Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Beyond Leadership

Beyond Leadership is Horizon Point’s line of resources for managers of people. Managing ourselves is a distinct set of behaviors from managers the work of others, and we are here to help. Read stories in this category if you are ready to take the next step into people leadership (or if you’re looking for articles to send someone else…).

6 Ways to Design Your Performance Management System Around Company Values
“….In other words, only 10 percent of organizations have be goals (what Andy Stanley means by a set of values that guide our decisions) effectively integrated in their daily practices. Mind you, many organizations write about their mission, vision and values in their annual report, but that’s only lip service unless those be goals are integrated into their recruiting, training, evaluating and promoting. How can an organization claim that its be goals are important when none of its leaders’ performance evaluations or pay is based on adhering to those values.”

I was recently in a meeting talking about performance management systems, when a colleague told our mutual client that the company she saw do this best was one of her former employers. She said all people related practices and decisions were designed around the company’s core values.

She said, it was hard trying to explain to the unemployment office that someone was terminated for “a core values violation”, but they did it every single time because a core values violation was the only reason anyone was ever fired.

Yet as the quote above states, very few people design their performance management system and practices around values, even when we find that doing things this way, well, adds tremendous bottom line value (pun intended):

“The surprising thing is that it has been proven that companies with be goals (values) do better financially over time. If you don’t believe me, read Built to Last by Jim Collins, in which he demonstrates empirically that companies with an unchanging set of core values and behaviors (be goals)- while still being open to changes in their day-to day practices (do goals)- outperform those that don’t have this attribute.”

So how do you integrate values into performance management?

6 Ways to Design Your Performance Management System Around Values

First, clearly define your set of values and the competences/behaviors that demonstrate living these values. You can use a case study approach we described in an earlier blog post to design values and tie behaviors easily to them.

Your employee handbook should be designed around values. The values- be goals- should be stated first and examples of how to live the values should be given. Company policies should be linked back to values. It should be more focused on we do this here or we behave this way here, instead of a running list of what not to do.

Take the handbook case further by designing videos that illustrate actual employees living the company values. You can embed these videos into your handbook and/or use them on the first day of onboarding to facilitate a discussion about company values.

If you have a formal performance appraisal system, the dimensions should be your values. Use a three-point scale – meets, does not meet, exceeds – and again give behavioral based examples or anchors to show what it would mean to meet, exceed or not meet expectations.

Design your rewards and recognition system around company values. One of our former clients does this through an annual all company values awards ceremony where peers nominate people for values awards. At the event the winners are announced and given a gift that directly relates to the value the person demonstrates. They become the values champion for that year and help others grow in living the company value they demonstrate so well.Another client does this through quarterly values awards that are also peer nominated. The company owner presents the winners with the award by giving them personalized gifts based on the winners “favorite things” that have been gathered when they are hired.
If you have another system- whether it is formal or informal, integrated through tech system or not- make sure it is structured around values.

If you think you need to fire someone or put them on a plan for performance improvement, consider how their poor performance relates to a violation of your core values. When you talk with them about performance improvement or termination, describe the reason for doing so in terms of the value(s) that have been violated. Designing any PIP forms or tools you may have around values can help facilitate this.

If it is hard to do any of these things around values, you most likely don’t have a comprehensive set of values in place and you may need to reconsider what is lacking as it relates to things that warrant rewards for great performance and the opposite for poor performance.

How do your company values help you be successful?

Like this post? You may also like:

What are Company Values and How do you Create Them?

A personal account of performance management that works… and doesn’t

Experiences Over Stuff: The Better Rewards and Recognition Strategy

The Changing World of Work: Is the Policy Going to Die?
May 22, 2018
Sexual Harassment: A Cultural Change
Sexual harassment is not pervasive due to a need to change the law, but instead the need to change cultural values within an organization. This was the message I heard recently at an HR conference. In all the years that I have conducted sexual harassment training and helped organizations to implement policies, procedures, and conduct investigations, I’d never thought about it that way. But it makes sense.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made sexual discrimination, including sexual harassment, illegal. So why over fifty years later is sexual harassment making waves in the headlines? We’ve all heard the stories of Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Bill Cosby, and the list goes on. How were they allowed to conduct themselves in such a manner for so long without repercussion?

A former co-worker recently shared a story with me about a manager where she worked making unwanted advances towards a younger seasonal employee. While the employee did not report this behavior to management, she did complain to another employee who was compelled to report it. The result? She was terminated and told that because the position was seasonal, she just wasn’t needed any longer. An investigation into the complaint was never conducted.

The company in question has a sexual harassment policy in place, they have a very detailed investigation process. But in this case, those tools were useless because the company’s cultural values didn’t match what their policy stated. Many of the women whose stories we’ve heard in the headlines had similar experiences. They tried to report the behavior and were told it was no big deal or to just let it go.

So how do we change the cultural values toward sexual harassment in the workplace?

