Culture
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By: Getty Stewart
Head of the Home Range
"It's two o'clock in the afternoon, my head is pounding, my eyes are weary, my fingers are numb and my mind has reached its limit - I've hit the wall and am in desperate need of a pick me up. Three months ago, I would have grabbed a cup of coffee or snuck a chocolate bar, but now, I grab a tennis ball and call for Charlie. Not even a cup of Extra Dark San Lorenzo coffee can perk me up the way a game of 'get the ball' with Charlie can."
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Charlie is a small, seven and a half year old poodle with big brown eyes and curly black hair. Charlie started work at IBEX Herdquarters this past summer. He comes to work every day with his person, Frank, and he's made quite an impact.
While Charlie is first and foremost Frank's creative muse and constant companion, his collateral grace is that just by being his little loving self, he humanizes the workplace - making it a kinder, gentler place to be. Ironically, Charlie the dog, does this better than any single human being could. His presence is a constant reminder to:
- Live your passion. (Charlie loves chasing balls.)
- Seek new opportunities. (There is always another ball to be found.)
- Ask for help when you need it. (Others can and will help you get your ball - if asked properly.)
- Spread joy. (The more love you give, the more you get. And the better everyone is for it.)
Charlie is a welcome addition to our Herd. He's well trained and well socialized, often blending into the environment unheard and unseen - unless, of course, you need a little pick me up. He is a perfect office dog and we're thrilled to have him.
But, while our tails are wagging in delight, I must caution that having a dog in the office is a decision that should not be taken lightly. Just like any other addition to the team, it's important to consider the candidate carefully before bringing them on board. Be sure to consider questions such as:
- Whose dog(s) can come to work? Who decides?
- How will you determine if a dog is well socialized and well trained enough for an office environment? (Perceptions of what these mean vary widely from one dog owner to another.)
- What if an employee or customer has allergies? (Some people are allergic even to hypoallergenic breeds like Charlie.)
- What if an employee really dislikes or fears dogs?
- Where will the dog be allowed to go or not go?
- Who will take care of the dog? What if the owner is temporarily unavailable?
- How will you let visitors to the office know there is a dog on the premise?
- How will you handle concerns, issues or questions that may arise from employees or customers?
- How will the dog owner respond to others 'disciplining' their (precious little) dog? Will they take it personally?
- How will the dog owner train the dog to curtail its instinct to defend its territory (ie. office cubicle)?
- How will the dog owner introduce co-workers to the dog and what is acceptable or not acceptable people behaviour? (eg. Can I give him a piece of my turkey sandwich?)
While we don't have answers to all these questions, we have learned that the right "dog" adds dimension and texture to the organizational culture in the same way the right "human" does. |
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By: Getty Stewart
Head of the Home Range
Reality often rears its ugly head and sinks its razor-edged teeth into our best laid plans and our well-intentioned efforts. When it does, it’s hard not to become cynical and question the value of our attempts. For example, what do you do when your efforts to engage employees don’t work?
Several months ago I wrote a great article (well, I thought it was great!) on capturing the spirit and energy of new employees by pulling out all the stops in their first week. At the time, we had a new employee starting and we eagerly put into practice our own advice. We had a full training and support plan in place, luncheon dates were set, peers were ready to answer questions, the workstation and all computer access codes were set up, introductory and welcome emails were sent by everyone, and a friendly welcome sign was posted. It was the best start and welcome we had ever planned for anyone. We were committed to giving our new employee a great start so that we could build a rewarding, long-lasting relationship.
It didn’t work. Two months later our new employee quit. Ouch!
Clearly, the lesson here is to abandon all attempts at doing anything nice for anyone. We should just resign ourselves to the fact that our efforts are futile, and as the nay-sayers are quick to point out, “All that employee engagement stuff is just a waste of time – employees will do whatever they want, whenever they want and will never give a damn about you or your company.”
NOT!
Look, no one said it was going to be easy and yes, sometimes it feels like you’re butting your head against a brick wall – but don’t let setbacks like these knock you off your course. You know that treating people right, putting your best foot forward and doing the best that you can is the right thing to do. So keep doing it. Don’t default to mediocrity or worse to apathy. Learn from your experiences and keep going.
We’re not going to stop onboarding new employees in the best way that we can. We will, however, take a look at our hiring strategies and ensure we’re bringing on the right people who are a great fit with our company, our team and our philosophy.
