People are our most valuable asset! You have heard this many times, and the truth is that they really are. Without having the right people in your organization, any strategy, process or project would fail.
So, you need to make sure that you have the right people in your company and that they behave and make decisions that are aligned with your strategy, day in and day out.
Here are some insights on how this can be achieved.
Make sure you have the right people
Maybe you have noticed that some people fail in certain companies, but thrive in others. This is because in order to be successful, their values must match those of the company. If there is no correspondence between them or even worse, their values are opposing to those of the company, most probably they will not excel, and in the long run, they will just fail.
So, how can you make sure you have the right people? The best way to start is to look at your Corporate Values. Remember that these values are the support to your Culture, and they should be defined as a result of understanding what the company requires from its people in order to achieve its Vision and hold to its Mission.
More or less like this:
When you hire people, not only look for a skillset that matches the requirements of the position, make sure that the person brings values that are close to those of the Company. If you want to implement a Service Focused culture, look for people that has strong service orientation. If your company wants to be a leader in innovation, look for people that are not afraid of change and are open to challenging the status quo. If you hire people that are more conservative and that require stability to succeed, most probably they will not enjoy a dynamic culture and they will not help you to reach the Company’s Vision.
Always use a performance evaluation model that is aligned to your Strategy
Performance evaluation models will definitely impact the way people perform and behave, so be very careful when you define the way you are going to evaluate your team. A good rule of thumb could be to use two basic criteria:
- Process Objectives
- Corporate Values
In a previous article, I explained how process objectives should be aligned to the company’s strategy. Therefore, when you evaluate your team’s performance you should make sure to evaluate if the processes goals were achieved or not, and what was the contribution of each employee to achieving those goals. Remember that your processes must be defined across departments, avoid defining process and objectives that are confined to a single department, since it could generate conflict of interests. Here you could also include the evaluation of the employee’s contribution to corporate projects. Those projects should also be aligned to the company’s strategy.
Finally, reward the employee contributions that are aligned to Corporate Values. If you value service orientation reward outstanding service performances, if you value Innovation reward new ideas and thinking outside of the box. Be consistent and be fair.
If some people are not performing according to what is expected, train and help them. However, if they are consistently not living by your corporate values, and you do not see any interest in improving, it would be better to let them go. A corporate culture is something you build day by day, and you should not tolerate behavior opposed to the values you are trying to implement.
IN CONCLUSION
Corporate Strategy will not be successfully implemented if you do not have the right people with the right skills and the right attitude to achieve it. Being the latter the most important part.
Carefully select the people you bring to your company, since the implementation of a corporate culture depends on the alignment of people’s values and company’s values.
And always make sure that you improve performance by rewarding the collective achievement of process goals and the individual contribution to corporate culture, since processes and values should be always aligned to your Company’s Strategy.
Juan Pablo Franco
General Manager
Anteros Solutions