Tag Archive for: company culture

Leadership Spotlight: Leading with Transparency

October 19, 2024/0 Comments/in Leadership, Leadership Spotlight/by Angela MacCabe

We’re excited to announce that after appearing on Episode #15 of the Elevate Business Podcast, Riaz Sidi has been selected for the Intuity Performance Leadership Spotlight series.

Riaz Sidi who is the president of Sidi.io, a boutique demand generation agency specializing in lead generation for B2B tech companies. As a dynamic sales leader, Riaz has experience training over 500 advertising professionals and brings this experience leading his team at Sidi.io which has grown from 3 employees to 13 in just the past 8 months.

Here are the top 3 insights he shared with the community.

1. How do you guide the culture at Sidi.io?

It’s a good question. So we have guiding principles printed out in my office here, but we also have a soft copy in Google Drive that anyone can access. These are very simple, standard one-liners in terms of our ethics, our principles, how we operate and essentially define what our goal is. And so, it’s always about reiterating and reminding the team of these values and being very open and transparent.

You want to tread the line between your belief system or politics, if you will, into the workplace and make sure that we’re embracing the team’s diversity. I’ve been acutely aware of ensuring that there’s a gender balance in our organization and that there’s a diversity balance.

And when you close your eyes and open your ears to what people are saying, it’s interesting how many smart people are out there when we look past some of the preconceived biases and notions we have about people that are not like.

2. What has been your biggest learning, seeing your team double in size more than once this past year?

I think the biggest ah-ha moment has been, I probably waited too long to hire people. I don’t regret it, but I also recognize that if I maybe had invested in people earlier, we could have possibly scaled a little differently. I know a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners; they get into the “I know everything kind of mentality,” and I think I was there where I didn’t feel like anyone was going to do it as well as me.

You know, I’ve gotten to this point where we were making X amount of revenue per month, and it’s like no one else is doing that. So I must be like the greatest thing ever. But I think I realized that I don’t know everything and that if I could leverage others’ expertise in, for example, Facebook ads, Finance, HR and other functions of the business, I’d make better use of my time.

So I think that the learnings have really been investing in the right people, recognizing that I’m not arrogant or obnoxious, thinking that you know everything, and then making sure that I pay a good salary to my people.

3. How do you create a safe to fail environment for your employees to thrive?

Yeah, like in terms of how receptive people are going to be open, ultimately, the goal is for them to feel as open, as comfortable as they want. There’s no obligation to wear their heart on their sleeve. But I think ultimately, we just want the team to know that there is a channel for them to vent if they need to, and we don’t want to feel obligated to take me up on that.

But I think people have chosen to kind of be open because they tend to trust me, and they trust the team. The way to keep people accountable is to hire people you can trust, passionate about the mission, and conveying a vision.

If people don’t know what success looks like, how will they describe that or get excited about that? People know that we’re growing, and so whenever we have a new client, everyone hears about it, and we celebrate it as a team. So getting people involved in the bigger picture in all of those things will help drive engagement. It’ll drive passion because at the end of the day, yeah, it might be like my name and my hair over there on the logo, but ultimately we’re a team. We are living and dying by our collective response and the way that we work together to help clients.

If you’re interested in learning more from our Spotlight Leadership, check out Jesse Perreault’s post on Building Team Relationships.

A Fix to Performance Reviews: Starts With Asking the Right Questions

October 19, 2024/0 Comments/in Leadership/by Angela MacCabe

Starts Asking the Right Questions

It’s that time of year for many, yes! Performance reviews. Many leaders cringe at the thought of adding more to their plate. So much so that research has shown over 90% of managers identify that performance reviews are not valuable, ratings cause debates or minimally awkward moments over performance. This creates an overall negative or lackluster feelings towards creating/conducting performance reviews which at the receiving end as an employee is not encouraging. In another study, 54% of people indicated that performance reviews make no impact on actual performance (McKinsey & Company).

What are the reasons holding us to our archaic and arguably ‘broken’ approach to performance?

In my experience, I’ve heard classics like:

Well we’ve always done it like this
It’s not the worst system (but not many are happy with it)
We do not have time or money to invest in fixing it
Performance reviews and discussions take too much time to do and our turnover is low, so what’s the point!

Other studies as seen published by Gallop point to organizations may not exactly know how to fix their performance management systems issues and that is enough of a barrier to halt any attempts for positive change.

What makes performance matter?