We’re firm in our belief that you get what you give and we will continue to grow our business with that philosophy in mind.
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By: Getty Stewart
Head of the Home Range
Last week, I had the opportunity to see Dr. Linda Duxbury, one of Canada’s leading experts on organizational health, present her latest research on work-life conflict. While I thoroughly enjoyed her candor, I especially appreciated the evidence-based information (gathered from 33,000 Canadian employees) she presented about what really matters to organizational success.
In particular, two key ideas about increasing employee productivity, satisfaction, and commitment and decreasing employee stress, absenteeism and turnover stuck with me:
1. Daily practices trump policy
2. Immediate supervisors trump CEOs
Daily Practices Trump Policy
Simply having great policies and procedures to address work-life balance issues on the books (e.g. flex-time, job sharing, child care, elder care, EAP programs, extended benefits, etc.) is not good enough. It’s how those policies and procedures are actually used and implemented on a daily, consistent basis that really matters to employees.
In fact, one of the worst things organizations can do is to have policies but then not tell employees about them or, even worse, not allow employees to use them. And sadly, there are too many cases where this is the reality. No wonder we’ve become a bit cynical.
The key issue here is whether or not employees perceive that they can work out a suitable work-life balance arrangement with their employer. Whether you have a policy in place or not doesn’t matter. Are you open and willing to address the issue with your employees? That’s what matters.
Immediate Supervisors Trump CEOs
It’s not often that we think of a supervisor as having more power and control than a CEO, but that’s exactly the case when it comes to employee productivity and satisfaction. Dr. Duxbury is one of many researchers and authors like Clint Swindall (“Engaged Leadership”) and Marcus Buckingham (“First Break All the Rules”) that have found that it is the direct supervisor that has more impact than anyone else on employees. This is not surprising when you consider the immediate supervisor is the one who has the greatest amount of contact with employees and the greatest amount of control over an employees’ daily experience at work.
Good, supportive managers that take an interest in their employees make a significant difference to the health and success of an organization. Supportive managers listen to their employees and ensure they have the necessary skills, tools, resources, time and encouragement to do their job. They’re equally concerned about the success of their organization and the success of their employees and are flexible to ensure the needs of both are met.
The key issue here for organizations is to develop good managers that have the necessary skills, tools, time and incentive to manage their employees well. Easier said than done, I know.
So what are we doing at IBEX regarding these two important facts?
As far as policies and procedures are concerned – we suck! We have very few formalized policies and procedures at IBEX. However, we make sure all of our employees know they can talk to us anytime about anything and that we’ll try to accommodate their work-life balance goals as much as possible. We know that as we continue to grow, we’ll need to get better at documenting policies and procedures, but for now, we’re taking it one employee at a time.
As far as having good managers is concerned – we’re learning. We know the importance of strong leaders, but actually taking the time and money to do anything about it has been a huge stumbling block. Money is tight and time is even tighter. But as we continue to grow, we’re discovering that not giving our leaders the skills, tools, time and incentive to effectively manage their people has an even higher price and time commitment.
As a result, six months ago, we finally committed to a leadership program that is taking our leaders through an extended training program that combines theory with on-the-job practice. Once a month our leaders gather off-site for a half-day training session on topics covering personal growth, developing others and developing the organization. The greatest benefit, so far, has been bringing the leadership team together and giving them a common language and understanding of what is expected of them as leaders at IBEX.
This is just the first step in our ongoing journey to ensure we have a strong engaging leadership team.
Dr. Duxbury’s presentation may not have revealed any new, earth shattering information, but it did provide a good reminder about the importance of front-line leadership and actually implementing best practices. She also provided the necessary evidence to show that doing so is not just a nice or trendy thing to do, but it’s the smart business thing to do. Our long-term organizational success depends on it.
If you’d like to share your stories about how you have shifted your focus to daily practices and supervisors, please send Getty an email at
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By: Getty Stewart
Head of the Home Range
If you were asked to list the elements required to build great teams, what would be on your list?
For years, my list included the need to communicate, share a vision, provide support/feedback, model the way, identify clear roles and enable people to act. Today, after much observation, hearing the success stories of others and working with different teams in different organizations, I’d like to add the following to my list of elements required to build great teams:
• Food
• Change of Environment
• Physical Movement
• Acts of Goodwill
You may have your doubts about this list. After all, how can a serious, busy, challenging organization like yours possibly consider spending any time, energy or money on these “feel good” elements? Shouldn’t we just buckle down, roll up our sleeves and work hard? Of course we need to work hard, but we also need to create a positive, engaging environment that leads people to want to work hard and give their best. And what better way to accomplish that than activities that involve food, a change of pace and surroundings, a chance to connect with others, a chance to move and a chance to do good deeds.
