Why Corporate Fluff is a warning sign - It's been a honour to join The Stakeholder Podcast by Prof. Ed Freeman + many other things this week

Let′s talk about Corporate Fluff ... When employees don't recognise employer branding "talk" has got nothing to do with the reality of the business. Also ... how to find a company with soul when looking for a new job (understand the warning signs) ... and two moments that have been important to me personally. Visiting JUST Capital in New York recently and being featured on The Stakeholder Podcast. Enjoy the read.

Discussing Corporate Soul with the Professor who invented Stakeholder Theory

It's been quite an honor to be invited to the The Stakeholder Podcast hosted by Professor R. Edward Freeman , the father of?#stakeholdertheory .

The concept of Building Corporate Soul is so closely aligned with the Stakeholder Theory. Our conversation took us into the practicalities of creating an environment that allows a thriving culture to happen. So much food for thought during this intense discussion. I am certain you will like to join the debate.?Click here to listen in.

How Do I Find a Company with Soul

Don't Take That New Job Unless the Company's Culture Passes These 5 Tests

?When I started to post initial thoughts and content pieces about Building Corporate Soul, quite a few people reached out stating that they were not happy at their current employer asking me about “how to find a company with soul?”. One of the tips I gave them has been after they studied that firm′s Glassdoor statements to ask during the interview process to meet one of their happiest employees. A reverse reference check if you like.

?Now, Peter Cohan wrote a great article about this topic and offered a few more ways to detect whether the “next employer” faces a culture issue. He identified five areas to look at:?

1. Does the company suffer high CEO turnover?

If the company has a significant amount of CEO turnover in its past, that is a very bad sign. Of course, the reason for the turnover is critical. If previous CEOs were forced out due to ethical or legal problems, then you should be worried. But it is always possible that the current CEO is doing a great job of fixing the company's culture. If the company has been doing well and CEOs have been regularly retiring at a ripe old age, then new CEOs are not a bad sign.

2. Is the company's financial position getting shakier?

If a company is not generating positive cash flow or has borrowed too much money, there is a good chance that its CEO is not committed to the company's long-term survival. Perhaps the CEO believes that the company can eventually become profitable if it can only get big enough.?

3. Is the company growing more slowly than its markets?

If a company is growing more slowly than the industry, investigate the causes of its lagging market position. Test the idea that its lagging growth is due to weaknesses in the company's product, pricing, and customer service.

4. Does the company struggle to get and keep customers?

If customers are leaving the company, not using the company's product, or not buying more, the company certainly has a broken culture. Yet it is worth finding out why this is happening. For example, are rivals selling a better product for a lower price? Are those rivals offering customers frequent product improvements and lower prices?

5. Is the company unable to attract and retain top talent?

If the company is unable to attract top talent and is suffering high amounts of unwanted turnover, then investigate why. Does the company treat workers harshly? Does it have a bad reputation among the most talented people? Does it provide workers with relatively low compensation? Is its mission uninspiring?

Find out more about Peter′s thoughts on this very important subject.

“Inspire the Builders of Tomorrow”?

LEGO Executive has Fully Internalized the Company′s Mission Statement

One of the key reasons why the LEGO group is enjoying such a great reputation is because they really walk the talk. I came across this post recently and it illustrates the commitment of its leaders to the mission statement of the firm:

“Dear LEGO Group, thank you for showing my 7-year-old just how amazing business leaders can be, and why, even when the odds are not in your favor, it's worth trying. A few weeks ago, my son and I were chatting about what he might want to do when he grows up. His dream jobs were running a dog hotel and being a ‘Lego designer’. The next day he appeared with a letter, written in his ‘best handwriting’, asking Lego if he could work for them. He wisely shared that he’d be available to help with designing Lego after school, on weekends and in the holidays - and that his sister would be keen to do the same.

We popped it in the post and, to manage expectations, I let him know that, whilst Lego would really appreciate his letter, he probably shouldn't expect a reply - he looked crestfallen.

