Sharlyn J. Lauby's Blog, page 162

How High Performing Companies Manage Change

A few weeks ago, I published a post titled, “High Performing Companies Know How to Manage Change.” I received a Twitter response to the piece suggesting that I add a little depth to the post.

Let’s start by defining what a high performing company looks like. The best definition I ran across is an organization that delivers profit margins 50-150 percent above industry average. We’re talking about companies that have significant market share, increasing profits, and a history of growth.

The only way an organization is able to do this successfully is by creating and maintaining a high performance culture. Now I don’t mean a high burnout culture. High performance isn’t about working a lot and wearing employees down. High performance is about ethics, standards, commitment and accountability.

One of the ways to build a culture of high performance is to think of it in as a “learning organization.” The phrase “learning organization” was coined by Dr. Peter Senge in the book, “The Fifth Discipline.” Learning organizations are those entities that are constantly improving themselves as a result of their surroundings. Learning organizations become high performing because they are continuously trying to improve their business standards and competitive advantage. There are five components to developing a learning organization:

Systems thinking is a framework to study the business and its processes.
Personal mastery is the commitment to individual learning.
Mental models are the assumptions held by individuals and organizations that need to be challenged.
Shared vision is just that, the vision that is shared throughout the organization.
Team learning is the ability for individuals to come together to accomplish goals.

As you look at the five components, it’s obvious that, to become a learning organization, companies must be open to change. Whether it’s change in the form of learning a new skill or in changing business assumptions.

It’s important for us to remember that the process of change doesn’t mean going from a state where something is bad or wrong to a state where something is good. Change can involve going from a state of good to better. I think that’s some of the reason that individuals are reluctant to change – because there’s this assumption that change means what we’re currently doing is wrong. And that’s simply not the case. I also think that’s why becoming a high performing organization is so difficult. Change is hard.

But here’s the other thing: learning organizations or high performing companies aren’t only focused on the company’s product or service. They focus on everything – operations, sales, human resources, etc. Any organization that plans to deliver the kind of results we’re talking about needs to have every aspect of their business held to the same level of accountability. Again, this is difficult. Let’s face it, sometimes organizations don’t do this. One department is considered more important than another.

High performing organizations achieve the results we’re talking about because they understand and buy-into the fact that change benefits them as individuals and as an organization. Change isn’t scary to them because they know it works.

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby

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You Can’t Own Your Career Until You Buy Into It

There’s lots of talk about employees “owning” their careers. The idea being that employees are in the driver’s seat where their career development is concerned. Some of this stems from the fact that employees want more control over their future. Not just the jobs, but their work schedules, workspace, etc. I know I’ve heard plenty of people say they’ve watched colleagues and family members follow the path that the company asked of them only to see them subsequently struggle during the Great Recession. They’ve vowed it won’t happen to them.

On the flip side, organizations want employees to take some initiative to invest in their careers on their own. The expense for professional development should not be 100 percent the company’s responsibility. I honestly believe that employees having ownership of their career is a good thing for both of these reasons. Employees make an investment into their own destiny. Organizations see employees take initiative and responsibility.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Employees owning their career doesn’t mean that their career goals and the company’s goals have to be different. It’s very possible that the employee’s career goals align with organizational goals. In fact, that should be what everyone is striving for – employees and businesses that are on the same page where career development is concerned.

Which is why I wanted to talk about buy-in. I read an article in Training Magazine that drew a distinction between employee ownership and employee buy-in. They said that employees who buy-into their careers understand “how” to do the job, where employees who own their jobs appreciate why their doing it.

It made me wonder if getting employees to buy-into their job is the essential first step to having employees own their career. Organizations can’t simply say “Poof! You’re in charge of your career.” After years of telling employees what they need to do in order to be successful, organizations need to help employees reach buy-in where their job is concerned. Then, they need to support them by giving them the reigns to their career. How can organizations get employees to buy-in? Here are four ways:

Communicate! Make sure employees know their role and performance expectations.
Feedback. Give employees regular feedback about what they do well and what needs improvement.
Recognize. Share stories in the organization when employees do exceptional work.
Manage. Hold everyone accountable for results and don’t allow employees to sabotage the work.