Having employees feel validated and holding performance conversations regularly can increase productivity by up to 20%, studies have shown. If done correctly, performance is a psychological contract between your team members and management resulting in increased employee engagement and less “gaming” on company time. That alone is a cost savings of millions per year in employee retention and keeping company knowledge within your walls. In addition, it gives employees one on one time with their manager and a clear picture of their performance and expectations. The end result leaves the employee minimally knowing where they stand and further engaged, resulting in higher productivity.

How do we fix a broken performance system?

So we understand all of the reasons for what makes a poor performance program that doesn’t work and the barriers it may bring. What about the ways performance systems can work? There are so many options out there these days. They do not have to be attached to a huge ticket performance platform with oodles of automation (although your HR team would love you for it!); but it does need to make sense for your company culture and your team members. So how do we fix a broken performance system? You start asking questions and REALLY look at your culture, the actual style (not just what is written on your walls). Diving into fully understanding your culture, objectives for doing performance and dialing it into individual objectives and value for employees are four key components of a successful performance program.

Your organization ‘type’ impacts the performance management style

What this means is if your company is profit driven, all goals and objectives should be aligned and performance measured the same, within reason and communicated at all levels. Arguably, performance would be aggregate based on company net profits each year with conservative measures. At the other end of the spectrum is if a company is extremely team oriented, their performance program would include agreed upon goals, measures and a budget for managers to oversee for year end performance increases. Having alignment between culture and performance is key. Otherwise you will have disengagement and water-cooler conversations about why the ratings were so hard that year and coincidentally company profits were down 13% that year. In other words, a perception of a failed performance program.

What is the best performance program?

The best performance program is one that fits and is customized to your organization. There are many out there ranging in style and age of inception. When there is culture alignment with the structure of performance program it’s an easier fit to your organization:

Is it 360 feedback
Management by objectives
Competency based
Anchored ranking
The coach approach

Personally, I am an advocate for a hybrid of objectives and the coach approach to performance, for so many reasons. A few are: ease of use, employee buy in, two way conversations and meaningful objectives that are measurable.

What objectives are you trying to achieve with your overall performance program?

Understanding the what and the why to conducting performance within your organization approaches performance with purpose. Is it keeping alignment? Achieving productivity? Stretching performance? Or simply gains on profit margins? Regardless of the what and why, establishing objectives and communicating them to your team sets the tone and purpose for reviews.

Do we really need individual objectives?

In short, yes! Tying individual objectives to departmental then organizational objectives gives your team members a clear and succinct picture to their daily purpose of their role, how they impact the organization and add value. Making individual objectives clear, measurable, accountable and a joint venture further sets the tone or stage for expectations and the team member’s vision for the year. This takes away any doubt as to what they are going to do for the year for achievement. It will also allow for accountability in how the team member chooses to complete the objective, within reason of course. These are such important things to have if you aim for a productive performance program and year.

Keeping the people in performance – is there value?

Here’s the thing we often do not think of: if we keep ‘people’ in mind while building and conducting performance reviews we will be much better off by way of value in performance, ease of conversations, higher levels of retention and effort from employees. Talking to the employee as an asset rather than a liability is a learned behavior that is pivotal to impacting positive performance. Discussing succession, training, mentoring or job enrichment opportunities are all ideas that will assist in keeping your team members proactive and feeling wanted in their roles. Other things that can lead to positive performance outcomes are:

When deciding on ratings think about the actual outcomes and be transparent in communication. How an employee obtains a five should not be a mystery or moving target. Consistent rating is certainly key.
Regardless of the tool, team members must have a comment box. Having team members reflect on their own performance allows for alignment between the manager and team member.
Companies ought to be transparent as to how ratings impact their compensation, if at all. Employees should not be in the dark on the formula.
When discussing annual performance, it should never be a surprise: good, bad or indifferent.
Ensure there is an approach to keep employees engaged and wanting to provide feedback and viewpoints on their goals/objectives and performance.

A performance review isn’t broken if there is value. We do not need Cadillac systems, just systems that work for our respective organizations.

If you would like to discuss your performance system(s) in detail, connect with us!

Are You In Touch With Your Values?

October 18, 2024/0 Comments/in Human Skills/by Angela MacCabe

Intuity Stands For…

Integrity

Emotional Intelligence

Community

Accountability

Equity

Intuity Performance was founded to fill gaps. What gaps you ask? Well really it comes down to ‘people’ gaps. Our leadership team is where we start for effective change. However Intuity Performance’s approach to looking at the people behind the role vs. the role itself impacts all professionals.

