog I wanted to give you my perspective as a Gen Y on the different subjects Brian Halligan talks about in his talk. At the same time, I’m going to share some tips on how you can adapt your culture to what Gen Y wants at their workplace. Brian Halligan paints a picture of what the 2013 companies should be like:

Mantra – Inspiration:  As a Gen Y, I have to agree 100% with this mantra. We want to be inspired. We want to work for companies who motivate us to achieve excellence, to work for a common goal, and to grow as an individual. With the easy accessibility of information, Gen Y is being picky as they truly believe in working for a company whose core values align with their own personal values. You should break away from the traditional, boring core values that are just a plaque on the wall and create innovative and creative ones such as “Deliver WOW Through Service” which is one of Zappos core values. Learn more about leading and inspiring the Millennials.

Desire – Learning: Baby Boomers wanted a job that would offer them a secure pension to support themselves and their families after they retired. Gen X focused on salary – the more money, the more likely they would stay in the company. But when it comes to Gen Y, what we want is to learn. Of course, we want to have a decent salary that will cover our basic needs and a little vacation from time to time. But no amount of money will matter if we are bored out of our mind. Gen Y has a thirst for learning and mentorship.

Hours and Workplace – Whenever and Wherever: Gen Y lives through technology. It’s a fact that many companies should start embracing rather than resisting. Sometimes we function at different pace – it happened to me couple of times that I would have a crazy idea and would share it with my co-workers at 9 pm. Do not limit your employees to be inspired only from 9-5. And this is where a strong culture is important – Yes you want to ensure that all of your team members understand that they are held accountable for their duties, but you are not micromanaging them to deliver their best performance during a fixed set of time during the day. Also, you may considering throwing away your vacation policy just like HubSpot did.

And finally, Gen Y craves for ad hoc feedback. We want it whenever we want to and whenever it is needed. The traditional performance appraisals are usually conducted once a year, twice if you are lucky. But given that a Gen Y stays in a job for approximately 18 months on average (great companies like HubSpot get to keep Gen Ys for much longer), you are not doing us a favour by showing interest in our performance once a year. We want to get better faster, that’s why we want to receive as much feedback as possible on a continuous basis. You may want to consider evolving your 360 feedback process to make it continuous and employee-driven. Now, many managers would use the “well it’s not like we have all the time in the world to sit down with each employee to coach them”. This is where social performance management comes in. We are a tech-savvy generation, and companies need to embrace it. Social performance tools such as 7Geese allows you to provide feedback and recognize your employees in real-time. Social performance management allows you to be involved with what your employees are doing and to be actively supporting them when needed.

Generation Y is coming into the workforce at a fast pace and they now represent the majority of the workforce. It is definitely a challenge to adapt your culture to Gen Y as many workplaces have a mixture of Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y as employees. However, it is important to start taking baby steps to accommodate the Millenials as you do not want to lag behind when it comes to attracting the best talent for your organization.

The main benefit of offering flexible benefit programs is that you are able to meet the changing needs of the workforce. As more Generation Y is entering the market and Baby boomers extending their retirement age, it is becoming more common to have workplaces where you have both generations working together. By offering flexible benefits, you are giving your employees the opportunity to choose packages that best satisfy their unique needs. The best news is that flexible benefits plan is not necessarily more expensive than the traditional one-size-fits-all benefits plan. The best practice is to set a dollar maximum. For example, each employee has $2500 annually to spend on the benefits deemed to be more suitable for their lifestyle. If employees want to opt in for more options, they can do so at their own expense. By setting a fixed amount, you can contain the cost of the benefits and budget better for the years to come. Another great benefit is that flexible options increase the involvement of employees and families which in turn, improves the understanding of the benefits. When you offer a one-size-fits-all, employees know that they can’t change the policies, therefore, they show little interest in what is being offered to them. But when they have the option to choose, employees want to make sure that they are getting the best for the fixed amount provided to them. So they will go the extra mile to understand each of the option to then make an informed decision on what to choose.

Now why should you care what your employees choose as part of their benefits packages? Making the wrong decisions on an individual level can affect your organization in two ways: firstly, if you allow your employees to pick their own benefits, you will see your insurance premium going up. The reason is related to the adverse selection i.e. only people who have less than average eyesight will select the vision care. The high level of claims will increase the premium for that specific benefit which unless you share the costs with the employees, you will end up paying for the increased rate. Secondly, employees picking the wrong benefits may lead to high absenteeism and low productivity. For example, if one of your employees suddenly has some cavity issues and is not covered by the dental plan, that employee may skip work to tend to the pain or come to work but not be fully efficient due to the pain. These examples are simple, but you can easily see how the wrong benefits can affect your organization as a whole.

How to guide your employees to select the right benefits plan? The language used in the insurance words are often an obstruction to employee involvement. Employees do not understand or show interest because it is explained to them in a language they cannot understand. The wording of a plan could mean difference between being covered and not being covered for an illness. I would suggests to make benefits plan education more interactive rather than the traditional hour-long PowerPoint presentation. You want to be able to engage your employees in asking the right question and leaving the workshop with the right knowledge to select their benefits. The most useful recommendation is to have one-on-one guidance whether you have an HR manager or Benefits coordinator in your organization who can answer all the inquiries or teaming up with your insurance company to provide a hotline/client manager to support the employees if they need more clarifications. By having this type of support during the enrolment process, you are providing your employees with experts who will guide your workforce into making the right decisions.

Voluntary benefits allow employers to be competitive in hiring and retaining employees. With today’s workforce being less loyal, having satisfaction with benefits directly impact overall job satisfaction for your employees. A conscious effort made by you and your employees to ensure both parties are able to determine a benefits package that is mutually beneficial will provide you with a healthier and happier workforce while you can lower your costs on benefits but still making sure that everyone is being covered properly.

If you asked your managers and employees what they think the purpose of reviews was, most of them would say that the reviews determine their compensation – putting a $ amount on their performance. I have to admit that I also shared the same view. What I was resisted against the most was the idea of not having a standardized method such as competency ratings to determine any increase in pay; while on the other hand, I was not a fan of the traditional review process as I found it very subjective. Many companies are going through the same thought – we all know that performance reviews are demoralizing to both employers and employees, however, it seems like we are all stuck in a rut as we do not know what the alternatives would be.

It is very common to make the assumption that if your employees do not see a reward for their contribution; they will not be motivated and will feel unappreciated. When we think about reward at the workplace, the first thing that pops in our mind is financial reward, whether it is in the form of a bonus or gift card. What Coens and Jenkins’s found is that pay incentives can improve your employees’ performance under specific circumstances – in the short run, when the task are simple and do not require lots of efforts and when the work is mostly quantitative and not qualitative. We have also heard from authors like Daniel Pink that autonomy, mastery, purpose is the real motivator. I’ve shared Daniel’s Pink talk below and I recommend you watch it if you haven’t done already. Another popular organizational behaviour model, called MARS, identifies four factors that influence the behaviours and performance of your employees: motivation, ability, role perception and situational factors. Note that financial reward is not one of them!