In Simon Sinek’s book, “Start With Why”, he talks about why some organizations are great and others are simply good. It goes back to the concept of “why.” Good organizations know what they do and how they do it. Great organizations know why they do it.

Is it possible that good organizations have employees who have bought into their careers? They know what to do and how to do it. However, great organizations have employees who own their careers. They know why they do it. And the path to employee and company success revolves around not only being accountable but understanding why accountability is the key to success.

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby

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Quick Shots for HR and #Business Pros – Global #HR Edition

Last month I had the chance to speak at conferences in Reykjavik and London – part of my focus on global HR. Both cities are wonderful and if you ever get the chance to go, you should. I’ll be sharing some takeaways with you in the future, but I wanted to share with you a few quick learnings from my trip.

While human resources pros are taking about the same things (i.e. recruiting, retention, etc.), I did hear some new terms, phrases and conversations in the global arena that I liked very much:

Net Promoter Score is a tool used to measure customer loyalty. HR pros were very in tune with their organization’s net promoter score. Maybe a new business metric for HR pros? If you don’t know this measurement, spend some time checking it out.

Agile Development comes from agile project management where projects are completed in small steps (called iterations.) After each iteration, the project is evaluated before next steps are taken. HR pros are using agile concepts for performance management, learning and development, etc.

Economic Value Added (EVA) is the term for the profit realized beyond the rate of return. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that but it made me realize that as HR pros we need to think about more than simply breaking even.

Triple bottom-line has been around for a while but with the increased emphasis on corporate social responsibility and sustainability, the term is making a comeback. The three components in a triple bottom-line is often referred to as people, planet and profit.

Employee pride was used interchangeably with engagement. The goal is for employees to have pride in their work. There was agreement that when employees have pride in their internal brand, it shows in their external brand.

HR’s new partner in crime? Finance. We’ve talked about the HR and marketing connection. We’ll think about becoming BFFs with your CFO. HR needs to build relationships with all functions in the organization.

Lastly, I really liked the conversations about “driving results with respect.” Sometimes as HR pros, we have to make tough decisions. I heard Patrick Lencioni, author of the best-selling book “The Five Dysfunctions of Team,” speak recently and he called it the “kind truth.” We don’t like to talk about it a lot, but it’s part of the job. The important thing to remember is that those decisions are handled with respect for everyone involved. We might not like the decision or the outcome, but we can respect each other.

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby

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Does It Matter If Stress and Pressure Are Different

I like to read on planes. In fact, I let my magazines pile up and save them for air travel. On the personal side, I’m sure people think I’m a bit odd reading about Thanksgiving meals in March. But from a business perspective, I’m able to read months of related content at the same time.

Case in point: my last trip, I read several articles about employee stress. One I found fascinating because it explained how employee pressure and stress are two different things.

Pressure are those moments when the importance of the outcome matters. Examples of pressure moments might be when you’re presenting a big proposal to a group of investors or studying for a credential that will help you get a promotion. The outcome matters to your career and your future.

Stress are those moments when the outcome is not crucial to your survival. Examples of stressful moments include having too many meetings or giving feedback to a co-worker. The outcome matters but not to the same extent as a pressure moment.

The article went on to specifically focus on pressure moments and how we as individuals need to learn how to manage pressure. It’s not possible to eliminate pressure but, by being able to identify pressure moments, we can develop more perseverance (aka “grit”) to be successful.

Interestingly, I read a second article on resilience training as a way to help individuals manage stress. Because workplace tension can’t be eliminated, it can only be managed. And, by incorporating resilience training, we can develop more “grit” to help us be successful.

Honestly, if I had read these articles within months or weeks of each other, I don’t know that I would have walked away with the same thought. But if pressure and stress are different, and neither can be eliminated, but both can be managed, and finally that grit is the solution. Does it matter if pressure and stress are different if the solution is to deal with them is the same? In both cases, my performance is being affected. Maybe the key is to just teach everyone how to be more resilient (i.e. have more grit)?

