The best work of their lives

As I launch Sheranian People Strategy, I want to codify my values, principles and beliefs.

This is a statement of my conviction about the role of organizations and leadership in society. As grand as that sounds, it is not.

From the corner dry cleaner to the global cybersecurity firm, companies exist to solve a specific problem in the world.

Each company’s mission will look different, depending on what it accomplishes for its customers and clients.

Yet at its core, every company holds the same relationship with its employees. Employees give their time, energy and creativity. They take on stress, give up family time and power through sickness, all to further the company’s mission.

What do they get in return?

For most people, the reality is a paycheck and the real possibility that they could be fired or laid off tomorrow without warning.

In my career, I have worked with thousands of leaders, from those who lead massive global organizations to those who lead small local teams.

I have seen extraordinary leaders who get it right.

Unfortunately, I have also seen many organizations and leaders get it wrong. I learned what that feels like early in my career.

A slow carousel

The company I worked for was facing hard times. A couple of years earlier, it had made bad press for a layoff, so this time leadership decided not to announce one. Instead, they went department by department, team by team, over the course of six to eight months, picking people off slowly. Distrust spread through the organization. It was almost like watching a slow carousel, with the bad news approaching me.

Finally, one day, I got the dreaded call from my boss. He told me they needed to let me go, and I felt a pit in my stomach.

It wasn’t the worst-executed restructuring I’ve experienced. But it made a profound impression on me. Avoiding the hard moment didn’t spare anyone pain; it stretched the pain out and wore away the trust that held the company together.

Trust is the currency of everything we do in an organization, and once it is spent, it is very hard to earn back.

Ever since, I’ve believed that when hard decisions have to be made, leaders should own up and take them with accountability, ownership and transparency.

Not every leader sees it that way. Years later, I was advising a leader who was weighing a layoff, and I gave some advice on how to approach it.

“You always talk in terms of right and wrong,” he remarked. “We have a business to run.”

I thanked him for what he intended as criticism. “Leadership is a sacred stewardship,” I told him, “and we have an obligation to do this the right way.”

In the end, he went ahead with the layoff, but he didn’t call it a layoff. He called them performance terminations. That was disingenuous at best and dishonest at worst. Blaming individuals for the company’s shortcomings was not ethical, and we parted ways not long after.

There’s a better way

When organizations get it wrong, it usually comes down to a few things. These form the backbone of the methodology in my practice.

Leaders go first

Before demanding change from others, leaders should be the first to model it. If the leader isn’t willing to change, how can anyone reasonably expect others to?

The win is agreed

Before anything changes, is it clear how success is defined in clear business terms? Saying that top-line revenue growth is the goal may sound fine. But it is like telling a basketball player they could dunk if only they would jump higher. There’s more to defining a win than begging people to bring in more deals.

The seats fit the work

Too often, companies are organized around the people already in the seats, and then some strange organizational gymnastics take place to fit the organization to the team. Organizations should be designed around the work, and around how best to serve the customer.

Leaders carry it

Executive teams often share one common complaint: the team just isn’t getting the vision. The challenge is that the vision sits in the CEO’s head and gets shared once at an all-hands. The true test of whether a change will work is to ask ten managers at random whether they know what success looks like, and what they’re telling their teams about it.

The systems reward it

Hiring practices, performance reviews, development and promotions are often based on the old standard at best, or on vibes at worst. Simply adding a single element, like a new bonus, is unlikely to change outcomes unless the scaffolding that drives performance and behavior is aligned to the business strategy.

Everyone knows the score

I’ve often been surprised at how reluctant leadership teams are to share the full financial picture with their teams. What if they can’t be trusted with the numbers? What if they realize how much money our owners are making? The reality is that when the mission is set and the metrics are clear, it’s much easier to drive performance. Make it easy for your team to buy in and move the needle.

It holds without us

Lasting change doesn’t depend on one leader driving it. It lasts when the new way of working holds on its own, supported by systems, structures and metrics, and carried by a community of leaders committed to helping their teams get there. It’s not down to one person; it’s down to the entire team.

Looking forward

AI is changing long-held assumptions about how organizations should look and operate. Companies today are spending a great deal of time figuring out how to optimize their organizations with the latest technology. Saving cost and being more efficient is a great and noble thing to do as a steward of finite company resources.

What I am not seeing many companies do is figure out how to use AI and other tools to elevate human performance and help their teams flourish. Our employees can be more productive and creative, and solve more problems, than ever before.

I believe that in this new era, the best companies will be the ones that deliberately manage change in their organizations. They’ll use tools to automate the things humans aren’t good at, and double down on the things humans do really well, like judgment, relationships and trust. Customers will seek these out as what sets a company apart.

The best organizations create the conditions where their team members can do the best work of their lives. Imagine you’re the corner dry cleaner. What would that mean for you, and how would your regular customers react? Now imagine you’re running the global cybersecurity firm. What impact might you have on the world if your teams operated this way?

Employees give so much to the mission of the company. We can use this moment to bring out the absolute best in them and help them soar. With unprecedented technology at our fingertips, getting the human side of business right is more important than ever.

The companies that navigate this change will thrive. Those that don’t will struggle.

My goal is to help every company within my influence do this the right way.