Many employers believe that by giving pay incentives, it will increase the motivation of the employees. Alfie Kohn, the author of Punished by Rewards, argues that rewards actually destroy intrinsic motivation. A test was conducted with 20 children: 10 of them were given $5 to test a puzzle while the rest was asked to play with the puzzle if they wanted but no financial reward was offered. The adults left the children in a waiting room giving them the choice to either play with the puzzle they just did or do whatever they want. The children were secretly filmed and the outcome was that nine out of the 10 children did not touch the puzzle at all while the 10 who were not given any financial reward earlier kept playing with the puzzle. The conclusion to take from this experiment is that rewards can undermine the intrinsic motivation of your employees and you definitely want to avoid it.

Another well-renowned theory that is closely related to motivation and pay increase is Frederick Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors. He believes strongly that money is not a motivator, but rather it is a powerful de-motivator when people are not being paid a fair salary. A survey conducted by Development Dimensions International found that pay actually came fifth in the reasons why people left their jobs. What employees want is to be engaged at their workplace whether in the form of more varied work and more challenging work. This survey proves the point Herzberg advocates for – the true motivators for employees are achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility and advancement. On the other hand, salary is part of the hygiene factors with work conditions, good computer, nice chair, free coffee, status, company car, relationship with coworkers etc. What is the importance of understanding hygiene factors and motivators is that motivators are what will help you retain your employees and improve their performance while if you only offer hygiene factors to your employees, they will improve their performance only in the short run, but start to lose interest in their work in the long run which ultimately leads to high turnovers.

So far we have talked about why you should not link compensation with your performance reviews. The big question is how to pay your employees appropriately and fairly if you don’t have use the reviews and appraisals as your guide? Here are the steps you can take:

• Pay your people well enough to recruit and retain those who can best contribute. Match your compensation to that of the market and keep the wages current with market changes and inflation. You want to give your employees enough to cover their main expenses such as mortgages so that they do not have to worry about their financial situation. By paying your employees fairly, people will tend to worry about pay less, thus taking the focus away.
• Design a pay structure that is closely linked to the market value. For example, the market suggests that an employee with a bachelor degree, 5 years experiences, and a set of specific skills is worth around $70,000. Explain to your employees that you are basing your compensation on their market value i.e. an entry level employee can understand what she needs to accomplish to reach a higher compensation grade.
• Enable your employees to find meaning in their work. By providing complex work climate where you are supporting employees to accept challenging projects, your employees will be motivate to work towards your organization’s goals. With effective coaching sessions and real-time feedback, your employees may want to improve their skills in order to undertake more challenging projects. By improving themselves as professionals, their market value will increase and so will their compensation.

In this blog, I wanted to share with you that paying people enough salary is important but it is not the money that will make your employees blossom at your organization. It is certainly difficult to change your whole compensation structure not to be linked to the performance reviews and appraisals. However, with the inflow of freshly graduated Gen Y employees coming into the workforce, you want to take a proactive role in creating a work environment that motivates your employees to strive for excellence because they want to and not because they have to.

One condition for effective feedback that the authors talk about is that the feedback is given in a personal and interactive manner. We are living in the digital era where social media and smartphone have enable communication 24/7 worldwide. The advanced technology has given rise to a new problem: what to communicate face-to-face and what to communicate using all the new technology? Feedback on performance is definitely a matter that should be discussed in private and in person whenever possible. You want your employees to be able to listen to your intonation, to read your body language, and most importantly, to have the opportunity to ask you for more clarification if needed.

I remember this incident at my previous employment where I received a constructive feedback by email. The communication between me and that manager escalated very fast mostly because I felt like I could not defend myself. We eventually sort the matter out in person but the relationship was strained as due to my schedule, I only got to meet up with her couple of days after the initial feedback email. Although feedback might be centered on communicating an employees performance for a project or a job, it is still a two-way communication process. So you want to engage your employees in the conversation. I also think that having a face-to-face discussion with your employees about their performance shows genuine interest in them i.e. you are taking the time for supporting and coaching employees rather than just shooting a quick email about the matter. This applies to both positive and constructive feedback. I would encourage you to have a follow up session privately with your employees to whom you gave constructive feedback to in order for you to be able to recognize their improvement in performance and end the conversation on the specific issue positively.

What also really spoke to me about that chapter is how the authors are advocates of not only training on how to give feedback, but also training on how to receive feedback. You can give the best informative feedback but it is not going to be effective if it does not help improve the employees’ performance. The best feedback is when the employees asks for it. This is usually an indication that they are open to the feedback and ready for improvement if needed. The best way to start with engaging your employees to ask for feedback is your organization’s culture. As mentioned in my previous blog on communicating core values in your organization, you need to set the tone for your employees. For example, after a meeting, privately ask each of your members to provide you with feedback. It does not have to be revolutionary feedback, but engage them in giving feedback and demonstrating your openness to it. Ideally, you would practice giving and receiving feedback to your executive team members so that your employees see that every level of the organization is being involved in this process. What I also really liked about this chapter is the authors explaining that it is not about learning the techniques of giving and receiving feedback, but it’s about learning “a new art and increasing awareness about the dynamics of information, learning, and good timing…”.

Giving and receiving feedback is a hybrid of science and art – you want to be able to balance your feedback in terms of focusing on behaviours and the timing while also paying attention to reading your employees’ reaction and making sure that they leave the conversation understanding the feedback and how to improve their performance for the best. One thing that I think is important to mention is that do not assume that if an employee is not responding well to feedback, they are not a fit for your company culture. Like I mentioned in my example above, many people may just have had a bad experience with the whole concept of giving and receiving feedback. Take the time to educate and enlighten these employees.

I am looking forward for my next blog in which I want to discuss taking compensation out of the equation of coaching and feedback sessions. For now, I encourage all of you to take the first step in creating a strong culture around feedback in your organization. Start by asking feedback from your employees; leading by example will motivate them to start asking you for feedback in return.