Now I realize these are two different articles, written by two different people. Workplace stress is a serious issue and employees need to know how to manage it. I discovered recently that the American Psychological Association estimates the cost of job stress to be around $300 billion per year. To help put that into perspective, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are 122 million people employed full-time in the U.S. For the purposes of simple math, let’s say 150 million including part-time and freelancers. That’s $2,000 worth of job stress per person. Think about the implications that job stress is having on the business and the options the organization could employ to reduce workplace stress.

I do agree that completely eliminating stress from our lives could be close to impossible. But in order to effectively deal with pressure and stress, we have to educate employees on the best way to handle each. Part of that is getting on the same page with the definitions and causes of workplace stress. Employee well-being is far too critical of an issue not to get it right.

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby and Colorfy App

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Performance Reviews Are a Process Not an Event

(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by our friends at SilkRoad , a leading global provider of cloud-based, end-to-end talent management solutions. SilkRoad hosts a virtual book club – just sign up and receive access to over 30 chapters from popular talent management topics. Enjoy the post!)

In Steve Boese’s “What’s in Store for HR Tech for 2016”, top on the list was rethinking performance management. Over the past couple of years, we’ve heard plenty of conversations about performance reviews. The verdict? Everyone hates them. And in response, some organizations are working toward eliminating the annual performance review.

But here’s the thing. Performance feedback is absolutely necessary. Employees want to know how they are doing on the job. “No news is good news” isn’t a performance management philosophy. Regular performance feedback increases engagement, improves overall organizational performance and helps with employee retention. So, regardless of what you call it, the idea behind the performance reviews is feedback. And feedback is valuable.

“No News Is Good News” Isn’t a Performance Management Philosophy
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The question becomes, what steps can organizations take to make their performance reviews effective. After reading SilkRoad’s 2015 Performance Management survey, I think part of the challenge is that 55 percent of organizations viewed performance reviews as an “event” versus a process. For performance feedback to be effective, it needs to be a process. Which means that performance reviews need to be viewed as a process.

Events are defined as “a thing that happens.” As such, the outcomes of an event can change regularly. Events are not ingrained in the culture, so they might not receive the support and resources they need to be successful.

Processes are “a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a goal.” Processes have a defined consistent goal. They are a regular part of the business operation and viewed differently. Resources are allocated to the process because it helps achieve a goal.

Even though the SilkRoad survey did note that the annual review is still the most common frequency (62 percent), with semi-annual a distant second (22 percent) and quarterly at 8 percent, performance reviews were never meant to be once-a-year events. Well, OK, maybe there was supposed to be a once-a-year written recap conversation. I’ll give ya that one. But over time the annual performance review moved away from its original intent – to provide performance feedback.

That’s what employees want to hear – regular performance feedback conversations throughout the course of the year. Also, please note the organizations making the news by announcing that they are “ditching” the performance review aren’t saying that they’re ditching performance feedback. What they’re saying is they’re ditching the event and adopting a process.

So how do we make performance reviews an ongoing process of feedback? The SilkRoad survey has some great starters within their survey results.

Create consistent performance standards. 72 percent of survey participants indicated their organization has a challenge with inconsistent performance standards. Organizations need performance standards as part of their consumer brand, product quality standards, and customer service just to name a few. Employee performance should be measured against the standard.

Get consistent support from management. It might not seem like a big deal to only have 9 percent of survey respondents express concern about management support. But if the organization has a clear performance standard that aligns with the business, then why wouldn’t management be completely onboard?

Build an effective process. Speaking of management support, the other aspect to management support that bears mentioning is, once the organization is committed to the process, resources need to be allocated to make the process work. Performance management technology solutions can reduce administrative burden, freeing up managers and human resources to focus on delivering feedback.

