People are what make up your company, and it's people who you serve. We've said from the early days that people matter. It doesn't matter what it is; people matter, and prioritizing people has great rewards, but it comes with great responsibility. It comes with great risk and can be daunting and, frankly, overwhelming.
For most of us, payroll is one of our largest expenses and investments in our business. There's a lot of time, energy, and money involved in people; that is a true statement.
Core Values
I love talking about core values because I'm the core values champion at TBL. As a co-writer on the core value speech, I deliver that speech every quarter. We got the chance to actually record a podcast episode communicating our speech so that our podcast listeners could see the example so that maybe they'll be inspired to craft and deliver their own core value speech, which was really a big part of our development in the early days of adopting EOS®.
The core values part starts when you are entering the EOS® process as something during one of your vision-building days. You actually sit down with your leadership team and identify what your core values are. This is an exercise that you and your leadership team do together. It's usually three to seven core values.
Determining the right people
If you haven't already heard me deliver our core values speech, you should go give it a listen. It gives you a lot of context because even in that speech, we talk about the values bar and all the things that you need to know.
In EOS®, your core values are how you determine if you have the right people. We've actually walked this out in the hiring, firing, rewarding, and recognizing process here at TBL.
Hiring
The point of knowing what your core values are and having a speech is that you now have to go out into the world and craft a job ad like honey so that the bees or the bear will come to it. That's been very helpful in helping them identify if they want to be with a company that values these certain aspects.
What we have also done is use the core values in interviewing as well. It helps to filter through the applicants as well to see if they show those qualities, or we will craft certain questions to see if they would do this or that because we have a values translator.
Values Translator
This is a tool that we actually got through our business accelerator mastermind with Michael Hyatt and his team, now called Full Focus Company. And I think that really sets us apart when we put this EOS® lens through the Values Translator.
To clarify, the Values Translator is an item that you can use to communicate an idea by having examples of what it looks like and what it doesn't look like. This would be how it walks and talks and how it feels, as well as what it doesn't walk and talk like and what it doesn't feel like.
Right person
You're going to find out on both sides during the process whether they want to be a part of this or not. You can't fix a wrong person into a right person. They are either a right person or they're not. That doesn't mean they're bad if they're not a right person; it just means they're not a fit for you. And they won't fit into the culture that you're trying to build.
Let's just be practical for a minute. If you hire someone that is a right person, you can always build up on the skills, but you cannot build up on whether or not they are a right fit culturally. You can't take someone who doesn't line up with you and just make them line up with you on the inside.
Reward and recognize
We go through this interview process, but then when you're inside the house with us, we're talking to each other at least every 90 days, having quarterly conversations. With EOS®, you have your leadership team, and then you have your direct reports. One of those responsibilities when you have LMA responsibilities is having quarterly conversations, and this is where the leader and the direct reports sit down and have an informal conversation.
Quarterly Conversations
You discuss what's working and what's not working, and this is a time for them to reflect on the people analyzer for that person in that seat with those responsibilities. The People Analyzer is just a tool that EOS® uses, and it combines the core values and the “gets it,” “wants it,” and “has capacity for it” tools together. You use it as a self-assessment tool, and you basically do a plus, plus minus, or minus response for the 90 days, and it goes like this:
- So, Sally, in the last 90 days, have you assessed yourself? Have you shown up and exhibited this value most of the time, some of the time, or never? You do that as a self-reflective and assessment tool, and you go through the list for all your values. Then you do the GWC, which is “gets it,” “wants it,” and “has capacity” for each of the roles for your seat.
Headlines
We have weekly L10 meetings. Before our L10 meetings, we post headlines to recognize when our teammates are exhibiting our core values.
For instance, a core value shout-out might be: Hey Sally, awesome job on never giving up. You really pushed through and finished all those invoices, even though I know you really didn't want to. I really saw you push to keep going.
It’s a great way to practice recognition because it’s not always easy, and sometimes it’s easy to take for granted what people are doing.
Rewarding our team for Rock completion
We create rewards for our rocks when we have 80% completion of our rocks or the company rock. At TBL, try to create opportunities to create a reward around an achievement. And we only get there when we display our core values.
These rewards can look different each quarter. Some people may want a fancy dinner with their spouse, some may want a gift card to their favorite book store, or they may want to get half a day off. Our team loves having a movie day together.
We create these little surveys to get an idea of what the team really wants as a reward. When you send these out, keep in mind what your budget is and what you can actually deliver on. You've got to be able to say, “I can afford to do this; I can afford to give up this time; I can afford to expand this energy; I can afford to give up this dollar around the reward.” Every business has seasons, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't reward and recognize your team.
Firing
There is that process where sometimes people have to get off the ride, whether by their own choice or because you have to show them the exit. Now, one of the things I will say before I let you dive into this is that EOS® has a beautifully gracious way of discussing right people issues, and they talk about “coaching up” or “coaching out.” And you're always growing, developing, and sharpening one another, which is a hundred percent a value alignment for us.
For whatever reason, if you get to this point, you have a decision to make. If it's a right person, just in the wrong seat, try to find a new seat if you have one. If you don't have a seat, then you don't have a seat, you don’t just make a new seat. You have to make the decision for the greater good, endure the 36 hours of agony, and just let go right now if it's the wrong person. Right. Then again, you cannot fix a wrong person. Again, for clarity, a wrong person means their core values are not shown most of the time.
Loving them on the way in and on the way out
Sometimes you may have to make decisions that your teammate doesn't agree with because you know that you've had all the conversations you can have. We say “love them on the way in, love them on the way out.” And I can't tell you how many times we've used this to remind ourselves that we're dealing with a person and a relationship.
It mattered. It mattered once. It mattered twice. It mattered in the beginning, and it needs to matter just as much in the end, and it's not always easy to do that. We're human and we're messy, and that's where your core values come into play. That's where your experience, culture, and DNA come into play.
If you want to learn more about leveraging your core values to hire, fire, reward, and recognize, check out Episode 113: Leveraging Your Core Values to Hire, Fire, Reward, and Recognize in 2023.