After reading several articles on the best ways to coach your team, this article written by Katherine Graham-Leviss, the founder of XB Consulting, an executive coaching and business consulting firm explains the steps that I found very crucial for coaching. The following are 7 steps to take when coaching employees that are facing a performance issue:

1. Build a relationship of mutual trust – The foundation of every relationship, regardless of its nature is trust. Your employees need to develop trust that you are here to help them succeed and not gather information that can be used against them. You need to establish an atmosphere of open communication and mutual respect. What is also important is that you should also be able to trust your employees i.e. anything discussed during the coaching sessions is confidential and that the feedback is used for performance improvement and career development.
2. Open the meeting – The employees should always know what the meeting is about so that they come in with the right mindset. It is recommended to have an informal opening statement where you explain to the employees that the meeting is about helping them reach their goals and develop a road map that they can refer to in order to improve. You want to clarify that coaching sessions are independent from performance management i.e. the goal is to provide in-time feedback and provide support. You are not “judging” their performance and the coaching sessions are not linked to any compensations or promotions. By clearly defining what the objective of the coaching session is, it helps the employees be more receptive to the conversation.
3. Get agreement – This is the most critical step in the coaching meeting: getting the employees to agree that there is a performance issue. Before you bring up the issue, you as a manager need to describe the issue in terms of the behaviours so that it does not become personal. Be careful not to assume that your understanding of the situation is the right one. A coaching session is a two-way communication process. You should encourage your employees to explain how they interpret the behaviours and agree on the nature of the issue.
4. Explore alternatives – With the help of the employees, brainstorm alternative solutions to the issue. You want your employees to come up with specific alternatives and not general ones. The reason is that you need to hold them accountable to the solutions and clearly define what your expectations of the performance are. You should help them set goals and support your employees in coming up with specific alternatives.
5. Get a commitment to act – It does not matter how great your solutions to the issues are until your get full commitment from your employees to act. This step is important because you need to show your commitment to your employees road map as well i.e. if you offer any mentoring or training, you need to follow through with them. Also give them your commitment by asking how they want you to support them. For example, ask whether they want to have a weekly meeting to keep you updated with their progress or what is the best method to keep in touch with them.
6. Handle excuses – Employees may use excuses to lower your expectations of their performance. You should not disregard them; acknowledge them but focus on the solutions. There may be situational factors that may affect the outcome of their performance and as a coach, you need to take them into consideration. The hard part is to put the emotions aside and to concentrate on the behaviours. This is the time for you to be encouraging; your employees want to know that you are cheering for them and that you believe in their abilities to perform at the standard you have set.
7. Provide feedback – Sometimes your coaching sessions do not have to revolve around performance issues. You may want to be updated on employees’ progress. Effective coaches understand the value and importance of giving continual performance feedback, both positive and constructive. Your feedback to your employees need to be timely i.e. right after a deliverable or an observation. Also be specific in terms of the quality of feedback. Telling an employee that he did a good job is not enough; you want to support it with the behaviours he demonstrated, for example”You did a great job making a quick decision regarding the customer satisfaction issue. Responding quickly to customer support tickets for our big customers is a priority for our department”. This way employee understands what actions he took that got him the positive feedback.

Coaching is time-consuming and requires you to spend time with employees quite often. However, there is a lot of value added to the company when you effectively coach employees. Coaching employees enables them to realize that you care about them and want to see them succeed. By showing encouragement and recognition, employees increases their motivation and productivity. You also save money because you are able to identify any issues before it gets out of hands. By providing the right assistance and support, you are actually helping your employees achieve their best performance, which in turn leads to higher margins for your company. I strongly recommend that you take steps towards integrating coaching in your workplace. You can start by providing continuous feedback to employees, and then you can introduce scheduled 1-on-1s to make sure you are in continuous dialogue with your reports.

According to Dr. Lois Frankel, a bestselling author and executive coach, the difference between a leader who gains commitment from employees and one who only gains compliance is coaching. The most effective leaders see themselves as being coaches and leaders rather than managers or supervisors. What has also changed in the Gen Y workforce is that the new generation of workers want to be challenged and recognized for their efforts. For them to be committed to your organization, they need to be led, not micromanaged. Deloitte looked at how Gen Y employees are very different from the previous iconic generations and found that Gen Y’ers are “hidden powerhouse of employee potential”. This means that they are more eager to contribute and take on additional responsibility that will help them advance. Although competitive pay does influence their decisions to work for a company, they highly value meaningful development opportunities.

So, how does coaching come into play? Feedback and goal setting are the two main components of coaching; they provide a concrete roadmap on what employees are trying to achieve and how they can succeed. Despite wanting a challenge, employees want to be given the appropriate training and resources to be able to achieve what they set out for. Goal setting allows the employees to know what direction they are working towards – it doesn’t matter which path they decide to take — the purpose is for them to look at the bigger picture and be creative on the ways to reach the goal. At the same time, real-time and continuous feedback gives the employee an opportunity to improve and ask for support if needed. Think of yourself as a sports coach – you share your objective with your team, observe the players during games, and then provide feedback on how they can improve. For the next game, all of your players start the game knowing what to do differently. As a coach, there is no way you will wait for the end of the season to sit your players down and give feedback. The same applies to your organization. If you wait for the annual performance appraisal period, you and your employees are missing out on opportunities to improve.

The benefits of coaching seem to be very employee-oriented; however, looking at the bigger picture, your organization as a whole gains from having effective coaching sessions. Workplace Psychology, a website which covers areas of the workplace and workers from a scholarly perspective, offers some advantages of integrating coaching in your organization. I have elaborated their top three reasons:

1. Overcome costly and time-consuming performance problems: many companies still rely on their annual performance to evaluate their employees’ performance. By integrating coaching in your organization, you can identify performance problems easier and quicker, and take the appropriate measures to overcome these hurdles such as re-aligning the employees’ objectives, or offering training/mentoring to help your employees succeed.
2. Strengthen employees’ skills: Coaching allows employees to gain valuable skills and knowledge from their coach – whether it is you or a senior employee – which will eventually increase the productivity of your organization. Coaching also provides you with how the employees are performing; by following up with their progress, you may discover that they possess skills that you were not aware of. Therefore coaching helps you identify the competencies of your team and you may then take the initiative to strengthen these skills by encouraging them to take advanced classes or/and attend seminars.
3. Improve retention: when employees are coached, they feel supported and encouraged by their manager and their organization. Coaching is a two-way communication process. You provide feedback to your employees and they are able to use this opportunity to also give feedback. Employees are more likely to stay in your organization if they feel that their voice is being heard by you and senior management. By integrating coaching, you are encouraging your managers and yourself to be more present among your employees. Coaching also allows you to identify employees who fit with your succession planning.

As explained above, focusing on coaching and supporting employees has great benefits for your organization and your employees. In my next blog, I will talk about the steps for an effective coaching session. In the meantime, I encourage you to move away from traditional top-down performance appraisals and shift towards a more employee-focused performance management process, coaching employees continuously throughout the year.

Forbes recently published an article titled Why Defining a Corporate Structure for Startups Matters and it gives some insights on how to create your own organizational structure. The main point is summarized below:

• Record all the roles for your company. The best way to do it is to create a job description for your current and prospective positions. In your job description, clearly outline what the duties and responsibilities of the job-holder are and the minimum requirements for the position. Now, as a start-up, you will find that many of your employees may have more than one hat since everyone is helping out in the different areas of the business. Do not assign names to the positions as you do not want to hinder your current employees into a specific role for the moment.  The purpose of creating the various job descriptions is to take a proactive approach i.e. while you are building what your structure looks like, it forces you to think ahead of what specific positions you will eventually need in the near future.
• Map out how work is done, the processes required for the business to perform efficiently, and how information is shared throughout your company. This guideline will allow you to determine your main teams and to assign the different positions into each unit. For example, you may want a design, marketing, customer service, and manufacturing team. One important part of this step is to ensure that your organizational structure facilitates communication through the organization. For example, you will absolutely design your sales team to be in direct communication with your development team. When your company starts growing in size, some of your employees may be in cross-functional teams reporting to different managers. An organizational structure will allow you to clearly identify the reporting relationships.