Train managers to provide consistent feedback and communication. Over half of survey responses expressed concern about managers providing consistent feedback (56 percent.) Regardless of the performance review, feedback conversations still need to happen. And they need to be effective. Giving managers training and guidance benefits the employee and the company.

Changing people’s opinions about the performance review isn’t going to happen overnight. But if there’s one thing that can make a significant change, it’s viewing performance reviews as a process. This shift in mindset can help the organization build a performance review process that gets the support needed in terms of technology solutions and manager training to achieve the company’s goals.

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Career Breakthroughs Happen One Small Step At a Time – #SHRM16

I’m very excited to be speaking at this year’s Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference and Expo in Washington D.C. I will be speaking twice. First on Saturday, June 18, I will be part of a pre-conference workshop on “Social Solutions for HR: Social Media Strategies to Help Achieve Your HR and Business Goals.” I’m thrilled to be working with Jonathan Segal, Craig Fisher and Aliah Wright on this program.

The second session is a breakout on “Manager Onboarding: Setting New Leaders Up for Success”, which happens to be the topic of my next book (more on that in a future post!)

The reason I’m talking about SHRM so early in the year is because I just learned that the theme for the conference is “Breakthrough” and someone asked me what is / was the breakthrough moment in my career. And honestly, I couldn’t think of one big breakthrough. I did think of lots of smaller breaks I’ve had along the way.

My first HR job. It’s not always easy breaking to human resources. Luckily, my boss didn’t look down on the fact that I had no HR experience. I did have some transferrable skills and I was willing to work hard.


My first HR manager job. I was a one-person HR department. But my boss told me that once you become a manager, you will always be thought of as a manager. Don’t disappoint.


The first time I terminated someone. You realize the role you play in other people’s livelihoods. That’s why having regular performance conversations is important. Employees need to be responsible for their career.


My first team. As a manager, you need to support your team and their goals. I realized my role as a manager was to give them the tools to be successful. I also learned that I couldn’t go off and do cool stuff if the office fell apart every time I left.


The first time I relocated. It’s kinda a big deal to relocate for your job. You really need to think about how much you like that job. And you need to have a personal and professional support system to help you.


My first strategic planning meeting. Often our day to day work is very granular. With strategic planning, you have to think differently and beyond your own department.


Becoming a vice president. At first, I thought I had reached the pinnacle of my career. Then you realize you’ve only just begun. The learning never stops.


Becoming a consultant. Some people view being a consultant as different from a practitioner. Really, it’s the same responsibilities, just with different stakeholder companies.

And the breakthroughs keep coming. At least they should. I do not believe your career is defined by one single mammoth “breakthrough.” It’s a lot of small breakthroughs. That’s okay. In fact, maybe it’s better. Maybe a whole bunch of little breakthroughs help us manage our careers better, set more realistic goals, and work through challenging times.

So, here’s to more breakthroughs. Let’s see how many little ones we can tackle in 2016!

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby

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Rising Above the Noise – Friday Distraction

(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by  our friends at Kronos , the global leader in delivering workforce management solutions in the cloud. Be sure to check out the Top Five Workplace Trends for 2016 from The Workforce Institute at Kronos . Enjoy the post!)

There’s a measure in science called the signal-to-noise ratio (abbreviated SNR or S/N.) It compares a signal to the level of background noise. In our technology driven world, it’s come to also mean the ratio of useful information to irrelevant data. For example, you might hear that a social media platform has a lot of noise, meaning it’s more worthless data and less valuable conversation.

When we talk about noise from a business perspective, it might be tempting to think it’s only marketers pushing out information about their product or service and not engaging with customers. Large volumes of job seekers can create noise as well. Today’s Time Well Spent from our friends at Kronos reminded me of the challenges job seekers face making their resume rise above the noise.

When we’re looking for a new opportunity – as a candidate or a marketer – we need to make sure our message stands out in the crowd. The best way to do that is by being ourselves – authentic, transparent, and true to our brand. Following the cool kids or trend du jour doesn’t make a person’s or an organization’s special talents stand out. In fact, it could do quite the opposite.

