S2E3: PEOPLE | Finding the Right People

One of my favorite business quotes is from entrepreneur and thought leader Ifeanyi Onuoha. He says, “Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results.”

You know, it seems so simple, and yet it’s not that easy. How do you find the right people for that teamwork in the first place? This is a question I often get from EOS® clients, and we’re digging into it today. Core values are the place to start. Core values play a vital role in finding, hiring, firing, reviewing, rewarding, and recognizing your right people in the organization.

Here are some simplified examples. When you think about hiring, look for candidates who not only have the required skills but also exhibit your core values. It sounds so simple, really, but if teamwork is a core value, you might ask an interview question that assesses their ability to collaborate effectively.

Based on personal and work history, repeated historical behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. So it is perfectly okay to look way back into high school, college—wherever that person might have some distant history—that you say that exhibits the kinds of core values we’re looking for. If you’re looking for leaders, they will have started out at a very young age. 

When you think about firing, that can be challenging. It’s the hardest part for most people, and it can feel subjective if you’re not having your Quarterly Conversations™ and using your EOS People Analyzer tool. 

When you do that and use both your Quarterly Conversations and The People Analyzer®, it will prompt you to engage the three-strike rule. If anything’s off track and they’re below the bar, offer every opportunity for that person to improve. Note that an employee who stays in the wrong seat for a long period of time can become a wrong person, meaning they’re no longer a core values fit.

Over time, their behavior will decline, and they’ll continue to do work they don’t enjoy or aren’t succeeding at. In that case, you have to review your Accountability Chart as your first step. None of this applies if an employee is consistently going against your core values. You wouldn’t retain an employee who repeatedly engaged in dishonest behavior, knowing that doing so would undermine your company’s culture. So don’t look to a tool to change that. Do what you’ve always done. Let that person go because they just aren’t a fit. And this one has the most sticky stuff with it.

When people aren’t using their People Analyzers or having their people discussions, Level 10 Meetings™ can go on forever telling stories, discussing, debating, and politicking as to whether that person should be here or not. I’m going to tell you a hard truth: use the tools. When you’re not using The People Analyzer, you’re making it way more difficult than it needs to be.

When you use the core values during performance reviews, you’re evaluating employees based on how well they embody your core values within their work. You’re offering quarterly feedback and tying it back to specific examples of their performance when they’ve exceeded your expectations, as well as tying it back to core values when they’ve missed the mark. 

When you can do that and then tell someone where they’re falling, maybe if it’s a plus/minus relative to The People Analyzer, you can very effectively say, here’s what plus behavior would look like. And it enables people to behaviorally alter what they’re doing if they’re a right person. 

So it makes it easier to say, “Oh my gosh, that’s so simple, or I know what you mean.” When we just tell people, “You’re missing the mark. You’ve got to try harder,” we’re setting them up for failure.

Let’s talk about rewarding employees. When you develop reward programs to acknowledge employees and their behavior aligned with your core values, you can celebrate those employees who honor and embody those values. Examples include praise, how you talk about and give people high fives for core values, and shout-outs.

You can have specific gifts or note cards. I’ve had clients who write things out and say, you exemplify this core value and exceed my expectations, “Go have lunch on me,” or “Here’s a Starbucks or Caribou gift card.” I’ve had one company that awarded tacos inside of Slack. And then whoever had the most tacos for being recognized that week got to go to a free lunch at Chipotle.

You can offer additional time off and monetary incentives, but by far, the single greatest thing you can do is to really recognize people. This is the single most neglected part of Right People and how you really instill the behaviors and champion those people who are really embodying what you want. 

Choose your heroes with great care. However, when you regularly acknowledge individuals who consistently exceed expectations—not just meet them—around your core values, it’s one of the most impactful ways to amplify your culture. To demonstrate what greatness looks like, and to hold up someone and boost how they feel. This can be done through informal appreciation, one-on-one reviews, team meetings, formal recognition programs, or just plain “attaboys” and “attagirls.”

You’ve got to reinforce the behaviors you want and that inspire others to follow suit. As you choose whom to recognize, remember to do this with great care. Living the company’s core values is the price of admission to work at our company. Those who are recognized need to exceed your values to be held up on stage and put on a pedestal.

In all of these aspects, core values serve as a compass to ensure that the right people are aligned with the organization’s culture, promoting a positive and high-performing work environment for everyone. Your core values act as the behavioral accountability for the entire organization, ensuring people are operating within the values you’ve set forth and live every day in your life.

Simply put, great companies are driven by strong teamwork, and teamwork comes from having employees who live and breathe your core values. Some of the most powerful things you can do are taking the time to really, truly pause. Think about who’s blown your mind right now. I do this in session rooms sometimes, and I want to encourage you to do it as you’re listening to the podcast.

Whether you’re driving your car, sitting still, or walking your dog at this moment, please hear me out. Think about the last week, ten days, two weeks, 90 days. Who stands out in your mind as someone who’s been a champion of one or more of your core values? Pick that one. The one who came right to mind. The first person. 

Now, if you didn’t have someone, that’s a bigger issue. And that’s really where The People Analyzer comes in. But provided you’ve got someone in mind, at least one person, what I want to challenge you to do is, on a weekly, bi-weekly, or quarterly basis, take the time to think through why did that touch you? Why did you recall that person in that event at that moment?

As you recall that, take the time to call, text, or email them today, right now, as soon as you stop listening to this podcast. So you have the opportunity to really, truly in the moment, appreciate them, and let them know. Not everyone likes being put on stage. 

Sometimes, the most meaningful thing you can do is to pause and champion that person by calling them and really, truly taking the time to connect and appreciate them. Do that with consistency, and you will start to see your culture embrace this. Over time, when you see peer-to-peer acknowledgment, appreciation, and correction, you know you’ve got the right people and know that we are living, breathing, and embodying core values.