Today, a box of Lego and a handwritten letter turned up, from none other than the VP and General Manager of Lego UK & Ireland. There is, of course, no job (yet) but seeing my son light up with pride at the beautifully crafted letter was something I won’t forget. Thank you, the LEGO Group and Christian Pau, for living up to the 'everything is awesome' brand association and for making my son see that it's always worth trying.”

I am pretty certain, that kid will always keep Lego as a brand – and later on as a company – close to his heart.

“It′s Corporate Fluff”

A while ago, one of my previous business partners posted a job opportunity on LinkedIn. One sentence made me notice it beyond a normal appreciation:

“Don′t spend 6 minutes reading

all the content. It′s corporate fluff

and littered with repetition.”

Wow. Someone working at a company is sharing a job post with their peers (HR likes that usually), but basically says everything that is said on the job alert is meaningless corporate fluff (HR usually does not like that at all). What would you think about that company and its human resources strategy – and more importantly of its execution of that strategy?

The point here is about a compelling HR strategy. Chief HR Officer Lucien Aliziari of Prudential Financial asked over a decade ago some key questions which are more relevant than ever: "If you read your company's HR strategy,

• would you be able to tell which company it was written for?
• Does it demonstrate a deep understanding of how talent can be deployed to drive real competitive advantage for your company?
• Are you focused on the war for talent or on winning the war with talent?"

Advisor Bill Allen is arguing for a differentiated talent strategy which”anticipates and plans the movement of individuals in the organization to align with the different capabilities required, over time, to execute the business strategy. It makes disproportionate investments in talent where disproportionate returns in value are expected. In this way, it essentially links talent to value on an ongoing basis, which implies we must directly link talent to value creation.”

He identifies the "3 Key Differentiators:

1. VALUE?

When I was CHRO at Macy's, we identified and developed talent strategies for three roles critical to value delivery: data scientists, customer-facing technologists, and fulfillment experts. We were right to do so. These three roles delivered the competitive advantage we were looking for as the retail business moved online. (For more details on this strategy, see my article "Success doesn't guarantee survival.").

2. OPPORTUNITY?

During my 12 years at PepsiCo, I was allowed to prove myself, learn, and grow in eight different roles. There may be no greater differentiator than who you choose to move quickly through the organization, provided they are "in role" long enough to live with their mistakes. The retentive value of this focus is immense and cannot be replicated.

3. REWARDS

Rewards can take many forms; however, the most effective are those that highlight the answers to two questions. First, what is most important to the success of the business? Second, how is your contribution to the success of the business seen in the eyes of the organization? An intense focus on what is most important and who is over-indexing on those critical few deliverables creates meaningful differentiation and visible impact.

I would argue that if you apply his approach of a differentiated hr strategy and the company leadership is aligned on it, “corporate fluff” posts will not happen. First, because such a job post would deliver against an employer branding proposition that is rooted in reality and secondly because there would be pride about being part of that firm rather than disqualifying its statements."?Read the full article here.

Choices Define Us

Especially when a Good Choice is Not in Plain Sight

Wharton Dean Erika H. James has written a remarkable article about how Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard worked with his team to create a new solution in the face of a crisis:?“Patagonia, the sportswear brand, made headlines this summer when its founder and CEO Yvon Chouinard announced his intention to effectively give away the multi-billion-dollar business instead of selling it.?Mr. Chouinard, a famously “reluctant” entrepreneur, detailed his decision to an astonished press and media: Patagonia was to be turned over to a non-profit trust, the Holdfast Collective, and its profits channeled exclusively into efforts to fight the climate crisis.

While the decision to “go purpose” instead of “going public” has been heralded by many as setting a new standard in corporate citizenship, it was still not an easy one for Mr. Chouinard to make. Patagonia explored every option, he says, including selling the company privately — a decision that ran the risk of new owners not sharing his values or vision for the environment. If you’ve led an organization, a function, or a team, you’ll probably be familiar with the dilemma that faced Patagonia’s leadership. There are times and situations — oftentimes, crisis situations — where the stakes are incredibly high and none of the choices ahead of you look good.

?

Whatever decision you make, there’ll be trade-offs to negotiate, risks to navigate; and all eyes will be on you

as the person whose responsibility it is

to figure out the way forward.?

