The following is a guest piece by Jon Katzenbach and DeAnne Aguirre.

It is striking to see how many chief executives see their most important responsibility as being the leader of the company’s culture. According to Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, “Culture is your company’s number one asset.” Her counterpart at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, has said, “Everything I do is a reinforcement or not of what we want to have happen culturally.”

Recognizing the importance of culture in business is not the same thing as being an effective cultural chief executive. The CEO is the most visible leader in a company. His or her direct engagement in all facets of the company’s culture can make an enormous difference, not just in how people feel about the company, but in how they perform.

There are several things you can do from your highly visible position at the top of the hierarchy to spark and foster the cultural realignments you want to see:

1. Demonstrate the power of positive urgency
Time and again, we hear executives cite the importance of having a “burning platform” – a stress-producing crisis, whether externally driven or self-induced – to incite a high-performance culture. There is a much better way to overcome complacency.

As a CEO or senior executive, the greatest thing you can do is to marshal an authentic sense of urgency, but not one built solely on the logical reasons that change is necessary. Rather, build an emotional sense of urgency, focusing on the values that the company cares about collectively: its way of serving customers, its desire for growth and success, its positive impact on social and community issues, and the attraction and welcome that people felt when they first arrived.

2. Pick a critical few behaviors
To help people capitalize on the best aspects of your culture, you have to focus attention on the critical few behaviors that you believe matter most. These are a few positive sources of energy, pride, and interactions that, when nurtured and spread to scale, will improve company performance significantly.

As simple as it sounds, this approach will not only accelerate the behavior change that matters most, but also evolve and align your culture more effectively than forcing a major and potentially disruptive culture change effort on a broadly diverse global organization.

It is essential to emulate at least some of these emerging key behaviors yourself—to be a living model of the culture you aspire to lead. People pay rapt attention to what the CEO does, not just what the CEO says.

You can’t rely on communications, no matter how inspiring. You, and ideally a few other senior leaders, have to step out by behaving in new ways that both capitalize on elements in the current culture and demonstrate a key shift in cultural alignment.

In the video below, retired Campbell’s Soup Company CEO Doug Conant shares with Booz & Company senior partner Jon Katzenbach an example of one how one of his critical few behaviors allowed him to connect more effectively with people in his organization:

3. Balance your appeals to the company to include both rational and emotional cues
When putting together a business strategy or a case for action, it’s important to integrate the rational arguments from top leaders with compelling emotional appeals at more personal levels.

One without the other is unlikely to sustain cultural alignment. In other words, in addition to a rational business case for change and other formal mechanisms, it’s important to develop emotional impact through such forces as peer approval, the support of colleagues, and the admiration of friends and family.

4. Make the change sustainable by maintaining vigilance on the few critical elements that you have established as important
Your role as a cultural leader starts on Day One of your appointment as CEO. It will not end until the last day you hold that office. Indeed, your persistence in emphasizing the right cultural behavior will continue to be influential after you have left.

Because cultures evolve in informal ways that are hard to track, they can easily degrade before many people are even aware something bad is happening. Chief executives in peak-performing companies almost never let this happen; they work hard to keep an eye on the critical few behaviors over time.

You can either keep promoting the same few behaviors or, after the first few have taken hold, pick a few more to model and support.

In all this activity, avoid delegating your culture-oriented actions. Do as much as you can yourself.

NOTE: This is an abridged piece from the strategy+business article, “Culture and the Chief Executive.” You can read the full version of this article here.

Jon Katzenbach is a senior partner in Booz & Company’s organization, change, and leadership practice, and co-leads the firm’s Katzenbach Center in New York. He is the coauthor with Zia Khan of “Leading Outside the Lines: How to Mobilize the (in)Formal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results“.

DeAnne Aguirre is a senior partner with Booz & Company based in San Francisco, and one of the firm’s foremost experts on organization effectiveness and change leadership. She co-leads the Katzenbach Center.

The post 4 Ways Leaders Can Change An Organization’s Culture appeared first on TanveerNaseer.com.

Please watch on the following video to see an excerpt.

Recognize This! – Building and strengthening a culture of recognition requires consistent, daily effort and action.

Over cake with colleagues at a recent company celebration, I had an epiphany. Well, perhaps not an epiphany as this is a truth I’ve long known, but definitely an analogy worth sharing.

As we enjoyed cake and petits fours (they’re smaller, so fewer calories, right?), my colleagues shared their plans to “get into shape for swimsuit season,” as they called it. New Year’s resolutions for losing weight and getting fit were long passed, so now it was time to focus on the latest quick weight loss scheme – the newest pill, the craziest fad diet.

