Talent Code

07/02/2022

As many of you know, we recently invited VaynerMedia’s Chief Heart Officer Claude Silver for ChangeHR discussion on building a culture with heart.

It was an incredible session and I want to thank all of you who took the time to show up live and ask questions.

Claude shared great insights from the way she defines culture and how she helped shape VaynerMedia’s unique culture, to how she employs a strategy called ‘listening tours’ to connect deeply with all 1200 employees, and more.

We’ve posted the full conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lIpxaGIwdY&ab_channel=ChangeHR

The importance of company culture has taken precedence in many workplaces in the last few years. But how do you build a high-performance culture while simult...

05/02/2022

This book is a fantastic look into organizations that decentralize, treat their teams like humans, develop innovative processes, and work to eliminate bureaucracy.

While we disagree with the negative tone used to portray the HR department of an organization this book is worth the read.

What's on your bookshelf right now?

22/12/2021

We have confirmed the date and time for our ChangeHR Live Class with Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer of VaynerMedia.

Day: Saturday, January 8th 2022
Time: 8am ET | 3pm CEST | 6.30pm India | 9pm KL.

Register here: https://bit.ly/3GI6cFA.

It's a free event, share the link with those who might benefit from it. ❤️

17/12/2021

It's very empowering when the CEO shares that number 2 person in the company is the Chief Heart Officer.

It sends the message of care for employees.

It shows that the company is here for the long time.

It explains what truly matters to employees, customers, investors.

Business is all about people. The good company is all about people.

Not technology. Not the product. Not the revenue. Not even the mission.

In this short clip Gary Vaynerchuk explains the role Claude Silver plays at VaynerMedia.

We would love for more people and companies to hear it and do something about their company cultures.

Join the free live class with Claude this Saturday at ChangeHR. Register for this event here: https://bit.ly/3GI6cFA.

Share it with those, who might need to hear this message today. ❤️

16/12/2021

This Saturday, as a part of our ChangeHR program, we'll be hosting an amazing Claude Silver from VaynerMedia.

We've decided to make this event public, so more and more people can attend, learn and change HR in their organisation.

Date: Saturday, 18th December 2021
Time: 8am ET | 3pm CEST | 6.30pm India | 9pm KL

You can register here: https://bit.ly/3GI6cFA.

13/12/2021

Is your company incurring management debt?

We explored this concept in detail at our ChangeHR class, because while not everyone is familiar with the term,

Almost everyone has experienced it at least once in our careers.

It comes from the term ‘technical debt’ – borrowing time by writing code to get a job done fast, but with potential long-term repercussions.

Usually this sort of trade-off makes sense in the moment.

But unless you keep it top of mind, you’ll eventually have to pay back this debt.

With interest.

The same situation applies in management.

Like technical debt, management debt is incurred when you make a fast, short-term management decision with an expensive, long-term consequence.

Some most common examples of management debt:

1. Putting 2 people in the same role, because you are afraid to lose one of them.

2. Overcompensating a key employee, because she gets another job offer.

3. No performance management or employee feedback process in place.

Bottom line: if you don't take steps to pay management back quickly, you’ll eventually go management bankrupt.

Agree?

09/12/2021

One of the best books on company culture I've read was the book by Ben Horowitz "The Hard Things About Hard Things".

I guess it resonated with me, because it was written by the founder.

Not by HR leader. Not by consultant and consulting company.

Interestingly that after becoming a founder myself, I developed a better sense of what a good culture can do to the business.

When being locked in HR function, it’s extremely hard to get this sense and the feeling. No matter how hard you try. And trust me, I tried.

Please don't get me wrong. HR leaders are crucial for the business. I just wish all of us can easily see the founder's perspective.

This book is actually a great start. Highly recommended!

P.S. Join me and other HR leaders as we decode the culture of the company. What should it be and what it can do to your business. Link to register: https://bit.ly/changehrculture

08/12/2021

This picture was taken at a HR conference in France back in 2019.

Her name is Claude Silver – the Chief Heart Officer of Gary Vee’s media empire, VaynerMedia.

I remember sitting in the front row, furiously taking notes, and just being blown away by her presentation.

And I said to myself that I hoped to one day share the stage with her.

Well, in a way, it’s come true. :-)

I’m proud to announce that I’ll be bringing Claude in for a special bonus interview session as part of the Decoding Company Culture Workshop via ChangeHR.