Changing the company culture includes:
- Taking each and every complaint seriously, conducting a thorough investigation, and taking action to cease the behavior. If employees understand that such behavior won’t be tolerated, they’re much less likely to act in such a manner in the workplace.
- Providing sexual harassment training to all employees within your organization, creating an open-door culture where employees feel safe bringing forth such complaints, and where they know that their complaints will be taken seriously. If employees know that they will be taken seriously, they are more likely to file a report. If your organization gets a reputation for ignoring complaints, employees won’t speak up and many will eventually leave the organization.
- Training leadership on how to respond to such complaints, how to conduct investigations, and how to help move the company culture in the right direction by modeling the appropriate behaviors. Many managers admit that they don’t know how to respond to such complaints and receiving such complaints makes them uncomfortable, so instead of addressing it, they ignore it.
- Reviewing company policies on workplace relationships and determining what is appropriate for your organization. Where does your organization draw the line between appropriate and inappropriate workplace relationships?
By taking complaints of sexual harassment seriously, utilizing the tools your organization already has in place, and providing training to your staff, you can begin to move your organization’s cultural values in the right direction.

To read more about sexual harassment in the workplace, check out these posts:

#MeToo and the Onslaught of Sexual Harassment Training Requests

3 Ways to Make your Workplace Harassment Training Successful
May 17, 2018
What do you value most?

Values – integrity, authenticity, honesty, loyalty, service – and the list goes on. Values are what make each person unique. Individuals want to work in organizations that prioritizes values, and companies seek out individuals who add value to their organization.
A Career Decision Making Tree is one tool we use at Horizon Point in guiding individuals in career planning. We share this in our career development course with other professionals; it’s available in our workbooks also. The idea is to determine what you value most in a career, which are the roots of the tree (i.e. career must haves). Then, you can narrow down your list of careers. We often facilitate this after a formal interest inventory assessment.

Satisfaction in your career is closely connected to values. Doing work that you are passionate about and that you find value in often predicts job satisfaction.

Unsure of what you value in work? Use this free assessment at Career One Stop to find out: https://www.vawizard.org/wizard/assessment-combined.

May 15, 2018
Increase the Value of your Organization’s Biggest Asset
“Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” – Sir Richard Branson

As another school year comes to a close, my boys have already started getting that end of year fever. To them the end of the school year means a break from learning. To me it means a summer filled with opportunities to teach them things they can’t experience in a classroom. With that comes the opportunity to encourage them to challenge themselves and set personal goals for what they want to accomplish during the summer (besides sleeping in).

Performance reviews are a great opportunity for leadership to sit down with employees and not only review their past performance, but to also help employee set personal learning goals for their future as well. While employees are an organization’s best asset, those assets are only worth what an organization puts into them. The more an organization encourages employees to seek out continuous learning opportunities and the more resources an organization provides for employees to do so, the more valuable the employees become to the organization.

There are countless ways for an organization to provide continuous learning opportunities. Regardless of the size of your organization, there are ways to help your employees grow in their careers. Some options include:
- Tuition Reimbursement Programs
- In-House Training Programs
- Webinars & Conferences
- Lunch and Learn Sessions
- Vendor Presentations (these are often provided for free)
- Mentor/Shadowing Programs
- Monthly Informative Newsletters
Providing training opportunities to employees not only helps them to increase their knowledge, it helps them feel more connected to the organization. Leaders can encourage employees in their efforts through continuous feedback and review of the goals set during the performance review process.

Are you increasing the value of your organization’s biggest asset through continuous learning?
May 10, 2018
Top 10 Quotes on Authentic Leadership

As we continue to explore authenticity, I think it’s important to focus on how to actually be an authentic leader. One of the best ways to learn is to pay close attention to the authentic leaders you know in real life and those who are doing the work publicly and sharing their experiences. We always look for research and subject matter experts to inform our work, so here are ten authentic leadership quotes we often reference:

10) “Authentic Leaders are not afraid to show emotion and vulnerability as they share in the challenges with their team. Developing a solid foundation of trust with open and honest communication is critical to authentic leadership.” – Farshad Asl, The “No Excuses” Mindset: A Life of Purpose, Passion, and Clarity

9) “Authentic leadership is the full expression of “me” for the benefit of “we”.” – Henna Inam, Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead

8) “Authentic leadership is revealed in the alignment of what you think, what you say, and what you do.” –Michael Holland, Founder & President, Bishop House

7) “Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet — thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing — consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.” – Lance Secretan, The Secretan Center, Inc.

6) “Authenticity and knowing who you are is fundamental to being an effective and long-standing leader.” -Ann Fudge

5) “Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.” – Stephen Covey

4) “It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.” –Zig Ziglar

3) “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” – Andy Stanley

2) “A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

1) “A true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes.” – John C. Maxwell

To read more about Authentic Leadership, visit my blog post Authenticity and Authentic Leadership.

May 3, 2018