There are 3 main types of organizational structure outlined in this article taken from Small Business Chronicle based out of Houston and specializing in areas affecting small businesses.

1. Functional Structure: The example given above on an organization having different teams such as marketing and design is a functional structure. In this type of organization, you group each portion of your organization according to their purposes. Many small businesses take this approach as each team can self-support itself with their employees’ strengths and competencies. One main disadvantage is ensuring that you are coordinating the communication between departments. Since you are grouping your organization by function, there is a natural organizational barrier that you may encounter. However, you can encourage a cross-functional meeting once a month to gather the leaders from each functional team and share how they are contributing to the objectives and re-align the objectives if needed.
2. Divisional Structure: This type of organizational structure is mainly used in bigger companies which have different geographical branches or smaller organizations within the umbrella group. For example, if you operate in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, you would have a team responsible for each location. The leaders in each of the team will then report to the VPs of the headquarter branch. Divisional structure is beneficial to ensure that the needs of the companies are being met. It also allows you to identify each employee and their reporting relationships easily especially if you are based in only one of the branches.
3. Matrix: Matrix is a hybrid of functional and divisional structure. For this type of organization, you use teams of employees to accomplish the work. The biggest advantage is that you are able to form teams according to the employees’ strengths and competencies. Usually, you will have a functional supervisor and a project supervisor working together to lead the new team. For example, you want to create a new product. Your functional supervisor will coordinate your current human resources to create your new design team or hire externally to fill the positions. At the same time, your project supervisor will oversee the operations of the project. There are newer forms of this structure such as adaptive organizational structure that the Yammer engineering team uses.

Various advantages come along with the organizational structure you decide to choose that best fits your company. The main benefit is that an organizational structure streamlines your operations. You can plainly identify the different teams you have, and streamline them by adding two smaller teams into one to increase efficiency. Organizational structure can also work the other way around i.e. help you during time of growth and expansion. You may find that as you are growing, your teams are getting too big and harder to manage. Therefore, you can look at your organizational structure and implement new teams.

One great feature that 7Geese organizational chart offers is the possibility to add open positions to your teams. This allows you or your hiring manager to see where you should increase your headcount and what the positions that need to be filled immediately are. Looking at the organizational structure in a performance management perspective, an organizational chart gives your employees the overall picture of your company. They have a better “line of sight” in terms of how their actions contribute to the higher levels of the company. Organizational structure also helps to reinforce your employees’ identity. Being able to identify who you are, which group you belong to, and where you stand in terms of the company as a whole, promotes employee retention and performance. The reporting relationships also empower employees as they can take the initiative to contact the right person and not having to always depend on the managers. For example, if I am in the marketing department and I need to talk to a designer about the features of a product, I can find who is in the designer team and directly contact that employee.

An organizational structure will benefit your company no matter what size it is. It help managers to effectively manage their teams, and also, it increases visibility for the entire company. A visible structure definitely encourages a culture of transparency within your company. Go ahead and create your organizational chart today!

One point that I really liked about the video is that as humans, we are actually not that good at detecting deception. We have these preconceived ideas of the signs that a person is lying – not looking straight in the eyes, playing with their hair – which have been proven to not have any correlations with lying. Hancock’s example of the hotel reviews really proves the point. He conducted a study where participants were given two hotel reviews, one of which was a real review from an actual customer, and the other one was fabricated. Here are the two reviews:

A. “I have stayed at many hotels traveling for both business and pleasure and I can honestly say that The James is tops. The services at the hotel is first class. The rooms are modern and very comfortable. The location is perfect within walking distance to all of the great sights and restaurants”

B. “ My husband and I stayed at the James Chicago Hotel for our anniversary. This place is fantastic! We knew as soon as we arrived we made the right choice! The rooms are BEAUTIFUL and the staff very attentive and wonderful! The area of the hotel is great since I love to shop I couldn’t ask for more”.

The fake one is B.  50% of participants answered A and the rest B. What is interesting is when asked why they picked B, many participants used cues that they thought were not correlated to deception such as the use of “I” and “we” and the fact that the writer wrote about her love for shopping to relate it to the hotel. However, A describes more of a spacial context i.e. the distance between attractions and unless you actually were on site, you will not know whether the attractions are walking distance. The point of this study is to show us that we have a 50/50 chance of detecting dishonesty. We might as well just flip a coin to decide which review is true. This conclusion has been supported by Paul Ekman, a well renowned psychologist, whose focus is on facial expressions during deception. His main theory revolves around the fact that as human beings, we display micro expressions in less than 1 second if we are being deceptive, and that there is actually 50% chance to notice these micro expressions.

As a manager, would I know how to differentiate real recognition to a fake one? How do I prevent employees teaming up to give each other recognitions which are not supported by behaviours that are not aligned with the core values of the organization?

I think this is where the culture of your company comes into play. If you have a culture that fosters open communication, constructive feedback, and error-embracing policies, your employees will less likely being dishonest mostly because they do not have a reason to. From the video, Hancock emphasizes that whatever we do on social media, is a written record nowadays. The fact that one post/comment/tweet can reach every circle of people in your life just makes you very honest about yourself. I think the same principle applies to using social performance management. An employee would think very hard about not revealing the truth about any progress on the objectives and goals when every employee of the company can track them. Same goes for recognizing a co-worker who does not deserve it.

Therefore, eventually all activities on social media become self-correcting as employees tend to be more honest. However, we need to be careful not to let social performance management become the bad cop i.e. employees should not feel that managers are using social performance management to micro manage their contributions to the company. At 7Geese, we believe that every progress on an objective or providing recognition should be supported by behaviours aligned to your core values. By identifying the specific behaviours, managers are able to clearly identify the steps taken to accomplish a goal. It is also a great opportunity for managers to see where the employees might need support and coaching to reach their target. Therefore, we encourage employees to clearly describe their actions with the specific measures to support their progress. For example, if I have increased the company’s leads by 10%, I would write “I went to X networking event where I had the opportunity to meet potential clients. After getting their business cards, I followed up with each of them”. For recognition, we suggest employees to align the feedback with the core values of the company. For example, if I was to recognize a co-worker for helping me out on a project, I would write “X has introduced to me how to use this new software that supported me to get my work done faster. X has truly demonstrated teamwork as he took the time to coach me on the process”.