As we all joked together, I realized – this is what many companies do with employee recognition, motivation and engagement. They try the “quick fixes” – Pizza Party Wednesdays, Bagel Fridays, Employee of the Month, and my personal favorite: some form of peer nomination with a “winner” drawn from a hat.

Like the infamous grapefruit diet, these are all quick fixes. Just as no one can eat grapefruit every day for months on end, no strong company culture of recognition can survive on the infrequent and untimely Employee of the Month program and similar. A healthy lifestyle and long-term weight-loss maintenance come from one approach – diet and exercise. The same is true for your company culture. A healthy culture and long-term employee engagement and motivation come from one approach – truly strategic employee recognition.

The hallmark of strategic employee recognition is consistent, timely, frequent and specific recognition of all individuals when they demonstrate your core values in contribution to achieving your strategic objectives. Not just one guy once a month – but any employee who deserves that praise and positive reinforcement. And not just from managers, but from peers, too. That’s how you build a true culture of recognition – give everyone responsibility for contributing to and maintaining that culture over the long term.

(I must also give a hat-tip to Lance Haun whose recent post “Fad Diets and Facing Reality” cemented my thoughts on this analogy.)

Is your company on a fad diet for employee recognition or committed to a wellness routine for strategic company recognition?

Amid retractions, corrections, denials, international concern, non-comments, and accusations galore, parsing through the implications of what exactly has been going on in both the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court system and the NSA’s “PRISM” program is an important and ongoing conversation for civil society.

For businesses, data vulnerabilities—whether via government security programs or corporate espionage by foreign nations—are a real and constant threat. But what’s to be done?

You could reject the cloud, unplug your computers, cancel your phone lines, and insist on only meeting people face-to-face in secure facilities. For the more practical among us, instead it makes more sense to simply take a few moments to consider in a very realistic way how government spying impacts your competitive position, and what new liabilities these revelations introduce for your business.

How it works

The technical specifics of the PRISM program have not yet been fully revealed. What is clear is that over the last few years 9 major consumer Internet companies (including Facebook, Microsoft, and Google) have begun, either willingly or via court order, to provide user data to American security officials.

The fact that PRISM is a U.S. government program is significant. Over 85 percent of worldwide Internet traffic flows through the United States. Efforts over the last few years to decouple global Internet administration (including the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN) from affiliations with the U.S. government, and reassign them to United Nations management, have failed.

So corporate compliance, technical abilities, and budget allocations aside, the United States is the one and only country that hosts so much of the Internet’s infrastructure that it can collect meaningful data on a truly global scale. In short, you can’t avoid it.

Your competitive position

The question now becomes how government surveillance programs impact your competitive position. And the news here is good.

When it comes to HR data, there’s nothing that government security services don’t already know and would care to know, which could also put you at a competitive disadvantage.

Is the government reading your email to learn more about some potential security threat? Maybe. Will they be forwarding your emails to the CEO of your top competitor? Of course not.

This is not to undermine the threat of corporate espionage. Just because the NSA doesn’t care about you compensation programs, your top performers, your applicant pool, or your policies and procedures, it doesn’t mean your competitors don’t.

That’s one reason why it’s so important to make sure that the HR systems you choose are following security best practices — data encryption, secure sessions, separate databases, certified data centers, etc.

Your liabilities

The other reason to ensure your systems are secure is to minimize your liabilities. When security flaws introduced by a vendor or government interference puts your data at risk, it distracts from your core business purpose, and your employees or partners may even come looking for compensation (such as in the case of identify theft or broken non-disclosure agreements).

Fortunately, once again PRISM does not introduce a significant risk in this case, for three different reasons:

1. Few of the known participant organizations are major business service providers. Skype and Google are affected, but no major server farm or B2B SaaS system appears to be involved.
2. Your business isn’t knowingly, deliberately, or even negligently compromising this information. No court could find you liable for the world’s most powerful intelligence administration managing to gain access to vital data.
3. There isn’t an environment of litigation around employee data. And when it’s compared to something like online piracy, where there’s also a very large and very well funded lobbying effort, it doesn’t look like such an environment is likely to arise any time soon either.

Allegations of widespread and possibly even illegal government surveillance are extremely serious and merit careful attention. Businesses can take a leading roll in pushing for reform, improving security, and spreading awareness.

