What if performance reviews asked employees a different question?
At Alpaca, we're doing reviews a little differently, and it all starts with understanding what you value most in your work.
Imagine yourself at 80 years old, reflecting on your career. Ask yourself: What in my work life gave me a sense of fulfillment and meaning?
If you’ve ever been a part of a performance review, I’m guessing this question wasn’t a part of the process? What gives you a sense of fulfillment and meaning? What does THAT have to do with how you’re doing at your job?
Your values have everything to do with your job performance, actually.
Because when our work gives us a sense of fulfillment and meaning, we inherently do better work. And performance reviews are about one thing: helping each of us do better work.
I discovered this question, and the Values Exercise, when I read Claire Hughes Johnson’s book Scaling People, and it’s arguably the best leadership book I’ve ever read. She adapted an exercise for the team at Stripe from Stan Slap, a leadership coach for companies all over the world.
The idea is fairly simple: to understand the best work each of us can be doing, we must first identify what our values are in our work.
Why? Because we spend a lot of time at work. And if you’re going to spend a huge amount of your time with Alpaca, you should find your personal values reflected in your day, every day.
Stan Slap says it better than I could:
“To not live your deepest personal values over half your life at work is a crime. Worse, it’s a preventable crime.”
— Stan Slap
If your personal values are around achievement, courage, and mastery, I want your time at work to be spent taking some big risks, learning new skills that support the company’s goals, and winning. If your personal values are around listening, connection, and integrity, I want you to apply your precious hours with Alpaca finding new ways to listen to and connect with educators while creating authentic and genuine experiences and connections.
This week, we’re going to engage in a different kind of “performance review.” Rather than starting with “are you doing a good job at your job as defined by your job description?”, we’re going to engage in an exercise that helps us understand three things:
What in your work life gives you a sense of fulfillment and meaning?
What are the top core values that are represented in your imagining of your fulfilled life (e.g., excellence, joy, balance, community, impact, learning).
What do you need to be doing at work to ensure you’re both supporting the needs of the company while living your deepest personal values at work?
The coolest part? Understanding your values helps your manager support you to be super successful in your role. Many (probably most) of our roles at Alpaca can be accomplished successfully in different ways. In a way, understanding your own values makes every role here completely unique. Think of it this way:
Your personal values + Alpaca’s company goals = Your job description
Finding your way of working that a) accomplishes our company goals and b) honors your values — that’s the work you and your manager have in front of you, and it’s the purpose of this exercise.
It’s not a one way street, either. You’re going to learn a lot about your values (of course), but you’re also going to learn what your manager and what our leadership team values too.
I encourage you to get curious about that question, and understand the values your leader holds most dear. Together, you can work toward the work that helps you both live your values every day at Alpaca. Again, Stan says it really well:
“You cannot live your values without the support of your people.”
— Stan Slap
Alpaca, I can’t wait to learn more about what makes you tick, what gets you out of bed in the morning, and what Future You looks like when you’re living your values while achieving our goals together.
Let’s keep going — it’s going to be a big, fun week!
With Gratitude,
KB
PS: Want to dig in more? Here are some extraordinary talks, books, and resources. Remember, Alpaca will buy you any book that helps you do your job better. Just ask - it’ll show up on your desk in a day or two.
Books:
Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson: Like I said - this is one of the best leadership books I’ve ever read, and it’s a reference guide on my shelf. If you’re interested in leading people, get this book.
Talks & Sites:
Learning Omnivores: How the Values Exercise is used with school principals
Stan Slap talks at Google (17:25 is where he talks about this type of values exercise):
PPS: If you’re applying for a job with Alpaca right now, you’ll find the full exercise we’re doing at this link. Feel free to send us your top three values at careers@getalpaca.com.
This is all an incredible perspective. I highly value leading with each person’s Strengths; this is a different lens. And how did I just now know about your Substack!? :)