jan 2021

 Jan flew by pretty quickly and as much as I tell myself that it was all a blur.. it was actually a pretty eventful month. From the wedding of one of my close teammates, to all the crazy going on on the New York Exchange daily casino, to all the shit happening with waterpolo and the changes we are going through, its been pretty eventful, even if it passed real fast.

Sadly, i feel myself pretty far away from the goals I set for myself this year and the discipline level really waning (like it was even there in the first place). My sleeping hours are far from 7 hours, I barely managed to scrap my monthly book, I definitely spent more than 1100 a month, sigh. But hey, it can only go up from here right......................?

Well but on a more optimistic note, I did manage to finish Work Rules by Laszlo Bock. An amazing book that gives us great insights to the Revolutionary HR within Google that has led to the tech industry being inspired by many of them. And the amazing part is that the common misconception that only big, rich, company can pull of these HR changes is completely false.

Just a quick note to review, some quick steps to build a great HR system for your organization:

1- Choosing to think like a founder. Not everyone can own a company but everyone can treat their tasks and responsibilities as if it was their own company. I might add, its very similar to LinkedIn's be an owner.

2- To create a genuine culture within the company. Really build a company mission and to make sure each and every employee is connected to it. And to give people the freedom after you are sure they are connected to your mission

3- To hire well. To only hire people who are better than you. To either learn from them, or to just make sure you are improving the company with each hire. Do not hesitate to take your time to find the best fit even if you are looking for a urgent hire, it will definitely come back to haunt you if you rush it. Assess candidates objectively (with stats, with unbiased hiring in charge or even a panel).

4- Give employees the power. Dont let managers have all the power, make them teammates who are facilitating a team rather than a dictator controlling the team. Make decisions based on statistics.

5- Create good performance management. Set clear actionable goals. Gather peer feedbacks as well to ensure people arent just fulfilling goals at the expense of others. very importantly, to separate performance management and rewards from development conversation so that people work for improvement and not just the money. and to calibrate performance fairly throughout the company

6- Working on the two tails. Seek to help to improve the bottom percentage rather than fire them. If the hiring process was right, there shouldnt be any bad workers. Not performing does not mean they are bad, they might just be doing the wrong tasks. Also, importantly, place the microscope under your top performers and get them to share how they do what they do, instead of hiring expert teachers who cannot provide as much on the ground experience as  your top performers. 

7- Organization Learning wise. Get your best employees to teach your people as they are ones most fit to, and the benefits compound way more than just getting the employee to do his work daily. Work only with learning courses that are meant to create a change in behavior

8- Paying unfairly. Be ok with paying super exceeding employees 2-3 times more than their peers. Performance follow a power rule and you really dont want to lose your top performers as they might need more than 2-3 other employees to replace. Celebrate failures as well and compensate people for good and great tries.

9- Employee welfare. Find core reasons you want to fulfil with all these welfare and ensure each welfare or idea you try to implement aligns with these values or purposes. Think of ways to say yes to employees to empower them to come up with the best welfare for the company. Paying isnt always an option, in fact, alot of things can be free if you think hard enough. More importantly than just giving them good stuff, be there for them during the bad times in their lives.