?So, what do you do? How can you do as Mr. Chouinard did, and create your own solution??“Am I open enough as a leader to seek out and trust the input of other people and defer to their expertise where necessary? If the answer to that question is no, then ask yourself why not.” There’s a clue, perhaps, in the line “we created our own.” And particularly in the use of the pronoun “we.”

When you’re facing hard decisions as a leader, and especially in a crisis, you’re going to need other people — and lots of them. Complex situations are hard for you alone to grasp. It’s hard to see all of the outlines, all of the eventualities — the opportunities as well as the risks — without having as many eyes as possible on the problem. This is because of the way we’re hard-wired as human beings. All of us are prone, as individuals, to hidden biases or cognitive traps that make it all too easy to downplay risks, make the wrong assumptions, or get stuck in the weeds pursuing one course of action when we really need to pivot and try a new approach. And when there’s a lot at stake — when everything is riding on your decisions — you really need to guard against this kind of thinking in order to see the biggest picture possible. That means seeking out the counsel, the insights, the perspectives, and the expertise of as many other people as you can.

?In the next crisis, however, and whenever it manifests, you will need to make critical decisions under pressure. There’s a lot you can do now, in order to be prepared in advance. When — and not if — the next crisis lands, I recommend you do the following five things to optimize your decision-making and find the best possible solutions.

1. Articulate and communicate the problem honestly and openly with your team and your organization so that everyone has a shared sense of purpose and trust.
2. Ensure that information flows freely across the organization in multiple directions, and ask to hear from those people with boots on the ground and eyes on the problem — even if they are not part of your senior leadership team.
3. Insist upon and model a culture of ideation, experimentation, and collaboration where every idea is welcome and failure is both expected and tolerated.
4. Embrace and use real expertise wherever you find it in your organization and your broader ecosystem of stakeholders.
5. Empower your team with the autonomy to step up, to execute decisions swiftly, and to pivot, improvise, or shift course as the situation changes.

Read the complete article here.

Visiting JUST Capital′s Headquarters in NYC

During my latest visit to New York, I had the privilege to meet JUST Capital ′s Head of Research?Shane Khan . As you all know, I am a strong believer in the power of the idea behind JUST Capital – that “just” companies perform better and are stronger since they understand the full value of all stakeholders. JUST Capital′s comparative performance ranking is consistently an eye-opener when I show relevant scores during keynotes. Even though the results only have a view on the US, they provide a relevant information on how industries compare. Shane and I discussed the topic of how clarity on purpose and mission statements help driving success in today′s world – a key thesis of my work re Building Corporate Soul.?I look forward to continuing the conversation.

Spotify has Become a Role Model in Developing its Successful Work From Anywhere Program

Spotify has been leading the way in the world of distributed and hybrid work, with their Work From Anywhere Program. In this week’s episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, Anna Lundstr?m Vice-President of HR at Spotify, explains:

• The business drivers and hypotheses that led Spotify to develop its distributed model
• How the Program was developed by a cross-functional team and co-created with employees
• The positive impact of Work From Anywhere on engagement, recruitment, retention and diversity
• How Spotify mitigates proximity bias, fosters collaboration and belonging, and equips managers with the tools to lead in a distributed environment
• The next steps for Work from Anywhere and its sister program Dynamic Workplace
• The critical role people analytics plays in Spotify’s research

Great opportunity to listen first-hand to Anna Lundstr?m Vice-President of HR at Spotify.

HBR Read: How People Analytics Can Help You Change Process, Culture, and Strategy

Chantrelle Nielsen and Natalie McCullough share their thoughts on people analytics – defined as the use of data about human behavior, relationships and traits to make business decisions. It actually helps to replace decision making based on anecdotal experience, hierarchy and risk avoidance with higher-quality decisions based on data analysis, prediction, and experimental research. In working with several dozen Fortune 500 companies with Microsoft’s Workplace Analytics division, we’ve observed companies using people analytics in three main ways to help understand and drive their transformation efforts.?Definitely worth reading!

The next edition of the Building Corporate Soul newsletter will be in your mailbox on November 13. Please continue to join me on my mission to make soulless companies a thing of the past in 2022!

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