Is everyone on your team working towards the same organizational goals right now? Does every person know how their daily contributions impact those goals? Does everyone have a clear picture of the current and forecasted financial state of the company?
In truly great cultures, employees know that the work they do matters, they can see the impact they are having, and they are recognized and rewarded for it. In a culture of performance, clear performance measurement systems work together to give everyone the information necessary to drive success. By engaging employees in tracking and achieving goals, you position everyone for a successful future.
Especially in times of uncertainty, putting systems around individual and organizational performance takes the guesswork out of performance management and predicting outcomes. In this latest installment of Stepping Up, you’ll meet four leaders who are seeing the hard work of building a culture of performance pay off — and they’re sharing the systems and tools they use to propel their organizations forward.
Here’s how to set goals, share financials, and manage performance like a Small Giant.
As an organization committed to helping businesses and business owners gain control over their finances, the team at MACKEY has been pretty busy lately.
Internally, they’ve perfected an operating system that takes the best aspects of the many programs out there and molded it to fit how they work. Leveraging an OGSM model (stands for objective, goals, strategies and measures) for strategic planning and Level 10 meetings from the Entrepreneurial System (EOS) to move the ball forward, they’ve worked to crystalize a single strategic goal every month.
In August, the team set a goal of doubling the number of clients using its core service, Prosper for Business.
“We asked the team, ‘What would incentivize you to achieve this goal?’” says Chief Operating Officer Sarah Grace Mohr. “Mackey (our founder and my mother) makes great fried chicken, and they said they want a fried chicken feast for the whole team. If we surpass the goal by our September 15th deadline, we’re also going to throw in a bouncy house. We’re a fun team, so our goals and rewards should be fun, too.”
The team tracks progress towards the goal on a weekly basis, and they hold huddles for each department. They follow a cascading metrics model that allows them to document progress and create accountability toward achieving results without wearing everyone out with excessive meetings. As of today, they are 70 percent of the way there with 30 days left to hit the goal.
But in order to achieve their goal, they have to do some selling — how exactly do you sell during a pandemic? As Mohr explains it, they’re selling something that many people haven’t seen before (“It’s like if executive coaching and fractional CFOs had a baby”) and it’s a very intimate sales process. How do you achieve intimacy in a time when physical distancing is disrupting traditional sales processes?
It’s all about creating an experience and adding value, while also making the sale. Their team starts by asking small questions that opens the door to start building a relationship.
“We’re essentially offering a white-boarding, ideation session that gives them a taste of the MACKEY experience,” says Mohr. “We ask a series of questions that allow us to get intimate with them, but with no judgment. It’s all future-facing. Our value lies in our ability to make complex and scary topics manageable and, dare I say, fun. We help create a road map that’s no longer just in their head — and how we could help get them where they want to be much quicker.”
Back at the office, they have a conference room with 30 feet of floor-to-ceiling white board — but for now, they’ve innovated with video conferencing on Zoom, utilizing its annotation tools as well as customized templates to bring the ideation process to life for customers remotely. Mohr’s advice for those struggling to find magic in their sales process right now?
“Find a way to distill down your value into something that your prospect can experience briefly, but powerfully,” she says. “Create something that delivers a taste of your experience but doesn’t take too much energy or resources away from your sales team.”
A culture of performance creates trust and a strong foundation for your team, all while systematizing the things that matter most to your company. Without clear metrics at the organizational and individual levels, your employees are prone to feel misaligned, unmotivated, and unsure of how to achieve what’s expected of them.
Maybe your leaders are great at running their departments, but you wish they’d think about the bigger picture. Or maybe you’re interested in financial transparency, but you don’t think your employees will care about (or even understand) business finances.
Your emerging leaders have untapped potential, they just haven’t found the right training program yet. The Small Giants Leadership Academy guides your emerging leaders through a year of learning and connecting, introducing them to the systems, tools, and people to take their leadership — and your organization — to the next level.
These leaders are part of Small Giants companies — companies that prioritize their purpose and culture and invest in their emerging leaders.
One way Small Giants companies invest in their next generation of leaders is by enrolling them in the Small Giants Leadership Academy. This robust one-year certification program consists of virtual learning sessions with expert leaders and coaches, an extensive resource library, on-the-ground meetups with your cohort, a leadership assessment, and your event ticket to two Small Giants gatherings.