It starts with integrity. The integrity to run our organizations based on what we say and act upon. How we carry our business interactions ought to align with what is written on our walls and manifestos (values). Intuity Performance supports this notion with passion. It is so important to have actions that show what culture means. The first step is to really understand what your culture currently is and what you wish for it to be. Having honest conversation with team members along the way keeps engagement alive.

We know based on the new leadership models, Servant Leadership, Accountability Leadership and Win/Win Leadership approaches they all have facets of emotional intelligence. Research tells us that over 88% of successful leaders have high levels of emotional intelligence.

How does this show up in the workplace?

Safe to fail environments, high levels of leadership ownership and efforts to lead from the back.

Community is important in the workplace. We spend over 80% of our waking hours at work or doing some form of work related tasks. Knowing that you are a part of a community with strong roots, support systems and willingness to problem solve is a key component of resilient organizations.

Accountability is a strong predictor of leadership in an organization. Then make the appropriate actions for change. For a leader to stand up and say, ‘hey I messed up, here’s where I went wrong and how I will correct my error.’ That takes solid strength and (normally) is a pillar for high levels of trust and as an outcome engagement in the workplace.

Equity. Organizations that establish and maintain equity in pay, company perks and awards, in diverse voices, and opinions are far more likely to produce higher levels of revenue then those that are not. When equity is present it lends itself to a sense of community.

Intuity Performance exists today to work with companies and individuals that want to look past the role and focus on the whole person performance systems. Ensuring that our business objectives align with our people is the balance between proactive and reactive endeavours.

Want to learn more? Contact us for your complimentary consultation.

Can Workplace Culture Evolve Through Leadership?

October 17, 2024/0 Comments/in Human Skills, Hybrid Workforce, Leadership/by Angela MacCabe

I’ve interviewed over 80 CEOs in the past 12 months, and often we get on the topic of company culture. I get excited each time. When we ask CEOs to define culture, the range of responses varies with every company, AND many leaders are not aware of what culture means to them specifically.

Some responses include:

Teams create culture as a company grows.
Culture changes based on values, beliefs and assumptions of the organization’s values, ideas, and assumptions.
Culture is built around the goals and objectives of the organization.

The odd time, we get a candid answer – “I don’t know- but we need to figure it out!”

Culture Defined

So what is culture, and why does it matter in the workplace?

Workplace culture is not tangible. The term is thrown around all the time, but it’s not something that you can point to and say, “That’s culture.” Yet, it holds immense value because it is essential to tie together every aspect of your business.

Workplace culture is the beliefs, behaviors, and values shared by employees within an organization. Whether good or bad, working in an organizational culture can significantly affect how people grow professionally and personally.

Based on my experience, I have learned three essential things that contribute to culture shaping which companies can apply to get desired results.

Self-awareness allows you to see others more clearly by understanding how beliefs, behaviors, and values shape performance.
Curiosity – what drives and motivates the human side of teams
Judgment – Ensuring there is enough information to see people without bias.

Here’s what we know about culture:

We go after what’s easy – changing company artifacts, behaviors, and metrics is more straightforward.
Writing can easily change company artifacts, behaviors, and metrics.
Influencing changes in behaviors and metrics can be easily agreed upon by teams.
Beliefs, values (our real ones, not those on an internal billboard), and assumptions are much harder to change.

Blind Spots

Organizations can write down and discuss their intentions, but here’s where the realism comes into play. If our beliefs, values, and assumptions aren’t aligned, we do not have an effective organizational culture – despite the matched RRSP and monthly gift cards.

Culture touches on everything – mountains of data tell us that organizational culture hits on performance, decision-making, atmosphere, team approach, structures and even how we communicate.

Regardless of the debate, culture is from the top-down and the bottom up. The profound thing that screams out to me is that culture isn’t as intentional as it should be. I haven’t done the research, but it certainly leans into self-awareness and EI-Q.

It’s something that is moving and growing daily. That demands our attention, especially now in this hybrid working world with new and undiscovered pressures.

We are human first – To answer the questions around “Can culture change with leadership?”. In short, YES! By becoming self-aware and tapping into the human side of organizations, leaders can capitalize on the human (soft) skills that drive performance, decision-making, atmosphere, team approach, and communication in order to drive performance and foster an intentional and effective workplace culture.