In this digital era, we should embrace social media as part of the workplace. Gen Y work force is tech savvy and as a company, we want to use their competencies and strengths to our advantage. Employees start to create their own identity within your company’s culture when they feel like they have a voice in the objectives and when they are being recognized for their contributions to achieve these goals. Therefore, when using social performance management, employees want to display themselves in the best light possible by staying honest to themselves as they are well aware that their network of colleagues are much involved in their social presence. By integrating social media into your performance management process, you are showing support to your employees in real time which increases employee engagement and most important, you are receiving real information pertaining to their performance instead of relying on the traditional form filling feedback.

Traditionally, people-centric alignment model was the most commonly used objective setting method. It follows a top-down model where the objectives are first created by the founder/CEO, and then supervisors will link their objectives to the CEO’s goals. Subsequently, the process repeats cascades down to the entire organizational structure until each individual contributes to the objectives of their managers. An article by an Enterprise Productivity Magazine, explains that adopting a people-centric alignment model takes too long as each level of the organization cannot develop their objectives until the higher level develops theirs. Another key disadvantage with this approach is that employees are restricted to the objectives of their managers. We talked about evolving performance management process towards being more employee-driven in the previous blog, and unfortunately, people-centric model takes away the empowerment of employees to create their own objectives and have autonomy.

On the other hand, an organization-centric alignment focuses on setting the objectives for the company first, and then these objectives are broken down across the organizational hierarchy and teams. The end result is employees creating objectives that are linked to the overall organizational objectives. The main advantage of this approach is outlined in this article from Knowledge Infusion, a consulting authority on Human Capital Management technology; any individual across the organization regardless of their departments can contribute to a single organization’s objective. Organization-centric approach encourages a more transparent “line of sight” where your employees have a greater visibility on how they are contributing to your organization’s success. Employees want to know that they are participating into achieving your organization’s objectives. It enhances their identity to the company and creates a tighter cohesion organization-wide.

Knowledge Infusion outlines key steps to help HR leaders and managers implement the alignment of your employees’ goals with those of your organization. I have added more details to each of the steps.

1. Identify your company’s strategy and then develop the objectives that will help you achieve your overall strategy.  Educate your business leaders on why you believe those objectives are important because they are the people who are responsible to communicate your vision to your entire organization. You can benefit from making your goals public to your organization.
2. Build cascading organizational objectives by mapping them across the organizational structure and teams. You want to clearly identify the objectives for each team and how they relate to the overall strategy of your company.
3. Cascade goals in performance management system by clearly outlining the responsibilities of each business unit and teams. You want to make sure that teams have the competencies and resources required to achieve their goals. Employees in each team can link their behaviours to the goals.
4. Build aligned employee goal plans using the SMART model. It is a very important step to coach your employees on setting their objectives as it is a great opportunity for you to identify any gap in competencies; then you can provide support in the form of coaching or more in-depth training in order to set your employees up for success. Make this step visible to the whole organization as you want to fully demonstrate how individual goals are contributing to the overall organization’s objectives.
5. Communicate progress by updating your organization on how well each objective is doing. Encourage your managers to take a proactive role in helping your employees achieve their goals. If one employee is struggling, you can help identify the root causes and even re-align the goals along with the employee. One thing to keep in mind is that objectives are constantly changing, and you should not wait for an annual audit to re-align your objectives.
6. Tie your employees’ success at achieving their individual goal with recognition. You want to positively reinforce their behaviours but more importantly, show appreciation for their contribution.

By aligning your employees’ objectives to your company’s objectives, you are empowering your employees to take ownership of the business as they are held accountable for their individual objectives. By creating a clear “line of sight” for your employees, they are more likely to be connected to your organizations and more engaged as they can see how their contributions relate to the bigger picture vision.

Personally, when I hear people talking about performance management, it always comes with a negative connotation; I always link it to the traditional form filling performance review done by your manager annually. But performance management doesn’t have to be a review or appraisal. Any process that you use to enhance company performance and culture is performance management. At 7Geese, we believe that an effective performance management system should be employee-oriented i.e. its main purpose is to set employees up for success so that in return, they contribute to making your organization successful. The end result is geared towards providing support and guidance to employees on how to achieve the expectations set by the company. This is when your organization’s core values come into play and communicating them become crucial.

Many companies are becoming advocates of values-based performance management where they integrate their core value as a framework on which their performance management system is built on. According to a blog posted on A.R Mazzotta, a leading Staffing and Employment agency, the following are tips on how to incorporate your core values into create a value-based performance management process. I have added more details to each tip to clarify it further for you:

• Clearly communicate your company’s mission, vision and values to employees. This should be the first step of any performance management process you do in your organization – In my previous blog, I outline the different ways to enhance your core values communication to your employees.
• Articulate your company’s values in terms of behaviours – identify 10-15 most important values-based work behaviours by taking into consideration the different departments and positions in your company. For example, if your core value is innovation, an employee working in your marketing department and in your finance department will have completely different behaviours related to innovation. To avoid being subjective, take the time to interview your high performers in each of these positions to have a better understanding of what behaviours are expected for each core value.
• Solicit feedback – ask for feedback from top to bottom. As a manager or CEO, you may have a very different perspective on what would be considered values-based behaviours compared to the employees who are the ones performing the duties. As mentioned before, your performance management process should be employee-oriented.
• Ensure each employee understand the behaviours that represent each of the core values and take the time to communicate it with everyone in the organization.
• Make values a part of everyday management – Relate the core values with your decisions. Leading by example will help your employees to do the same with their own objectives and decisions.
• Measure and give feedback to employees based on alignment to core values on a continuos basis. Giving public employee recognition based on core values is one way of going about this.

You can establish a values-based performance management process by aligning your core values with the behaviours you expect from your employees, monitoring these behaviours continuously, and providing positive and constructive feedback in a timely manner. In my future blogs, I will be discussing the importance of supporting your employees to create objectives that align with those of your organizations and the importance of coaching and providing feedback in real time.

According to a 2012 poll conducted by CareerBuilder, 41% of participating companies had experienced a cost of at least $25,000 per single bad hire, while 24% had incurred $50,000 for a single bad hire. The cost includes loss of productivity and time, cost to recruit and train new employee, and employee morale being affected. No matter how established your organization, bad hires negatively affect your organization. Another interesting data from the poll showed that 67% of employees were considered bad hires due to their ability to produce proper quality work (lack of competency and job fit), while 60% did not work well with other employees (lack cultural fit). This data clearly demonstrate the importance of hiring based on job fit and culture fit at the same time. Job fit refers to the degree the person hired can perform the responsibilities that the position requires while culture is how well an individual is compatible with the core values and norms of the organization.

