Decisions, decisions

Posted on August 18, 2010 by CypressRidge

Last night at a business owners’ dinner meeting, the question was asked at our table….how has the economic climate affected your business and what would you do differently?  Great questions.  Everyone stated they had been affected the past couple of years in a variety of ways.  The really interesting answers were in response to “what would you do differently?”  All said they would have made decisions much sooner–several mentioned letting poor performers go sooner and others indicated they would have made deep cost cuts earlier.  Each had a story.  Over the years,  I have heard many of my clients tell me about marginal performers—-lousy enough to be a problem, but not painful enough to let go. Never have I heard a business owner say—-”gee, wish I’d waited longer before firing an employee!”  I know employees, managers, and business owners are weary from all the economic stress, challenges and daily decisions.  But, even in good times, employers will wait way too long before letting an employee go and making that tough decision.  The decision doesn’t get easier over time, and the problems, costs and angst are really not worth it in the long run.  As we move forward, we need to do so with a solid team, effective and efficient processes with clear direction toward defined goals.  If you have serious doubts about one of your employee’s performance, it’s time to make a decision.  Communicate honestly and clearly with that employee about what’s not working and what you need for both the company and the employee to succeed. Make a decision, take action and move forward…you can’t afford not to.

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Sprints and Marathons–a Business Perspective

Posted on July 12, 2010 by CypressRidge

This weekend I ran a 10K race at my best pace ever and placed 2nd in my age/gender category.  Not bad for a late bloomer in this running game, having run several 10k and 1/2 marathons this past year.  As well as I did, I KNOW I couldn’t do a 1/2 marathon at the same pace without significant training.  It’s common sense to me.  Apply this observation to business leaders and managers today.  Articles tout performance per employee is up the past couple of years with the assumption this is the “new normal”.   It is unsustainable in the long run and here’s why.

In these economic hard times,  employees have been asked to step up and  ”run a sprint”,  (i.e. help out where needed, take on additional roles left through layoffs of friends and colleagues, with limited resources, time constraints etc.).  At the same time,  employees have not been trained as development budgets have been slashed;  nor have they been given adequate resources or time to prepare for their expanded roles.  This can work for short bursts,  just as most anyone can sprint to rush out of a burning building or get out of the way of an oncoming truck.  But, to ask someone who is not sufficiently prepared to do extraordinary work for an indefinite period results in failure for all.

Look around, ask and check in to determine if your employees are becoming fatigued, less engaged, or maybe even looking for a new employer.  Final thought:  Business success and life are marathons, not sprints.

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The Baseball Player Model of Pay for Executives

Posted on June 17, 2010 by CypressRidge

I am a strong advocate of performance-based compensation programs for companies.  Simply, those employees who create the greatest value to the company and perform well should make more than those who don’t.  Of course, performance is often subjective and the perceived value of what their contribution varies greatly.  This is true both in business and in baseball.  Baseball players are recruited, often sign a huge contract based upon their perceived value (i.e. how they played in high school, college or their last major league team).  They’re guaranteed that money regardless of how well they hit, pitch or catch the ball.  If they are a total bust, they may be traded, but they will make that money regardless–remember, they have a contract.  Plus, there is no correlation to home runs and compensation.   Executive compensation in Silicon Valley is not much different.

On 6/13/2010, San Jose Mercury News  reported 2009 Total Compensation for the Top 50 CEOs.  Did their performance warrant such high levels of compensation? Many of those same companies laid people off, most are still performing below pre-recession levels, and local  unemployment is still over 11% and since 2000 the median household income has dropped more than 6%.

Is Larry Ellison’s performance worth $84 million?   I don’t know.  What I do know is there are many ways companies can spend their money.  Research, innovation, better customer service,  hire new talent, and ensure competitive pay and benefits for its employees.  I’d prefer to see companies hire good employees and build healthy businesses. Unfortunately that’s not what I’m seeing.  But….. I still think compensation decisions still resides with responsible Boards, shareholders and the company while complying with SEC regulations.  It is not the decision of a Government Salary Czar to determine executive compensation…before you know it, they will tell the Yankees to reduce Alex Rodriquez’s pay.

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Are you lucky?

Posted on June 2, 2010 by CypressRidge

Seneca said “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” I agree with Seneca.  This pertains to both good luck and bad luck.  Is the current oil disaster simply bad luck?  I think not. It’s the result of a lack of preparation (by choice) and an unexpected event (opportunity).  It’s the same in business.  Good luck is having the right employees and processes (by choice) and being prepared when sales pick up (opportunity).

I think we’re going to see “luck” show up in many companies in the near future. Over the past two years, many of us (people, companies, government) have been “reacting” to the unexpected challenges of the day. Many “lucky” others have been quietly preparing for the opportunities such times present. I’ve seen individuals and companies reinventing themselves, redesigning products for new markets, becoming more effective and efficient, improving customer services and professional development.

I recently had dinner with a friend who founded a company with a good idea and more courage than formal education.  Several years later, he sold it for many millions.  He said he was “lucky”.  He identified ways to do something better, worked hard, continuously learned and improved processes, hired and trained bright individuals with initiative.  That’s preparation!

What are you and your company doing to prepare for the next opportunities?  Did you learn or teach something new today?  Are you studying the market, reevaluating your products or services?  Are you and your employees adequately prepared and knowledgeable to address tomorrow’s challenges?  If not, why not?  Luck comes to those who are prepared.