While we’re only a few weeks into 2016, it’s pretty obvious that this year will be all about rising above the noise. Whether that’s letting customers know about your unique product or service that can help their business or the very talented candidate who can work at your organization. But it’s also about the opposite – finding the company that can help your business grow to the next level or the employee that has the skills your company needs for the future.

It might seem frustrating to search for a paperclip in a pile of paper, but what you’re really looking for is the signal in a sea of noise. And both players – the company and the candidate – need to be equally focused on the signal to successfully find each other.

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Google re:Work Shares Resources to #MakeWorkBetter

I love writing with mechanical pencils. My mother bought me a Mickey Mouse mechanical pencil over a decade ago and it’s one of my favorites. It’s fun and brings me a smile while I’m working. We could all use more of those.

It will come as no surprise that we spend a good deal of our time working. As such, I decided that one of my resolutions for 2016 is to have fun office supplies. It might sound silly but I’ve decided that, given how much I work, I am going to treat myself to fun office supplies.

The reason I’m sharing with you a story about Mickey Mouse mechanical pencils is because I discovered a website that you might be interested in checking out. It’s called re:Work. The site is hosted by Google.

re:Work is founded on the idea that we spend too much time at work not to have a happy, healthy and productive work experience. Their goal in creating the site is to share data and information from Google and other organizations about the employee experience.

The site is divided into five subject categories. Currently, the subjects are goal setting, hiring, managers, people analytics, and unbiasing. For each subject, the site shares how many guides, case studies and blog posts are associated with each for easy navigation.

Blog: It appears the blog posts once a week or every other week, so it’s definitely manageable. Writers are from Google, as well as academics. I thought the topics were forward-thinking. For example, the front page of the blog has posts on civility at work, unconscious bias, and “job crafting.”

Case Studies: A wide variety of subjects from benefits to productivity to recruiting. I liked the balance between industry, government and non-profit sectors. And the case studies were very easy to follow: here’s the challenge, this is what we did, and here are the results.

Guides: The site includes what I would call “how to” activities called guides. For example, there’s a guide called “Adopt an analytics mindset” which has 8 steps, including the questions you should ask and the analytics value chain. Readers can share the guide, print it and also rate its usefulness. I could see this being something that a manager forwards to an employee. Or an employee prints and tries to practice.

While Google admits they won’t be able to cover every topic and they aren’t experts at everything, they are making a commitment to share what they know. And that’s fantastic.

The goal of re:Work isn’t for organizations to duplicate what Google has done. It’s to gain some creative inspiration from their stories and information. Take what appeals to you and ask how this could work within your organizational culture. Great approach!

We don’t have to recreate the wheel to re:Work our organizations. We just need to be open to listening and sharing the stories of others.

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3 Signs You’re Not Talking Enough in Meetings (And How To Stop Being That Person)

I ran across this article on The Muse titled “3 Signs You’re Talking Way Too Much in Meetings (and How to Stop Being that Person).” It’s a good read and worth checking out. But it prompted me to ask, “What about the person who doesn’t talk enough?” Yes, it’s possible to not talk enough during meetings.

When you’re invited to a meeting, it’s because people want you to share your thoughts. Just because someone is talking a lot is no excuse not to participate. You have something valuable to say. If you don’t talk at meetings you could be sending the wrong message – such as you don’t have anything to contribute, you don’t care about the outcome, or you simply agree with the conversation.

The next time you’re in a meeting, here are a couple of things to think about if you find yourself not getting a word in edgewise.

Being an introvert is not an excuse. Confession: I’m an introvert. Being an introvert doesn’t mean I can use that as a reason not to participate in meetings. I’ve been invited and the group expects me to participate.

On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that I have to feel pressured into commenting or making a decision. Let the other members of the group know how you’re feeling. “This is a really interesting idea. Will we have time to think about it before making a final decision?” Now, be ready for someone to say, “No, we need a decision today.” But in my experience, I’ve found that if I wanted to think about it overnight, most people would give me that. In fact, I’ve found that some other people will step up and agree they’d like to have a little more time as well. 