Out of all the presentations and workshops I attended at that HR conference in France, Claude’s sessions impacted me the most.

In fact, I still have my notes stored on Evernote.

One of which is how she helped build a people-first culture at VaynerMedia.

And she did it through one thing: listening.

According to Claude, 30% of her job is spent on projects and team management.

The other 70% is simply listening and making herself available to all 750 employees of the company.

She does this as part of her personal vision to bring heart and humanity into the workplace and to create brave spaces for people to thrive.

And as a result, loyalty and longevity improves dramatically.

(Claude uses the term ‘longevity’ instead of retention.)

There’s so much more of Claude’s wisdom I’d love to share with you.

But I’d rather you learn from her directly.

So if you’re interested, join me in the workshop. Link to register: https://bit.ly/3ExYQnt

06/12/2021

We have decided to open 2 of our ChangeHR modules on Culture and Building High Performance Culture to the wider audience.

Enrolment has started.

Join us to and other members of our program, as we discover some of the following topics:

✅Taking care of people, products, and profit
✅ Management debt
✅ Management quality assurance
✅ How to minimize politics in your company
✅ Hiring people with the right kind of ambition
✅ Titles and promotions
✅ Programming your culture
✅ Virtues and values of your company
✅ Scaling your company culture
✅ Making yourself a CEO and how to evaluate your CEOs
✅ Solving the creativity vs accountability paradox.

Register here: https://bit.ly/3ExYQnt

21/11/2021

No matter the size of your organization, designing a sound compensation structure that:

✅ aligns with your company's future goals,

✅ rewards your employees fairly,

✅ and adheres to your overall compensation strategy...

… can be a very, very complex puzzle to solve.

This is why, as part of the ChangeHR Mentorship program, we invited one of our mentors to help us wrap our heads around this challenging subject.

His name is Megat Tariq, and he is currently an Assistant Vice President at Sime Darby Plantation – the world’s largest supplier of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil.

And in this short video, Megat shares 3 crucial elements you should consider when designing your compensation structure.

Share in the comments challenges you encounter when it comes to designing compensation plan for your team 👇

31/10/2021

Have you ever worked with a leader or CEO who’d sometimes act like they were fighting a life-or-death war?

They’d dominate decision-making.

They’d be involved in just about every major project.

They’d lay out plans and would not tolerate any deviations.

And as far as they were concerned, it was their way or the highway.

After reading a great book on business culture by investor Ben Horowitz called ‘What You Do Is Who You Are,’ great CEOs recognize that different leadership skills are needed in times of peace and in times war.

And see if you recognize any of the behaviors in your CEO:

"Peacetime CEO knows that proper protocol leads to winning. Wartime CEO violates protocol in order to win.

Peacetime CEO focuses on the big picture and empowers her people to make detailed decisions. Wartime CEO cares about a speck of dust on a gnat’s ass if it interferes with the prime directive.

Peacetime CEO builds scalable, high-volume recruiting machines. Wartime CEO does that, but also builds HR organizations that can execute layoffs.

Peacetime CEO spends time defining the culture. Wartime CEO lets the war define the culture.

Peacetime CEO always has a contingency plan. Wartime CEO knows that sometimes you gotta roll a hard six.

Peacetime CEO knows what to do with a big advantage. Wartime CEO is paranoid.

Peacetime CEO strives not to use profanity. Wartime CEO sometimes uses profanity purposefully.

Peacetime CEO thinks of the competition as other ships in a big ocean that may never engage. Wartime CEO thinks the competition is sneaking into her house and trying to kidnap her children.

Peacetime CEO aims to expand the market. Wartime CEO aims to win the market.

Peacetime CEO strives to tolerate deviations from the plan when coupled with effort and creativity. Wartime CEO is completely intolerant.

Peacetime CEO does not raise her voice. Wartime CEO rarely speaks in a normal tone.

Peacetime CEO works to minimize conflict. Wartime CEO heightens the contradictions.

Peacetime CEO strives for broad-based buy-in. Wartime CEO neither indulges consensus-building nor tolerates disagreements.

Peacetime CEO sets big, hairy audacious goals. Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a fruit stand."

So, is your CEO (and therefore your company) in peacetime or wartime?