Happy Holidays! December Issue

Welcome to my newsletter. Consider this a collection of insights and ideas from myself and the team at CEO.works.

As we close out the year, I'd like to take this opportunity to reflect on how we've grown as a company and how that growth has helped us move closer to our vision of becoming an authority in helping companies connect talent to value.

This year has been a fascinating one for CEO.works. We've seen strong growth in our capability business, advisory practice, and software tools; we're intrigued by the opportunities ahead. It is a true privilege to work with such great clients that push our creativity and innovation. This is one of many reasons why I am looking forward to all the exciting things happening in 2023! Keep an eye on our website and subscribe to our blog to find out what the future holds for talent development and business growth.

I'm so proud of our work this year and am excited about what's to come.

As a team, we look forward to delivering value for our customers, partners, and team members in the new year.

Signature Talent to Value Workshop Winter Dates

Speaking of capability, we have dates set for the winter Signature Talent to Value Workshop. The first session will take place on February 9, 2023. If you want to learn more, contact Melissa Banks at?[email protected] .

7 Deadly Sins of Talent: #6 Rank & Yank

Bill Allen continues to share his wisdom in the #7DeadlySinsofTalent article series with his latest post: Rank & Yank.

As many of you know, Rank & Yank is a performance management process used to rank employees based on their performance, then terminate those at the bottom of the list. The idea is to remove underperformers from your team and replace them with high performers. Here is an excerpt from Bill's latest article:

Reward the top 20% of your performers and fire the bottom 10%. These days, that makes as much sense as shoot first, ask questions later.

I am a fan of ranking talent. I'm?not?a fan of dogmatically removing people based on a small data set.

Talking about the old "rank and yank" practice reminds me of a colleague who owns an automotive dealership. The industry has been through difficult times, and last year's results weren't as good as he expected. Although his business wasn't performing any worse than his competitors, he and his leadership team chose to make some changes to their annual operating plan. They fired all under-performers and left it to the hierarchy to absorb all that work. His mini-euphoria at having done "something" to solve the problem didn't last. Morale sank. Collaboration and innovation tanked. Burnout ensued. And the dealership's bottom line didn't improve.

I get it. It's easy to rationalize your way into taking dramatic action in the hope of making a difference. When a business does not deliver the value you expect, you instinctively ask, "What's causing the problem?" Swift on its heels, "Who are we going to blame?" Followed by, "Who do we need to fire?" Any action taken after this, no matter how hare-brained, can give you the satisfaction of having dealt with the problem. But it won't necessarily mean that you've fixed it in a sustainable way or you've mitigated your risks.

I ask these three value-based questions instead:

1. Where is value not being delivered—and why? (in what specific roles)
2. Is each of the roles connected to the value and set up to succeed at delivering it?
3. Can the talent deliver the value in the roles—and if not, what are you going to do about it?

*You can follow this link for the full article.

CEO.works | Europe Webinar Series

I have enjoyed Hein's conversations with HR leaders on the ins and outs of Connecting Talent to Value?. Much of the insights he's discussed apply to leaders across industries and functions. His recent discussion with Kerry Dryburgh, Chief People Officer at bp, was most insightful. Her track in the People role at bp is impressive by any measure.?But, I found the story about her career path –her road to HERE, so to speak– particularly inspiring: Kerry chose an apprenticeship path out of secondary school, allowing her to work while attending university; a choice that enriched her professional experience and informed her perspective about how to build and lead in the workplace.

Have you been able to join one of his webinars? If not, you can access them on demand on our website .

On behalf of our team in New York and across the globe, I want to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy new year. I look forward to everything 2023 has in store for us!

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