In the case of data risk and privacy loss, however, PRISM is no big change. Your board of directors can sleep easy.

This article originally appeared on TLNT as Does the Government’s Tracking Program Put Your HR Data at Risk?.

Joseph Fung is co-founder and CEO of TribeHR, pioneer of the industry’s first social HR platform. Try it today.

Warm up your brain freeze | Destress

This is the first in a new series on my blog called “Zen of Jen”, in which I’ll share ideas for helping you maintain a sense of calm in your crazy work world. Hat tip to Dan McCarthy of the Great Leadership blog – whose comment in an email sparked this idea. Thanks, Dan!

The other day, I found myself awake an hour earlier than usual, my mind swirling with all the things I want to accomplish. My mental landscape was a jumbled mess: two parts ambition, one part anxiousness and a dash of hope.

Can you relate?

We all lead busy lives, but there are some days when the energy of the world seems to gang up on us, creating overwhelm.

When I wake up with my mind already on overdrive, it’s a signal to me that it’s time to redirect all that swirling energy into something more focused and productive.

Here’s what I do to reclaim a sense of calm:

1. Close my eyes.
2. Breathe deeply.
3. Repeat several times: “I have all the time I need.”

Now, you are probably thinking, “Um, Jen? I don’t really have all the time I need. That’s the reason I’m stressed.”

Well, that’s your left brain, logical side talking. It’s true that we all have the same 24 hours in a day to accomplish things. By thinking, “I don’t have enough time!” you are panicking your emotional right brain and therefore creating the sense of overwhelm. Worrying about it only makes it worse by shutting down your creativity.

According to Scientific American’s article Everyday Stress Can Shut Down the Brain’s Chief Command Center , “Freezing under stress, a common experience for all of us at some point in our life, has its roots in a loss of control over ‘executive functions’ that allow us to control our emotions.”  Under stress the brain automatically shifts its focus from the immediate task at hand toward fight or fright readiness and this is why your mind can go blank at the worst possible moments. Your body and brain experience varied reactions to high levels of stress, essentially activating a more primitive mode of protection.

Here’s what the phrase “I have all the time I need” helps me do: it slows me down and refocuses me on my own “truth” which is: I do have all the time I need – to do only those most important things. It’s like providing relief from the “ice cream headache” that comes with feeling overwhelmed.  This focus helps me set goals that are realistic so that, in fact, the time needed will be available to me.

So. I have all the time I need to . . .

. . .get what matters most done today. The rest can wait until tomorrow, or maybe just won’t get done at all.

Image Credit

What would you pay me if I could give you an envelope with a secret formula for getting the most and best out of every interaction with every person?

How much do you think creating a positive experience with every interaction would mean to you personally and professionally?

Something that is guaranteed to get you more opportunities and more people who will help you get there.

So, you haven’t answered the question.

What would you pay for that secret formula inside of a sealed envelope?

How much would a guaranteed success formula be worth to you, your career and those you work with?

Would a guaranteed success formula be a little deal, a moderate deal, or a big deal for you? 

Regardless of what you think, I’m here to tell you this success formula is a big deal. I’m also going to give you that envelope for free.

The one guaranteed success formula in dealing with people is acknowledgment!

Acknowledgement is a big deal. 

More importantly, personalized praise and sincere eye contact is something that, unfortunately, is not common in today’s fast paced environment. The investment of time can be less than a minute and the pay off can last a lifetime.

Take a look at the following info graph as a good reminder:

Click on image to enlarge

According to a recently released report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and prepared by researchers from the University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center, health insurance costs, organizations' offerings, and employee participation have dramatically changed over the past 10 or so years.

Specifically, the report notes interesting information collected between 1999/2000 and 2010/2011. Here are four important facts that you may find interesting:

1. ESI Offering: The percentage of what the report refers to as "nonelderly" individuals in the United States with ESI has declined from 69.7 percent, or 170.5 million people (in 1999/2000), to 59.5 percent, or 159 million people (in 2010/2011). Individuals gaining public coverage accounts for a portion of the 10.2 percent decrease. Meanwhile, the uninsured rate increased from 14.7 percent to 17.8 percent (report pg 4).

2. ESI Take-up: The take-up rate also fell nationwide from 81.8 percent to 76.3 percent (pg 7/8). (Definition- take-up rate: an "estimate of the percentage of workers with access to a plan who participate in the plan.")

3. Movement to Self-insured: The data also show that there are more organizations moving towards self-insurance, from 28.1 percent to 36.4 percent in 2010/2011. Specifically, the report notes and provides data to show that large employers are moving towards self-insurance over small organizations (pg 10).