You may not know it but you’re probably already incorporating some of these elements in your own organization through potluck lunches, holiday parties, birthday celebrations, charitable donations, fitness centres, yoga at lunch and so on. Don’t underestimate the impact of these activities. They’re great at lifting spirits, building relationships, energizing people and giving everyone a fresh perspective. And, let’s face it; we’re all much more productive when we’re feeling energized, connected, and happy.
The IBEX Herd experienced the impact of these elements first hand last week when we took time to “Clean Our Green” at the South Osborne underpass. Who knew that a day of hard labour would have such a positive impact on our team?
We started with one of our traditional iBBQs at lunchtime. Then, we went outside and got physical as we raked, swept, picked, shoveled, pulled, pushed, dragged and lifted the dirt, weeds, garbage, branches etc. that had collected on the four corners of the underpass. Our goal was to clean our green space and show our pride in our community.
It was dirty work – not the kind of thing you would expect to make people smile and feel good. However, despite the sand in our eyes, the blisters on our hands and the grit in our hair, our smiles far outnumbered the 25 huge bags of garbage we collected. And, as we ended our day with ice cream (yes, more food!) it was easy to see that the sense of pride, camaraderie and accomplishment were well worth the effort.
If you’d like to share your stories about how you have used any of these elements with your team, please send Getty an email at
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By: Getty Stewart
Head of the Home Range
Employee engagement – winning the hearts, minds and spirits of employees – is a lot easier said than done. But, if we want employees to bring their best to work, we have to do our best to engage.
Like most leaders and organizations, I think we do a pretty good job of engaging the mind. It’s reaching employees’ hearts and spirits that presents the greatest challenge, and unfortunately, there is no objective, off-the-shelf, ten-step program for this. We’ve discovered that in order to engage the heart and spirit of employees you have to lead the way by putting your heart and spirit into it.
I experienced this concept first hand as a professional speaker. When I began speaking years ago, my presentations were jam-packed with the latest research, theories, facts and how-tos – they were completely focused on engaging the mind. Even the participant interaction was designed to engage the mind by focusing on practicing the specific techniques presented.
While participant feedback was polite and positive, I always felt something was missing from these presentations. I knew participants valued the information, but I also knew they were never fully engaged.
With the help of my peers and mentors, I discovered that I had to put more of myself into my presentations and to make it possible for participants to share more of themselves. The more I did this, the greater the response from participants. Today, I plunge into my presentations, not with an agenda, but with a personal, heartfelt story that demonstrates my own challenges with the particular topic we’re discussing. I talk with the audience as we were friends. We banter back and forth and share stories and strategies about what works and what doesn’t. Of course, we still cover relevant content but we do it in light of our personal experiences.
I never would have thought (there’s that thinking thing again) that people would be interested in hearing about my stories or those of other participants. But, lo and behold, they are. It’s what draws people in and makes any lessons to be learned much more real. It is the beginning of engaging the heart and spirit.
Darryl has experienced similar results as a leader and entrepreneur. He has found the more he connects with people in a personal, sincere way, the more employees seem to engage with him and his vision for IBEX. In the early days, Darryl was focused on the work and doing as much of it as possible himself. His employees were there to support him. He took very little time to listen and connect to people on anything but the pressing issues of the day. It was the time of IBEX’s slowest growth and greatest employee turn-over. We needed a different approach.
Today, Darryl focuses on the people involved with IBEX and making sure he’s connecting with them. He is there to support them as they do the work. By listening to them, taking an interest in their lives, responding to their needs, being sincere and putting himself out there, Darryl has not only changed the trajectory of IBEX’s profits, but he’s built an incredible team of engaged employees.
For two logical, critical thinkers, it requires a lot of effort to expose our heart and spirit as freely as we do now. But logically and somewhere deep down inside, we know it’s the right thing to do.
P.S. Thank you to those readers who contributed their ideas for making new employees feel welcome in response to my last article on onboarding. I loved the thought of sending a fruit basket or flower bouquet to the home of a new employee several days before the first day of work. Another great first day experience came from an alarm installer, who got to go tool shopping on his first day with a fellow installer and a company credit card.
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