Recruitment and selection process is slowly gravitating towards hiring based on core values (cultural fit) rather than technical competencies. One of the reasons for this trend may be attributed to Gen Y entering the labor market who typically stays at a job for about two years and prioritize meaningful work over pay as well as working for a company that is aligned with their own values. This means by clearly defining your organization’s values and integrating them in your organization, you are able to attract employees whose personal values are in alignment with yours. Your core values may also naturally screen out non cultural fit candidates who will not apply for the positions since they do not share the same values as your organization. Hiring using core values is very crucial for start-up companies; since they usually lack brand recognition and longevity, by clearly communicating the core values and culture, start-up companies are able to share their visions and dreams to potential candidates. Again, you want people who believe in your product, vision, and values because these are the employees who will be intrinsically motivated to work at full capacity towards your organization’s objectives.

Now that we have discussed the importance of hiring based on cultural fit and values, how do we integrate core values into the recruitment process? It’s easier said than done! According to a research paper conducted by Development Dimensions International (DDI), an international talent management company, 78% of respondents believe that organizations and hiring managers do not assess for culture fit because they do not know how to do this. Hiring based on core values can potentially create legal problems such as discrimination and facilitate biased decision making on who to hire as you may be asking candidates questions that tap into their private life. There are no defined steps on how to adjust your recruitment process using your core values; the following three suggestions are best practices that DDI proposes and which I find to be quite realistic to incorporate in any organizations:

1. Describe the values in behavioral terms, and use behavioral-based questions to assess suitability. You can also identify the competencies related to the core values, and ask interviewees to provide situations where they demonstrate these competencies. According to DDI, behavioral questions are the most commonly used tool to assess candidates’ compatibility with the core values. For example, if one of your core values is passion, you may ask the candidates to provide a situation where they felt very strongly about a cause/issue/project, what steps they took to accomplish the objective and what was the end result. The premise of behavioral-based questions is that the past behaviors are a good predictor of future ones.
2. Ensure that hiring managers are adequately trained in recruitment practices and assessing core values compatibility. Managers need to understand what they are looking for in a candidate, what the nature of the questions is, and more importantly how to interpret and evaluate the data. Managers also should be trained on avoiding biases during interviews. One bias that can hinder the recruitment process is the similar-to-me bias where the interviewer will tend to score a candidate higher if they share the same interests and background. It is important to train the managers to focus on the interviewee’s compatibility to the core values of the organization, and not the values of the managers.
3. Use realistic job previews and/or “day in the life” profiles to help applicants have a better understanding on the culture and core values of your organization. By having current employees describe their positions and their responsibilities, potential candidates can evaluate their suitability with your organization. I have seen companies taking a step forward by having mini web interviews with their employees on describing what the core values mean to them and posting them to their career pages.

We have discussed why you should think about taking more of a culture-fit approach to your recruitment and selection process and three suggestions on how to integrate core values within your hiring procedure. The best practice is to combine both the traditional job-fit interview questions with your culture-fit questions; you want people in your organization to live and represent your core values, but you also need these people to be able to deliver results that will help you and your organization achieve your goals.

1. Living the values – Leading by example is the best communication tool any leader possesses. A survey conducted by Deloitte has found that 70% of the employees who agreed that their companies had performed well financially said their executive management team speaks to them often about the core values associated with the culture of the company. Albert Bandura, a famous psychologist, coined the term “observational learning” – human beings are social and learn by observing others. Therefore, it is important for you and others in your organization that have influence to live the values so that others can learn.
2. Teaching the values – Integrating the values into new employees’ orientation training program. It is helpful to tell the story behind each value chosen and what your organization expects in terms of behaviours related to the values. An interesting data from “Recognition Linked to Core Values Delivers Increased ROI” shows that 88% of employees who know their core values say they are engaged compared to 54% of respondents who say they did not know any of their company’s core values.
3. Recognizing the values – Reinforcing the behaviours of people who are demonstrating the core values by rewarding them in real time. Based on the article “Recognition Linked to Core Values Delivers Increased ROI”, 79% of employees say recognition tied to core values gave them a stronger sense of company goals and objectives. Some companies would have the “Core Value Employee of the Month” where every member of the organization vote for the person they view as endorsing the core values of the company the most, and this person is recognized company wide.
4. Hiring new people based on the values – Recruiting people who already have values that are in alignment with the company’s core values. This point is linked to the Competency Iceberg model which demonstrates that 20% of an individual (above the surface of an iceberg) is mostly the technical competencies i.e. education, work experience, whereas 80% (the hidden/below the surface of an iceberg) is all about the essence of the individual i.e. values and beliefs. Competency-based recruiting has been focusing on hiring people based on the “below the surface” competencies as those cannot be trained. You can always easily train a person on how to do a job, but it becomes much harder to train a person to have the same values as your organization.
5. Reviewing people based on the values – Incorporating core values as part of your performance management process. Each core value comes with a set of behaviours that are measurable and specific that forms part of performance review. For example, one feature of 7Geese is to enable employees to be recognized whenever they behave in alignment with a core value. Our customers then use this data during an employee’s performance review to measure alignment to core values. Reviewing people based on values is interrelated with rewarding people for demonstrating the values. During performance reviews, your managers can coach and support employees on how to demonstrate the core values which eventually lead to recognition and rewards.
6. Letting people go based on values – As mentioned above, it is very hard to train a person to behave consistently in alignment with core values if they don’t truly have those values themselves. No matter how good of a performer that employee is, at the end of the day, your organization needs to maintain its credibility and commitment to its core values. It is important to make a distinction here as I am not suggesting letting people go based on their personal values and beliefs. Rather, we want to ensure that people who stay in the company have the ability to demonstrate behaviours related to the core values. For example, if being ethical is one of your core values, it would be detrimental to keep an employee who is cooking the books, no matter how well he is doing his job.

By clearly communicating and integrating your company’s core values with the processes such as recruitment and performance management, you can increase employee engagement which in turn leads to higher productivity and reduced turnover. In my future posts, I’ll be covering how to integrate core values into recruitment and performance management processes in more details. Let’s take a more proactive role when it comes to core values.

Core values are what support the vision, shape the culture and reflect what the company values.  They are the essence of the company’s identity – the principles, beliefs or philosophy of values. Many companies focus mostly on the technical competencies but often forget what are the underlying competencies that make their companies run smoothly — core values. Establishing strong core values provides both internal and external advantages to the company:

• Core values help companies in the decision-making processes. For example, if one of your core values is to stand behind the quality of your products, any products not reaching the satisfactory standard are automatically eliminated.
• Core values educate clients and potential customers about what the company is about and clarify the identity of the company. Especially in this competitive world, having a set of specific core values that speak to the public is definitely a competitive advantage.
• Core values are becoming primary recruiting and retention tools. With the ease of researching companies, job seekers are doing their homework on the identities of the companies they are applying for and weighing whether or not these companies hold the values that the job seekers consider as important.