4. Costs: Between 1999/2000 and 2010/2011, the average insurance premium more than doubled for single coverage, from $2,490 to $5,081. Family coverage rose more than 125 percent from $6,415 to $14,447! This has resulted in an increase of employee contribution for single from $435 to $1,056 and family from $1,526 to $3,842 (pg 11).

While some individuals reading this post may find this interesting, I know others may be saying, "So what?" While these data may not specifically pertain to schools, it's important as a talent manager to keep a pulse on some of the large-ticket and high-anxiety items we are expected to manage (directly or indirectly).

Have your organization's insurance costs, take-up rates, and/or employee contributions changed over the past ten years? Are they as dramatic as those noted in this report?

 On Education Week K-12 Talent Manager:

You can follow Emily Douglas on Twitter at @EmilyDouglasHC or
email her at EmilyHC@BattelleforKids.org.

Hashtags on Facebook: A Declaration of War on the Twitter PR Machine by Chris Treadaway - Windmill Networking - Windmill Networking - Social Media Marketing & Social Business Strategy . This copyrighted content was originally published on Windmill Networking and may not be republished on any other website or in any other format without explicit permission from the publisher.

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Image Credit: WorldatWork “Trends in Employee Recognition 2013 Report”

Recognize This! – More and more companies are realizing the power of strategic employee recognition to reinforce and drive desired behaviors in the daily work of employees.

WorldatWork just released its 2013 Trends in Employee Recognition report. The timing is ideal, as earlier this week I blogged about the importance of behavior-based recognition and WorldatWork’s press release about the new report proclaims: “For the first time in the survey’s 11-year history, programs to motivate specific behavior jumped to a top-tier goal, cited by 41% of organizations in 2013 vs. 25% in 2008.”

Indeed, four of the top five recognition goals for organizations across industries are the focus of strategic, social employee recognition programs. The outlier (and still most popular program) is recognizing years of service. I believe this old standby remains at the top of the list because, even when companies find themselves in the toughest financial straits, leadership believes they must honor the loyalty of employees shown for years of service.

I, too, believe this to be important, but traditional years of service recognition alone will not and cannot drive achievement of the other four goals of recognition as stated by respondents to the WorldatWork survey. It is truly an outlier. Let’s look at the others:

Create a Positive Work Environment – This is foundational to employee engagement. I often comment that leaders cannot engage employees. You can, however, create an environment and culture in which employees choose to engage. Which leads directly into the next goal.

Create a Culture of Recognition – A culture of recognition is very different from a recognition program. A strategic program that encourages all the right recognition behaviors and actions helps to create this culture by giving everyone the means and ability to easily recognize others for their excellence in a meaningful way (including in their local language for global organizations). Deep insight into the culture in action through detailed, actionable real-time measurement and reporting also helps management keep the culture on track while empowering all employees at every level to own the culture.

Motivate High Performance – Done correctly – meaning timely, specifically and frequently – recognition reinforces for employees why and how their efforts are meaningful and necessary in helping to achieve a bigger vision or strategic objective. Multiple research sources show this is the most motivating factor for employees to continue to achieve at high level – making progress in meaningful work.

Reinforce Desired Behaviors – The newest member of the “top five recognition goals” list is gratifying to me as I’ve spent the last 11 years of my career consulting with organizations of all sizes and industries on the importance of exactly this point. It’s a key tenet of strategic recognition as outlined in Winning with a Culture of Recognition. Your organization has already likely defined desired behaviors in the form of your core values or guiding principles. Those should be the factors every recognition moment reinforces across your organization.

I’ll be blogging again on additional findings in report, including consistency in budget for recognition (still 1-2% of payroll), international programs, and most desired rewards.

What are your top five goals for your employee recognition program?

Click on image to enlarge

Of course, how you see the case depends on what you bring to the seeing. Many would differ from Brooks and want to compare this case to that of Daniel Ellsberg and the release of the Pentagon Papers. But there is a key difference of much significance. As Time’s Adam Cohen notes, the Pentagon Papers revealed that the government had ramped up the war in Vietnam and lied to Congress and the public about it, which is clearly wrong. But in Snowden’s case, it’s still unclear whether the NSA’s spying was in fact legal and if what Snowden did was simply leak classified information because he objects to how the government has chosen to defend national security. If the surveillance was legal, Snowden could still look like a conscientious objector, breaking the law because of his own moral imperatives, but he might not look like a whistle-blower.Furthermore, it’s a well known fact that such cases, especially with lack of clarity on the legalities, are exceptionally difficult for government to prosecute. So when the noise is all over, the case may be nothing more than sound and fury.. 

