Aligning Employees to Company Culture with Larry McAlister of NetApp

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Larry McAlister, who is the Vice President of Global Talent at NetApp, an IT services company that provides a full range of hybrid cloud data services with a $6 billion in revenue and over 10,000 employees and  in this newly created global talent role areas focused on ensuring the people strategy closely aligns with the business strategy.

Watch the video or listen to the full interview on the Talent Development Hot Seat podcast.

Background

When Larry came out of college, he was a Sports Journalism major. He wrote for the LA Times for a while, then became a mutual fund broker. He also worked for Nasdaq and then worked for operations and customer service. He definitely has a varied business background. He was hired as a Recruiter in Citibank. He started running HR for some tech companies in Silicon Valley. The big shift is when he moved to the Talent side only and double down focused on just talent and how to build talent in an organization.

How his background in journalism has helped in his career

Two things:

• You have to be the best possible listener you can to be able to get the right story and really tell it in an authentic way.
• You have to be a storyteller. He thinks that there what’s missing in Leadership Development is being able to tell a story of why we’re learning and why we’re growing. What it matters less on the process and more on the story and authenticity.

Listening and Connecting to what the business really needs

Larry says that to be successful in talent management, we need to be able to focus on what the business really needs.  Interpret that with your experiences and be able to bring back to them a solution for their needs. It should be more ears and less mouth for the first couple of engagements. This is something that he got trained very early in his career.

The biggest mistake made and the most common one is just producing something without really listening. Asking the right questions to figure out and what are they really trying to drive? And what is the impact of that going to be?

You should always have seasoned, credible, and skeptical leaders on your side as you're building anything because then they become the voice of the business. They become the voice of the solution. Leaders don't realize the power they have. Getting the skeptics on early is key.

The benefit of stealth alignment where they may not have been really aligned on a strategy or a concept before they want to bring to the population but by getting them involved in getting them to agree that they have to become aligned on it before you can push it out to the masses.

Business Strategy

According to Larry, “My job is to get the leadership team to say, what does it mean to be a successful VP here for the next two years? What's the business they need to be running? Or understanding what's the impact, like narrowing it down all the way to what it matters here. Not just a theory about what a vice president is.”

Those kinds of conversations in a collaborative way where you have true, authentic pointed dialogue about this is. What it is and this is what it isn't. It really starts getting people focus to delivering on the strategy and less on a definition that could be used anywhere.

The best way to get more familiar with the company's strategy is to understand the strategy.

“When I interview people to come work for us in HR, I asked them if they've listened to the earnings report. Did you go back and listen to the earnings report? Did you read the proxy? Do you understand, you know, did you look at our stock price and what's driving it?

“There's a lot of stuff before you even started, a company that you can learn about. And on those earnings calls, it's the reality of what this business is trying to do. And then when you come in for an interview, your question should be starting with what's your need? What is the business going? Where do you see the business in three years? What are the gaps?”

Larry says that whether you work in HR or not, you are a business person, everyone in the company should feel like they're part of the business and not just in their little silo. Show that you care about the business and you understand how business works. You care about people and their development.

One of Larry’s first questions is always, “How do you immediately start building credibility with the leader?”  

Approach to Culture

Larry says that perception is reality and the best way to approach culture is not to hire consultants or put words on badges or to go down into the organization and ask them what they think and bring it back on.

Instead, you need to start at the top because people watch the actions of the top leaders. If they're not aligned and demonstrating what the culture is, you are just doing a marketing campaign. Culture is what people talk about when you're not around. When you're not looking at what conversations are they having and what are they saying?

Larry says we need to really make sure that the leaders are aligned and you shift the mindset to be aligned to the culture you have. Great cultures happen where people talk about it and live it, have higher business results.

This is a powerful way to keep the employees engaged in growing and understanding what it's like to work here. Managers will go to the level of responsibility that you allow them to go to.  It’s the most critical component conversations that managers are having with their employees. Culture is defined by that. Engagement is defined by that part of the old adage that people join a company and leave a manager and I am finding more and more as times change. People care more and more about career development, career direction and where are they going. If they're not getting that conversation from their manager, eventually they're going to go somewhere else.

Aligning People to Culture and Strategy

“Do you really understand how this business works?”

Alignment happens through trust. Leadership is highly contextual. It's different in every organization. Building credibility and getting more people engaged and involved in what's going on in the public. People have to feel like they are part of the culture and strategy and truly experience it for themselves.

The biggest challenge today

Larry says the biggest challenge today is changing mindsets and having people think differently about talent development and work. This starts at the top and is always the biggest challenge because it looks like a bigger lift than it actually is. People don't like change but they want change. Getting the top to realize that there are better ways to do this, easier ways to do it and unshackled the leadership unshackled the managers give them accountability in the tools and I guarantee they rise to the occasion.

Trends that Larry is following in Talent Development today

Larry says HR technology is catching up to the rest of the world. Any new technology that speeds things up and makes it easier for managers to engage is great. HR Leaders need to pay more attention to this.

Larry also says there is an important trend of better health and wellness in the workplace.

You think that when you have a lot of work to do, we just need to push through and work a 60 hour week and sleep later but when you actually take the time to rest to take a break to take care of your body and your health and eat right, you will be more productive. Be highly productive with the amount of time that you have to work. Healthy people are just better at everything. So I think a big focus on that is imperative.

Advice for anybody listening who is looking for ways to accelerate their career and talent development

“If you're going into HR and nowadays you have to realize that it's consultative and not mandatory, and we're not here to police. We're here to unleash talent and focus on what are the best possible ways to help everyone understand what a growth environment is, what a growth mindset is. Help people understand their future is, is intertwined with the future of the company. “

Andy Storch is the Founder and Host of the Talent Development Hot Seat podcast and a partner at Advantage Performance Group as well as the host of the Andy Storch Show. To subscribe and learn more, visit www.talentdevelopmenthotseat.com