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Mid-year Checkup

Posted on May 26, 2010 by CypressRidge

Mid-Year Check-up….I just received a notice from my primary care doctor to schedule a check-up.  So, let me remind you— employers, managers and employees– to do a mid-year check up on your performance.  This is a time to look deeper than simple financials or other metrics. It’s reviewing actual performance compared with the planned performance, personal goals or those MBO’s in your last review.  If you and your manager haven’t discussed them lately, then be proactive.  Pull them out and do a realistic assessment of what’s been done year to date on those goals.  This can also be done with personal goals.  Be honest and review your performance to the goals set.  If they are business goals, are still relevant and important to conditions today? If not, it’s important to discuss this with other stakeholders to discuss why.  Find out if there are other actions you can do to participate in current strategies and goals. Are you on plan to achieve your business or personal goals, or lagging behind?  If so, there’s still time to succeed.  Don’t wait until the end of the year or worse when you sit down with your manager to discuss why you haven’t done what was agreed upon.  Your success and health is up to you, so be proactive.

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Strange Juxtapositions in Headline News

Posted on November 17, 2009 by CypressRidge

Today’s news headlines (yes, I still read the morning papers) collided and required I hold two differing facts simultaneously. One headline, California unemployment will top 13% and Adobe plans to lay off 680.  Both were next to Walmart’s announcement they expect much higher sales.  Am I missing something here?  Another…several articles proclaim the recession is over.  For whom?  (See abovementioned layoff and unemployment comments. )

Some time ago, I did a presentation to a group of executives titled “Will this Marriage Work?”  I took the position that very, very few mergers or acquisitons are ever successful, regardless of the measure used.  At that time, Hewlett Packard was courting Compaq and I predicted it would not work. What a disatrous several years HP had after that! They are at it again, about to acquire 3Com.  This article sat next to a distillation of several failed mergers–AOL-Time Warner; Ebay and Skype; Verisign and their 20 failed purchases to name just a few.

The SJ Mercury columnist Chris O’Brien observed that executives seem to have 3 strategic business choices—A. Fire; B. Acquire;  C. Do both.  So true.  And the strangest part of this is when these merge and purge events occur, more American workers are out of a job, not buying goods and services (well, except at Walmart it seems); and we wonder why we are declining on the world economic stage.  Oh, one other small headline, innovation and good ideas remain a vital force in the U.S. and Silicon Valley.  Obviously not in many Executive suites.

Just my observation.

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Let’s ditch the annual performance review, shall we?

Posted on October 3, 2009 by CypressRidge

The economic climate today offers business and individuals a great opportunity to step back, review and consider how they spend their time and money.  Painfully, we’ve finally realized there are not unlimited resources or time at work or in our personal lives. How we make changes today may certainly impact where we wind up tomorrow.  It also seems that “just because it’s always been done a certain way, therefore we should continue doing it”  doesn’t apply to much anymore.

So many of the “old ways” just aren’t working anymore.  So, why not change things up a bit?  One of those processes is the much maligned, dreaded and for the most part, poorly done “performance review and evalaution process”. This annual ritual has been handed down for generations from one manager to another.  Rarely do companies ask “why are we doing these annual reviews and is there a better alternative?” I’ve spent a good portion of my career designing or refining processes to improve the performance management outcomes. I think it is time to ditch the annual performance review–the form, the judgment, and the annual performance evaluation meeting!  For several reasons. One—everyone hates them. Period.  Doing them or being on the receiving end and feeling judged.  Two, they are biased, the reviewer is too subjective, distracted and rushed to get them out in the required time frame. Three, the feedback is useless because it is too late. If it’s more than a week old, then it’s like the daily news—it’s simply too late!

I propose some simple, useful tools woven into the team and the roles everyone plays.  When you think of any high performing team in the world outside of the workplace, the annual performance evaluation form isn’t a factor.  Think of Super Bowl winners, Stanley Cup winners, the American Ballet Company, or any Olympic team—no annual meetings, just fabulous performances!

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Thought leader, I think not….

Posted on September 30, 2009 by CypressRidge

Although living and working in Silicon Valley, I am not one to quickly embrace technology unless I believe it has real value.  After following many bloggers, I finally concluded blogging is here to stay as a viable, often valuable communication tool. That said, I struggle to imagine Human Resources professionals, business owners and executives, with hundreds of daily emails and overly scheduled days, actually spend much time reading blogs.  That is, unless there is value in exchange for their time spent.

Having been in the Human Resources profession for over 20 years, I have seen trends, fads and fashions come and go.  The more things change the more I notice the constants in people at work and in life.  We are in the deepest economic mire in decades, layoffs abound, people are disgruntled, and managers strive to find ways to get employees to do more with less.  My intention in this blog is to share what I see with people and the workplace, both the delightful and the inane, and offer my perspective on what works or what doesn’t.

With so many “thought leaders” around, why is there so little true leadership in the workplace (and in general for that matter)?  For the record, I don’t consider myself a “thought leader”, rather I consider myself a “thought synthesizer and implementer”.  Certainly more action and results oriented.   I encourage dialogue and believe the best ideas are those born from several perspectives and wisdoms.  I have a tremendously optimistic spirit that people can achieve great things, both individually and collectively. So, let the blogging begin!

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