David Brooks
In contrast to Ellsberg and his ilk, there are other more serious societal issues at risk here. Thus, my emphasis is focused upon those issues and some of what I view as tragic changes in our society.

Brooks says this about the NSA leaker, Edward Snowden: “Though thoughtful, morally engaged and deeply committed to his beliefs, he appears to be a product of one of the more unfortunate trends (that’s putting it mildly) of the age: the atomization of society, the loosening of social bonds, the apparently growing share of young men in their 20s who are living technological existences in the fuzzy land between their childhood institutions and adult family commitments.”

Brooks argues that those who live a life unshaped by the “mediating” institutions of civil society can become the solitary, naked individual,” facing a “gigantic and menacing state.” But, writes Brooks, Big Brother is not the only danger facing the country. Another is the rising tide of distrust, the corrosive spread of cynicism, the fraying of the social fabric and the rise of people who are so individualistic in their outlook that they have no real understanding of how to knit others together and look after the common good.

Noblesse oblige?
Thankfully, these distinct, individualistic strands of libertarianism are not blossoming everywhere. Just this past weekend I had the very good fortune to attend my grandson’s high school graduation from one of those fabled Massachusetts college-prep academies. With 87 graduates in his class (25% receiving tuition aid and the other 75% from families in the top 1%), the headmaster had a few words to say about each of the students. He delivered a glorious paean to what was once called “noblesse oblige,” updated to praise for the students’ collaborative approach to reality, their actions of justice and compassion and achievement which do not ignore their classmates and society at large.  Reflecting on that ceremony sets the actions of Ed Snowden apart, calling attention to his failure to respond to “mediating” societal organizations and any of the social realities of community. Their consequence is inevitably destructive.

Making everything worse
Snowden, makes things far worse for his generation. Snowden has, as Brooks writes, rejected not only any basic level of trust and cooperation, but he has also rejected any human respect for institutions and common procedures. With powerful pieces of psychological evidence, Brooks make the problem real, emphasizing the many different aspects of betrayal in which Snowden has engaged.

. . . He betrayed honesty and integrity. . . .

. . . He betrayed his friends. . . .

. . . He betrayed the cause of open government. . . .

. . . He betrayed the privacy of us all. . . .

. . . He betrayed the Constitution. . . .

If you skim through the hundreds of comments in response to Brooks’ column, you will see that not everyone agrees with me or with Brooks. Indeed, the anti-government idiocracy, the Guardian newspaper and those who are wailing Jeremiads about this pretend-discovery of US big data collection are noticeably silent about one thing. They don’t know of any actual abuse from the data collection.

But there’s no question that Snowden was completely oblivious to his betrayals and toward the damage he has done. So I’m personally delighted with Brooks’ polemic, a much needed education for all of us.

Flickr photo: by DonkeyHotey

Take a moment and consider your organization. I am not concerned whether you are a small to medium sized enterprise or a member of the Fortune 1000, I continually hear and read in social media about managers who complain that they can’t get their human capital assets engaged in the organization. But there is a valid reason behind this dilemma. Consider the scenarios below:

• An employee comes to you with an idea for a new service based on the comments from customers and your immediate reaction is “That’s not the way we do things here;”
• An employee comes to you with a view of the organizational processes and says there are ways to reduce steps and your response is “They will not let us make any changes to the processes:”
• An employee comes to you asking why the organization does something and your first response is “because that is just the way we have always done things.”

On June 11, the Wall St Journal ran an article entitled Employed but not engaged, in which they reported the results of a new Gallup poll that found that 52% of all full-time workers in America aren't involved in, enthusiastic about or committed to their work. Another 18% are "actively disengaged," meaning they have gone beyond just checking out mentally, and could even be undermining colleagues' accomplishments. This is a direct result of the mentality shown by the church billboard.

Here is the downside of the scenarios above. We marginalize our human capital assets in a number of ways each and every day. You want engaged employees but shut down any attempt to think out of the box. You want engaged employees but when they suggest ways to better serve your customers, your response is that is just not the way we do things here.  Unfortunately you can’t have your cake and eat it too in this situation. You can’t state that you welcome their input and then shut them off when you get it.

