Business With Intention
January 12, 2025
It’s a new year, and I’m a sucker for fresh beginnings. I love thinking about how businesses can plan to approach a new year. I’m not talking about annual planning, which is typically done in September/October, but rather, setting intentions and being thoughtful about programming for the year. These are the kind of conversations that can still happen in January.
What's good for the individual is good for the organization, right?
I coach CEOs and HR leaders on their personal intentions for the year, and how our personal intentions are connected to our professional ones. On a personal level, we consider the emotional, the financial, and the physical realms, and how they make us whole when contemplated together. It’s the same for businesses. It’s people who make the business—its culture—and those people have the same emotional, financial, and physical needs.
A healthy culture is cultivated by the people around it, not necessarily just by the executive team. It operates, lives, and breathes in an organic way in a space where people feel they belong, and feel valued and supported. A healthy organization is one that follows its mission and vision, and people are singularly striving for that mission and vision together. They’re passionate about the work they’re doing and contributing in a meaningful way. It’s a place where people are motivated to join.
When employees are happy, they organically talk with their friends and family, saying things like “...my company does this,” or “do you know we do that?” That’s culture. It’s not created by any kind of push from HR, it’s organic energy from the company.
At companies like these, I find that the management and leadership team keeps a pulse on culture. They’re not avoiding conflict, and they’re having tough conversations all the time. They’re bringing in people who align with the values of the company. In fact, they’re very adamant about the values and how people in the company live them.
Doesn't this sound refreshing? Inspiring? Impossible? If you don't work for a company like this...
As HR professionals, we see the potential of a thriving company with a vibrant culture. But sometimes, it’s difficult to implement our vision because a) it can cost money to ensure a vibrant culture, and b) while you might see how your employees need to feel seen and understood, your CEO and CFO may believe it’s working just fine.
So, working with the executive team, how do we take our ideal vision and set actionable intentions for the year…and get buy-in? There are two things I do:
First, I always bring the data. Retention data is really powerful, and the way to make your case to a CEO is to show the data. How many people do we need to hire? To hire those people, what do we need to do as an organization? What 2-3 areas do we need to invest in to attract the right talent for our company? That’s always a big one. By focusing on the ROI of investing in people programs (training, manager development, compensation, etc.), HR can show that these are not just "nice-to-haves," but investments that directly affect the company’s bottom line.
Second, You need to have the conversations on the HR side. Talk to your employees and understand how people feel about things. Much of the time, companies are looking for high engagement scores because that obviously means employees are engaged and productive. So, if the company has a lower engagement score, or if anecdotally you’ve learned through conversation that people are unhappy, I think CFOs and CEOs should listen to that and understand that, in order to change the tide, they need to invest differently…in leadership, programs, manager development, and so on. All of those things really matter.
It’s not just coming to leaders with ‘what you think.’ It’s coming to them with your data and recommendations for why it matters and that it’s important to invest in your recommended two or three programs for the next year.
Make your why, build your case, and don't back down when it matters...
Also important is…what are we going to accomplish because of those programs? Make sure you know why you’re making your recommendations, the outcome you’re striving to see, and how it ties back to the organization’s intentions you’re setting. As an HR person, it’s important to be that strategic partner; to bring the data and the strategy, and then execute it.
If you feel like you’re going to be blocked by budget, there are a couple things you can do. First, when you walk into the room, you have to expect them to say no. I always go in asking for more than what I want (and defending it). I never go in with the bare minimum. You’re always going to go in asking for more than what you need because they’re going to negotiate. It’s a compromise.
As an HR leader, know the one thing you’re going to pound the table for—the one thing you are not leaving without. That’s what’s really important. Let’s say that from an engagement scores perspective, you know your three lowest scores are in your people managers, compensation, and benefits; all three things that should be addressed with the same priority, so it’s likely you’re going to have to make trade-offs.
If your salaries tend to be lower, can you get them better benefits so that their total compensation package increases either way? For example, if you can’t give them a 5% salary increase, consider increasing the company’s contribution to the 401k program. Again, what are the trade-offs that you can make that are still a win?
I’d say it’s learning about yourself, too; having the curiosity to learn about who you are, and how your upbringing plays a role in who you are today, and to really delve into that.
This is another area where it’s useful to pull market data to support your cause. Perhaps build two-year plans to get them to the right benchmarks. Maybe you can’t get there right away, but possibly over the next year, can you do an increase of 5-7%? If you get them into the market with another bump at the end of the year, it’s getting you where you need to go.
Then, there’s addressing your people managers. This is a common need in start-ups because they tend to have a lot of first-time managers. And providing them with any formal training is difficult—it’s an area often cut and deprioritized. Yet, managers are the reasons people stay or leave companies, so it can have a huge impact on culture and investing in them has ripple effects across the organization.
So, I will always fight for that. If a development program isn’t possible, I like to think about ways we can still grow our managers. For example, even if it’s not a formal program, I propose hiring a coach for the first six months of the year. I’ll use half of what a development program would cost to hire a business partner for coaching, or find them an external coaching program to help level our managers up. And then, after six months, I’ll do another engagement survey with our teams to see if it’s been effective.
If it is, then great…and we keep going. If not, we can try another tactic. But, I think there’s so much data around manager effectiveness and how much it drives productivity—and most leaders know that.
You just chip away and make progress, even if it's in small ways. Even small ways can have a big impact on your employees.
What truly matters is being thoughtful. A company that’s thoughtful about what its vision, mission and values are will end up curating it. When the leaders are thoughtful, it gets taken up by the employees in a really healthy way where the business is strong and where the diversity, equity, and inclusion in the team is strong.
All those things go together. It’s aspirational, and can guide us toward seeing intentions for the new year. Approach it like HR is the steward of culture and it’s our job to keep it, cultivate it, and ensure it’s healthy and inclusive in the best possible way. Strive to hear it from everyone in the organization. See it from every leader. It’s not just the people in HR. It should be organic. At the end of it, we want everyone to take it up and understand, to see the vision and create that beautiful vision for themselves. And that will ripple through everyone else.
Here are a few resources I rely on as I delve deeper into setting intentions personally and professionally:
* The Inward Trilogy by yung pueblo: "Inward," "The Way Forward" and"Clarity & Connection" combine to remind us how to connect to our intuition and self-awareness.
* The Calm app (available on both Apple and Google platforms): Taking 10 minutes at the end of my day once the kiddos and animals are asleep helps me stay clear and focused on my intentions and be more present to help companies accomplish theirs.
* Phone a Friend: We rarely solve problems alone. Reach out to that person you can rely on to be a sounding board for you.