Don’t let time drive your decision to speak. I’ve done this too many times to count. You’re in that meeting right before lunch or the last one of the day. If you speak, the meeting runs over. So you decide not to.

Instead of not offering your point of view, ask the question, “I have a couple of things to say. But I want to be sensitive to the time. Do you want to hear them now or should we schedule another meeting?” Give people the option. My guess is most people would prefer not to have another meeting. This does put some pressure on you to keep your comments relevant and brief.

It’s also possible that other people might feel the same way you do. Don’t be surprised if someone else says they have a few more things to say but didn’t want to speak up because of the time. Now that you’ve broken the ice, it might mean there’s another meeting. The good news is, everyone agreed and is participating at a high level.

Only create a “meeting after the meeting” when appropriate. I’ve written before about the “meeting after the meeting” (aka MATM.) It’s a discussion about things that can’t be said during the meeting itself (at least not at that moment in time.) However, the MATM is not a substitute for the meeting itself.

So, for example, if someone talks too much during the meeting and you can’t get a word in – the MATM isn’t typically just a continuation of the meeting. If a group gets together to complain about the person who talks too much, that’s called a gripe session. Now if someone talks too much and says something controversial, then yes, that’s a reason for a meeting after the meeting – to deal with the controversy.

When I find myself not being able to get a word in … and honestly, it happens … I will use body language to send the message I have something to say. Even if it means going old school and slightly raising my hand. I’m not interrupting anyone and it lets the facilitator know I would like to comment.

Yes, talking too much in meetings is annoying. But not talking in meetings can be equally concerning. It’s all about finding balance. Being a meeting participant is a tough responsibility. We have to meet that challenge!

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby

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The Fine Line Between Confident and Cocky

We’ve talked a lot here on HR Bartender about the challenges in today’s recruiting market – competition for talent, increased time to hire, skills gaps, etc. But there’s one aspect that I want to mention – the confident candidate. William Tincup brought it up in a post titled, “7 Ways Recruiters Will Be Blindsided in 2016.” It’s a good read, be sure to check it out.

Item numero uno on the list was “candidate ego is out of control.” I agree with this…to a point.

Yes, the job market has shifted in the candidate’s favor. Yes, top talent knows they are top talent – they always have. Organizations need to understand that, if they want rock stars, they will have to pay for rock stars.

But I also believe there’s a fine line between confidence and cockiness. Confidence is a feeling of self-assurance in one’s abilities. Cockiness is showing confidence in a way that’s annoying to other people. Cockiness implies the person is egocentric rather than a team player. Their focus is often on their own success rather than that of the company. Organizations should hire people who are confident, not cocky. Candidates should convey to employers they are confident, not cocky.

Whether you’re a candidate or a company, there are a few ways to convey confidence:

Learn to listen well. Confidence isn’t about talking all the time. Confidence is about listening and responding in a thoughtful and genuine way. Both candidates and companies need to be able to listen.


Consider practicing mindfulness. It’s the practice of focusing on self-awareness. Confidence is about being self-aware and self-managing. Companies and candidates show self-awareness in their brand.


Understand both your strengths and weaknesses. Yes, it’s true in an interview situation, we try to steer the conversation toward our strengths. But it’s okay to talk about areas we want to improve.


Be prepared to talk about work successes and failures. Never before in business has failing at something been so acceptable. Candidates and companies should be open and transparent about their mistakes and achievements.

This conversation reminds me of the employees who are considered top performers but leave body bags all along the way. I’m not so naïve to think that there won’t be candidates who let their ego get out of control. But unless they are worth the collateral damage, then organizations will have to learn how to say no.

Companies might not be faced with this situation right now, but I can see this issue coming up at some point this year. The question is what would you do? And is it possible to avoid candidate egos with replacement planning, talent pools, or training programs? Instead of hiring confidence from the outside the organization, grow employee confidence from within.

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby

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