The only way our organizations survive in this chaotic business climate the concentration shifts to one based in how we solve the organizational problems. We create an environment in which the ultimate goal is the perpetuity of the organization and our ability to meet the voice of the customer. It is absolutely essential that every facet of the organization be involved within the efforts. Consider this story from history- the 3M creation of post-it notes. The Post-it® Note was invented as a solution without a problem: Dr. Spencer Silver developed a unique, repositionable adhesive, but the 3M scientist didn't know what to do with his discovery. Then, six years later, a colleague of Dr. Silver, Art Fry, remembered the light adhesive when he was daydreaming about a bookmark that would stay put in his church hymnal. The rest is history according to the post-it website. Look around your desk. I am not a betting man but I would bet that you have at least one post-a-note pad sitting on your desk. If 3M was not willing to go beyond the corporate mantra would they be on your desk today?

 The purpose of innovation, collaboration and an open mind towards what the future could hold is the way we become innovative and collaborative in our efforts. The key is to recognize that some of the greatest concepts for new products and services do not come from someone sitting in a corner office and passing down edicts. The greatest concepts came from our rank and file human capital assets who are the real corporate experts and who point out steps within the process that is causing problems. They are the ones who will spot problems way before you do.  However when you, by actions, words, and attitudes squash this effort with comments like the one in the introduction you hinder the organizational development.

So tell me the next time a non-owned corporate asset approached you and says that they have away to more efficiently meet the needs of the customers are you going to say let’s really look at it or are you going to say sorry we just don’t do things that way here. Are you going to be willing to function with an open mind and not worry if the brain falls out?

Without the need to ferry workers by helicopter to offshore sites and house and feed them there, operating costs would drop.

To build the integrated system the industry envisions, a network of remote monitoring sensors will be needed to transmit data and instructions between the surface and seafloor.

Swimming robots, which are now tethered to ships on the surface, will monitor the equipment and perform maintenance, while a new offshore electrical grid will power the submarine operations.

This will happen within six years!

Think of all the jobs displaced; oil workers, transportation workers, commissary, lodging and service workers.

Robots monitored by computers, coming to an industry near you soon.

So, how do you survive in the new reality of machines and robots?

By providing real, authentic human interactions.

The type if your a leader, your employees will stay for.

The type of experiences if your a front line worker that your customers will pay for.

Do you know what your customers value?

Do you know what your customers deem important?

Now and in the future, it’s the experiences we humans can create.

How can being more open, trustworthy, and courageous through social media transform your corporation? Park Howell expands the idea of humanization vs. industrialization in this guest post.

 

See on www.convinceandconvert.com

Recognize This! – Deeply embedding your core values in how employees are rewarded is critical overcoming too much emphasis on results achievement to the detriment of company reputation.

A foundational tenet of strategic employee recognition is recognizing the “how” as well as the “what” – in other words, acknowledging and praising the manner in which results are achieved as much as recognizing the results themselves. This is a critical point as simply recognizing the “what” (the results) without recognizing the “how” (the values demonstrated in achieving the results) can quickly lead a company down the Enron path. After all, one of Enron’s core values was “integrity” but that surely wasn’t apparent in how their employees were encouraged to achieve end results.

Another company in the news during the recession for too much focus on the “what” was Goldman Sachs. Now, I’m pleased to see the investment bank in the news for promoting a new reward approach based on demonstrating “cultural” behaviors in line with their company mission and reputational goals. From their Business Standards Committee Impact Report:

“We also changed our annual employee performance review and rewards processes to include an assessment of reputational excellence, linking “cultural” behavior to how our people are recognized and rewarded…

“Now, as part of the review questionnaire for all professionals, reviewers are asked to rate the reviewee with regard to their focus on trust, transparency and long-term orientation in connection with client relationships. These changes have reinforced four key messages to all of our employees regarding (1) the importance of serving our clients, (2) the importance of protecting the firm’s reputation and upholding our culture and values, (3) the link between  ‘cultural’ behavior and how people are recognized and  rewarded  in our organization and (4) individual and collective accountability…

“These changes have impacted our decisions about compensation and who we reward. Moreover, our review and reward processes more powerfully communicate and reinforce to our professionals the need to focus on our clients and our reputation and to always act in accordance with the highest standards of the firm.”

Incorporating your core values into the formal performance review process directly is certainly one way of effectively driving home the importance of the “how.” Doing so more informally and frequently through timely, specific recognition throughout the year is also necessary to make living these “cultural behaviors” become second nature in how the work gets done every day.

How does your organization reinforce your core values in how employees are measured, recognized and rewarded?