One article that captured my attention when researching on what core values are (and are not) was “Startup Culture: Values vs. Vibe” by Chris Moody. The author talked about distinguishing your core values with vibes. Vibes are the emotional side of the company; they are dynamic and reactive to the outside environment. One example he gave was “Work hard. Play hard”. Is that really a value? Core values are timeless and do not change; they are sustainable in the longer term. Would the above statement be true during an economic downturn? The answer is probably no. Another mistake startups make is thinking that by merely having perks they can create a strong, unified, and unique company culture.

Now the big question is: “How do I find the core values of my company?” In his article, Aligning Action and Values, Jim Collins discussed that organizational values cannot be “set”; you can discover them. Many companies make the mistake of picking core values out of thin air and trying to fit them into their organization; core values are not “one size fits all” or the “best practices” in the industry. True, you can hold the same core values as your competitors, as long as it is authentic to your company and your employees.

So how do you discover these core values? Collins developed an exercise he called the “Mars Group Exercise”. The following list reveals the steps leading to finding what the core values of your company are:

1. Select 5-7 people who have a gut-level understanding of your core values, are distinguished as the highest performers, and are well respected by their peers and management team. Why gut-level? Core values are predisposed to your employees. You cannot “install” the core values into people. These 5-7 people become your Mars group.
2. Ask the Mars group to list what they think the core values of the organization are. Then ask them the subsequent questions relating to each of the core values they have chosen:

• Are the core values that you hold to be fundamental regardless of whether or not they are awarded?
• If you woke up tomorrow morning with enough money to retire for the rest of your life, would you continue to hold on to these core values?
• Can you envision these values being as valid 100 years from now as they are today?
• Would you want the organization to continue to hold these values, even if at some point, they became a competitive disadvantage?
• If you were to start a new organization tomorrow in a different line of work, would you build the core values into the new organization regardless of its activities?

The last three questions are crucial because they help to make a crucial distinction between core values and strategies – core values are fixed regardless of the time and factors, internal as well as external, affecting the organization, while strategies and practices should be changing all the time. If the answers are yes for each of the core values chosen, then you have yourself what constitute the identity of your organization.

We have discussed why core values are important and some strategies for setting core values. You may be wondering: what do core values look like? Below is a list of 10 core values that are common across organizations in different industries:

1. Accountability – Acknowledging and assuming responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies. It can be applied to both individual accountability on the part of employees and accountability of the company as a whole.
2. Balance – Taking a proactive stand to create and maintain a healthy work-life balance for workers.
3. Commitment – Committing to great product, service, and other initiatives that impact lives within and outside the organization.
4. Community –Contributing to society and demonstrating corporate social responsibility.
5. Diversity – respecting the diversity and giving the best of composition. Establishing an employee equity program.
6. Empowerment – Encouraging employees to take initiative and give the best. Adopting an error-embracing environment to empower employees to lead and make decisions.
7. Innovation – Pursuing new creative ideas that have the potential to change the world.
8. Integrity – Acting with honesty and honor without compromising the truth
9. Ownership – Taking care of the company and customers as they were one’s own.
10. Safety – ensuring the health and safety of employees and going beyond the legal requirements to provide an accident-free workplace.

Confronting the brutal facts means accepting the current reality and seeing it as what it is objectively. The current reality can usually be measured with properly defined KPIs. Being objective and seeing the reality as what it is does not mean that you shouldn’t have a vision for greatness. You definitely should have a clear vision, but at the same time refine the path to it by accepting the brutal facts of the current situation. In the tech startup world, we hear about movements like the lean startup and this very similar to what good-to-great companies did naturally.

In order to create a great company, you must be a visionary leader and at the same time equally capable of creating a climate where the truth is heard and brutal facts are addressed in a timely manner. The culture of your company must be metrics-driven and people must be empowered to speak up when something is not right. To create an environment where the facts are heard and confronted, Jim Collins recommends four practices:

1. Lead with questions, not answers:
   Don’t always come up with the answers and expect everyone to follow you vision blindly. Instead ask the right questions to empower people to gather facts and make decisions based on them.
2. Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion
   Create a culture where people have heated discussions based on facts and intense dialogues like a scientific discussion. In this environment everyone’s voice is heard and people are engaged to fine the best answers.
3. Conduct autopsies, without blame
   When a bad decision has been made, conduct autopsies that are based on discovering the facts and learning from mistakes, rather than blaming people and putting people down.
4. Build red-flag mechanism
   You need to create a culture and environment that the facts and metrics cannot be ignored. This can be in form of having metrics accessible to all or having big displays in office with your KPIs are shown at all times. You might want to use Geckoboard for this.

As you may agree, confronting the brutal facts is really important for transforming your company from Good to Great. However, it is easy to look at the harsh reality and become weaker and dispirited. This is not what Good-to-great companies did. In confronting the brutal facts they became strong and more resilient. When you and your team confront the brutal facts there must be a sense of exhilaration that comes from facing challenges and an a positive attitude, saying “We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a log time, but we will find a way to prevail”. Jim Collins calls this the Stockdale paradox:

“Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

If you want to know how Jim Collins came up with this concept, read the story below.

The Stockdale paradox came from the conversation Jim Collins had with Vice Admiral Stockdale regarding his coping strategy during his period in the Vietnamese POW camp.

In Jim Collins analysis, the companies that went from good to great, rarely started with a great new strategy and then just got people committed behind them to become excellent. It was done in reverse order. They first got the right people onboard and then figured out where to take the company. Good to great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth is not markets, or technology, competition, or products. It is the ability to get and keep enough of the right people. Good-to-great leaders understand three simple truths:

1. If you begin with who rather that what, you can more easily adapt to the changing world. With the right people, even if you hit an obstacle, they are smart enough to work together to change path and remain agile.
2. When you have the right people onboard, the problem of how to motivate and manage them largely goes away. The right people don’t need to be tightly managed or fired up. They are self-motivated by their inner drive to produce the best results and being part of something great.
3. If you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter if your direction and strategies are correct; you will not have a great company. Great strategy without great people is irrelevant.

The example of First Who, Then What is seen every in tech startups. When tech companies have a solid team in place, they can succeed even if they hit roadblocks in their strategy. They pivot and quickly change their business strategies. We’ve seen this in companies like Twitter, Flickr, and Paypal where their first strategies and ideas failed and they had to evolve. Having the right team is always important, but Good-to-great companies are rigorous about their people decisions. They proactively recruit A-players to join their team and get people who are not the right fit out of the company. They know that the old adage that people are your most important asset is not fully true and only the right people are. They also believe that the only way to keep A-Players happy is by not burdening them with the people who are not performing well.

