Welcome. I have Marissa Andrada
in the studio with me today,
and we'll be talking about people.
We'll be talking about culture
and how the board influences the culture.
Welcome to Driving Excellence,
where we bring together leaders to
talk about issues in the boardroom.
Thank you for being here, Marissa.
I'm super excited to be joining you. Byron.
Thanks. How can boards align?
Purpose. Purpose is important as that sense in
particularly the Drucker sense with
performance and create durable long term value.
Well, I think the role of a board is
to oversee strategy, right?
So if I think of the foundation of a strategy,
it should start with the company's purpose
and what the company stands for.
And then I'll even add beyond
that values what. So who are they?
What do they stand for?
How do they roll?
And when a management team
is putting together a strategy,
I think the way boards can take a look out
for that is how are they integrating that?
It's not just a simple.
Here's our purpose statement. And then we're
going to give you the strategy.
I think the strategy needs to
articulate how the purpose and the values come to life.
So taking those and then
articulating that in the very specific strategic goals.
I'm going to go here very quickly because
my background has been in business and people.
And you know, I'm not even going to utter
the three initials that people are no
longer using to describe inclusion today and belonging.
Right. And how many companies actually
decided to do away with that
with certain EOS that came out?
But then I think there are those companies
that are very public,
that are very specific about
their values and their commitment,
and how they didn't change
their strategy midstream because of an order.
It's about really following through on
what they identified and rearticulating.
It's not just about the values,
but we actually have
purposeful business objectives that
really drive shareholder value to it.
So it goes back to is it
laid out in the foundation of a strategy?
And I think the board needs to be asking the question,
not just about, oh,
we see the title and it's, you know,
it's kind of the lead in to the strategy.
But how do these values come to life?
How does the purpose play
out in these strategic objectives?
And I think in seeing that, um,
you will see
longer term sustainable performance come from that,
because I think in
these volatile times or disruptive times,
the one thing that people can stay true
to is the why behind.
You know, I say people, the employees,
the management of the company stay true
to why they're there in the first place.
Mhm. And how can boards evaluate and
understand the health of the culture and
communicate that purpose down through the culture,
beyond the pulse surveys and the,
the engagement scores in an organization.
Yeah. One thing that I really love and
it doesn't start and stop there.
It's not just about pulse surveys and engagement scores.
What I think really smart companies do,
again, when it's grounded in purpose and values,
and they are having
a practice of identifying people measures,
how are they correlating that 360 to the business?
And here's what I mean by that.
How are you correlating it to all of the stakeholders.
So the other stakeholder,
the customers that you serve.
Um, we are in a different discussion
today where they were talking about
the um and the Net promoter score
for both the customer and the employee.
There are different acronyms for that.
Are there is there a correlation?
So I like looking at correlations
to not only the people measures in a company.
So engagement pulse surveys it could be retention.
It could be other people metrics.
Is there a way you can correlate that
to the customer and how they're feeling
about their experience or
experience with the service or product of a company,
and then also correlate that to the business results.
So that's how you can tell if there's real health.
It's not just about, hey,
these are really great employee measures,
but are you seeing a connection
to how behavior of employees,
the sentiment of employees,
really impact the results of a company?
So that's how I would look at it.
And what signals should board members look for that?
There's alignment of purpose,
people and performance especially.
I think it has to be top of
mind in the conversations
and the updates with the boards.
I've seen it on both sides,
having been on management teams for
some great brands where there's
true commitment to purpose and values,
there is no question whether it's the strategy,
no question in the business update,
that what keeps us centered and grounded and
focused is really based on that.
And so I think the signals
is that the management team presents that.
But then you have a board that's
also really present to that,
which I and I don't know that I've seen that.
Um, I participate in two boards right now.
I serve on two boards,
but then also just in this board community,
it is a newer topic versus an old school topic.
And so I think board members
actually asking the question and then more specifically,
especially in this time when
the latest disruption is AI and AI,
there's a lot of conversation at
the boardroom level around risk.
