Q What makes up your company’s core values?
At O.C. Tanner, we have four values or shared commitments as we like to think of them.
- Dream Big — this is about innovation, looking ahead, finding better ways of doing things, solving problems, leading out.
- Deliver Daily — keeping our promises, seeing things through, focusing on excellence, adding value.
- Care Deeply — actively building strong, trusted relationships with our clients, each other, and our communities.
- Elevate Others — uplifting, encouraging, and helping others thrive.
On our best days we live these values, and most other days they are values we aspire to live by. These are an important part of defining and cultivating our culture.
Q Please share your best working techniques on how to make a difference that people will love?
People are most motivated and doing their best work when they are making a difference. Having conducted an enormous amount of research on how people innovate and add value, we published our findings in a New York Times bestselling book entitled Great Work: How to make a difference people love. We found 5 actions that regular people in regular jobs take that increase the odds of making a positive difference by over 10 times. The first is “Ask the Right Question.” This involves being more deliberate about asking probing questions that go the heart of what people would really love. These types of questions open up thoughts and provoke ideas that lead to breakthrough ideas and solutions. The second is “See for Yourself.” This is about breaking out of existing mindsets and workplace settings to gain a new perspective on the problems or opportunities you are exploring. It’s about looking through the lens of the beneficiary of your work to see things you have not seen before. The third is “Talk to your Outer Circle.” This involves having conversations with people you are not now talking to — people who don’t think like you, people with different life experiences and backgrounds from you, who work in different departments or lines of work. The fourth is “Improve the Mix.” This involves finding new ingredients to add to the existing “mix” of your product or service or work output, as well as finding ingredients that you can remove from your product or service that would increase the value of your work. Finally, “Deliver the Difference” is about staying with your work until after receiving feedback until you can measure the difference you have made and how you can tell if people love it.
Q What advice can you give to companies’ owners to boost employee engagement?
From our research, I can suggest two proven ways to boost engagement. The first is to help connect your people to the deeper purpose of the organization and help them understand how their work affects that purpose. People want meaning and want to know why they should more fully engage in their work. Another way to boost engagement is to actively and publicly appreciating people when they do great work, doing it sincerely and frequently. Few things build thriving, successful workplace cultures more effectively than shining a spotlight on people when they make a difference you value. Recognizing great work makes success visible so that people know what it looks like and how to achieve it. When people feel part of a team that is succeeding and achieving results, they bring their best work, their best ideas, and they love being there. Especially when they know it is valued and appreciated by their leaders and their organization.
Q Is there any special wording you use to show your recognition to your employees? Does it help in raising their motivation?
When recognizing someone, I like to use a simple acronym called SAIL to help me make the recognition sincere and meaningful. First I like to talk about the situation the person faced — explaining the context in which they did their work, such as tackling a slow process, handling a difficult customer, or facing a challenging opportunity. Then I like to describe the actions they took — being specific about what steps they took and some of the things they did to bring about the success. Then I talk about the impact they made — the outcome, the results, the ripple effect of their work. Often people don’t even see the full impact unless someone else shares it. Finally, I like to link their work back to the purpose of the team and organization so they know how their work ladders up to what we are all trying to accomplish. When I use this as a framework for recognition, it comes across as sincere, that I know that they did, and makes it clear to others why they are being recognized. I also recommend giving recognition publicly wherever possible so that others can see what success looks like and that it matters to us. When done well, and frequently, there is no question that it causes others to think about their own work, and what they can do to add value. It also helps people work together to achieve results as they know it will be noticed and valued if they do.
Q How to remain colleagues at work and friends at home?
Things are changing in this area. For each of us individually, I think this has a lot to do with integrity and being the same person at work and at home. Workplaces are trying to be more inclusive, allowing people to bring their whole self to work, and not have to play a role that dehumanizes them. I think it is important to bring friendship and comradery into the workplace and get to know people at a personal level. The old traditional mindset that the workplace should be a formal, hierarchical, “all business” environment is breaking down. Modern work cultures want connection, where people build natural friendships in an environment of trust and collaboration. We are seeing more companies move in this direction, which over time should result in less of a significant distinction between work relationships and friendships.
Thank you for sharing your valuable insights on the topic. We are looking forward to experiencing the upcoming exclusive opportunity to hear your speech on the thought-provoking topic “Connection: The Foundation of Workplace Culture”.
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