Good-to-great companies are tough places to work in. If you don’t have what it takes, you probably won’t last there long. However, it’s important to note that they are not ruthless cultures, they’re rigours cultures. This is what many first-time entrepreneurs in the tech community fail to grasp in my opinion. Being ruthless means hacking and cutting, especially in difficult times, firing people without thoughtful consideration and not treating employees like family as Richard Branson does. To be rigorous, not ruthless, means the standards should be applied at all times and If someone is not the right fit the organization, they should be let go immediately and not when times get tough. Furthermore, the best people should not need to worry about their positions and should be able to fully concentrate on their work, being assured that even if the times are tough, the company will do whatever it can to support their salary, or support them to find an alternative employment if there is no other way (TinySpeck, a Vancouver-based startup is an example of this). Here are three practical disciplines to enable you to be rigorous rather than ruthless:

1. When in doubt, don’t hire. Keep looking.
   Even if you need to fill in the position right away, do not compromise. Find a way to get through until you find the right person for your company. You will be better off in the long run. If you want to avoid these situations, you should be always on the lookout for great people and hiring them right away, even if you don’t have the perfect position for them.
2. When you need to make a people change, act.
   The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. A-Players may need to be coached, guided, and led; but not tightly managed. When this situation occurs, you must act fast. Waiting too long to let a wrong person go is not fair to the right people in your company. It is also unfair to the wrong people as you are stealing a portion of their life. Good-to-great leaders act really fast but they don’t necessarily rush to judgement. If they know a person is capable of being an A-Player but not performing in their current role, they try to move them around few times in other positions where they might blossom. You can ask yourself two questions to identify if a person is an A-Player. Firstly, would you hire this person again? Secondly, if this person came to tell you that their leaving to pursue another opportunity, would you be terribly disappoint or secretly relieved?
3. Put the best people on your biggest opportunity, not your biggest problems.
   Make sure your best people are working on the biggest opportunities, not just the biggest problems. Managing problems can only make you good, whereas building opportunities is the only way to become great. The important corollary to this is when you decide to sell off your problems and shut down a division that is not working, don’t sell of your best people that work there and instead transfer them to work on big opportunities.

The final point about the right people is the atmosphere of level 5 leadership throughout the company, especially the upper management teams. Great people do not blindly acquiesce to authority and they are strong leaders in their own domain. Good-to-great companies have a paradoxical blend of people who on one hand argue, debate -sometimes violently- in pursuit of the best answer, yet on the other hand fully unit behind a decision once its made, regardless of if their ideas were the chosen ones or not. They know that all the debates are for the common good of the company, not their own personal interest. This is indeed a level 5 leadership personality trait.

First Who, and it’s application in personal life:

People working in good-to-great companies usually have a great life as well. Being a good-to-great leader and an A-player doesn’t necessary mean working all the time or making people stay late all the time as seen any many tech startups. When the right people are in the right slots, people don’t need to be there all the hours of the day and night. People simply take ownership and work effectively to produce results.

The other interesting observation is that people working at good-to-great companies usually talk about their company like a love affair, and this is mostly because they love the people they work with. Jim Collins mentions that adherence to the idea of “first who” might be the closest link between a great company and a great life. If we don’t spend the vast majority of our time with the people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life, no matter our success and achievements. As the talent war between tech companies takes a new height, wouldn’t it be better to focus on creating the right teams where employees can fall in love with their work, rather than just putting a keg in your office or rushing to recruit talent that doesn’t fit in your organization?

Level 5 Leadership is a level of leadership beyond being an effective manager or highly capable individual. Level 5 leaders are extremely humble yet they have a strong professional will (Personal Humility + Professional Will = Level 5). They channel their ego away from their self into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that they have no ego or ambition, but their ambition is primary for their companies and its vision, not for themselves or for personal fame. Level 5 leaders rarely talk about themselves or try to soak up all the credit for their companies performance. They are usually quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, and understanding. Jim Collins calls their behaviour The Window and the Mirror: Level 5 leaders look out the window to give credit to factors outside themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror and take responsibility themselves when things go poorly, never blaming bad luck or others.

Level 5 Leadership is extremely important for tech startups as things move at rapid pace, projects fail, and egos get crushed at times with metrics telling the truth about how unsuccessful a project has been. In this environment, Level 5 Leadership enables people to focus on creating a great team and company, iterating quickly, and learning from mistakes, rather than letting egos be tied to individual success and failures.

It is very important to grasp that Level 5 leadership is not just about humility and modesty. It is equally about execution and unstoppable determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great. This part of Level 5 leadership is even more important for tech companies as the market is fast evolving. Successful Level 5 leaders in technology companies understand that rapid execution, agility, and excellence is key to their survival. They do whatever must be done to produce the best long-term results, no matter how difficult it is.

You might be wondering whether or not you are a level 5 leader; and if you are not one yet, can you cultivate level 5 leadership. The diagram below show the different hierarchy of leadership and you can identify where you stand. While you don’t need to move in sequence from Level 1 to Level 5, most level 5 leaders embody all the the five levels.

Jim Collins suggests that if you have the seed in you to become a Level 5 Leader (i.e. you have the ability to put greater good before personal fame, fortune, and power), the best way to cultivate level 5 leadership is by self-reflection, personal development, having a mentor, learning from other level 5 leaders, and practising the other concepts of Good to Great, which I’ll be covering in my next posts. I’ll also be writing a full blog post about self-reflection and how important it is for developing your leadership skills. I think it’s very important for you to find a level 5 leader around you that you can learn from. Here are a few level 5 leaders I have interacted with and learnt from in the past few months.

Adam Pisoni
Adam is the CTO and Co-Founder of Yammer. I met Adam at Yammer’s hackathon and YamJam conference were we discussed Yammer’s adaptive organization structure. Microsoft has bought Yammer for $1.2B and a lot of money-driven (non-level 5)  founders usually lose motivation after an accusation. However, Adam is very passionate, driven, humble, and is still attending Yammer’s hackathons to mingle with engineers. His passion for building an adaptive engineering team and promoting that vision goes beyond his fame and fortune. (PS for engineers: if you ever attend a Yammer hackathon, don’t beat Adam at ping-pong. I did and our hackday project didn’t get his vote )

Ryan Holmes
Ryan is the CEO of HootSuite, a social media company based out of Vancouver. For Ryan building a great company comes first and he does everything he can to make sure HootSuite has the best culture, even it times of rapid growth. Ryan has an intense professional will and extreme amount of personal humility. In fact, being humble is a company core value at HootSuite. I’ve interacted with few other of people at HootSuite since they are a customer of 7Geese. I see level of leadership (personal humility + professional will) in almost all employees at HootSuite.

Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer is the CEO Microsoft. I met him at an event at RocketSpace where he was engaging a small startup community about the opportunity to build apps for Windows 8 Platform, something that he could have easily delegated to of the 90,000 employees if he wasn’t a level 5 leader. He was really humble yet driven and passionate about the new platform. He let us play with his own personal windows 8 phone provided that we don’t go into his emails as he is running a public company. He even shared his personal email address with everyone in the audience if we ever wanted to get in touch. I chatted with him and pitched 7Geese after the event (picture below) and got some useful feedback.