I think where you tell can
tell that there's alignment to purpose and
values in people is when the questions from
the board become how resilient is the organization?
How capable is the organization?
Now with the implications of AI and how it's changing,
evolving the work and the output of the company?
And so I think it's that level
that makes it super present to,
you know, is the board also aligned to
the purpose and values of the company?
So let's talk about
the the one Activity that
boards should be doing and that is bringing the people,
persons into the boardroom.
I find it amazing that there are boards, and for example,
I've heard of large banks who bring
the car or the people person into the room.
What one practice like that or that one?
Have you seen work best for
helping foster the culture in a in an organization?
Well, I think I love saying
this culture is a reflection of leadership.
And you see that because at the board level,
of course, we're interacting with the CEO.
We're assessing the CEO,
and then the CEO leads his or her management team.
And so I think a good practice is really tied
to succession planning and
the health of the organization.
And a great practice is
when and I've been on the management side.
So having been a CRO,
working with the chair of
the Human Capital Compensation Committee.
It's beyond just the exercise
of here's the succession plan for the CEO.
And then you take it to the next level of for
the key leaders on the team.
What is the succession plan?
A best practice is how
is the board actually really getting to know
that talent beyond the key talent
coming in and presenting,
you know, key points of the presentation?
I think it's taking the time while we're
all in for these board dinners, board breakfasts,
a good practice is to have
that next level leadership
that the board doesn't typically have exposure to,
to actually have meals with them
and really get to know the talent in that way.
I think the second thing related
to getting to know the talent at that,
I'd say L3 level, right?
L1 being the CEO,
L2 being that next,
the C-suite, and then at that next level.
I think these informal
ways of getting to know each other over a meal,
I think is important.
And then what Boards also should be making
a practice of is
understanding the sentiment of what's happening.
We've been talking about employee engagement.
Don't just rely on the results
that the management team presents to you.
Actually be curious.
And what I mean by that is,
I know that boards had the chance to,
depending on what kind of company it is,
go and spend time with the customer.
Go and spend time with the employee,
ask a lot of questions,
and do a lot of listening
just so that you can double check.
Here's the data that I see.
But then are you getting the feeling of it?
So, um, that's a best practice.
And there's the third thing I would share with
you that I know that I try to
incorporate because I'm so committed
to ensuring that there's alignment with purpose,
values, performance,
outcomes, that good governance for a board.
I also chair the governance committee
in one of the boards that I serve on.
It's really about good governance is as board members,
are we actually taking the time,
even if it's once a year.
And we recently did a board refresh.
So it's great with new directors
and current directors came together.
And we actually had a great discussion
in service to this organization,
in service to how we work together,
how do we bring these values to life and like reflect on
this most recent board meeting that we
had and then how do we actually
leverage that in how we serve
each other in serving this company?
So what I'm taking away from that is,
is for board members to be connected to the people.
Absolutely meaning the people,
people as well as the people down through
the organization that are connected,
the sometimes called Chro.
But it's nice. I like the, uh,
the concept of a chief people person.
Yes. Well, these days it's now
chief people and culture officer.
I think that's been the trend.
And you get so much insight.
It's as important as understanding marketing.
It's really about the collective people experience.
So when I say the collective people experience,
at the end of the day, you're serving a customer, right?
And at the end of the day,
employees inside the company are serving the customer.
So boards should be really tuned in
to the collective people experience.
I think all too often it's
always the experience of the stakeholder.
Very important, the experience of the customer,
also an important stakeholder.
Don't forget the third piece
because that's what brings it all to life.
I recently was speaking with a with
a leadership team and
their customer they said is their customer customer,
their employees reports meaning and they articulated
the myriad of of customers that
they serve and including regulators in their industry.
And I thought, that's a great because it
emphasizes this people aspect.
I love that.
Marissa, thank you for being here.
And thank you for this time.
Oh, yeah. Thank you for having me. And great to see you.