Performance Management | Justin Hyde

Episode Transcript of: Performance Management | Justin Hyde

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Justin Hyde. He’s a founding partner at the Hyde Norton group, a company focused on performance management. Justin, welcome to today’s show.

Justin
Thanks, Alan, I appreciate you having me out.

Alan
So Justin, can you give me some background of how you got to where you are today?

Introduction of Justin Hyde, bio below

Justin
Absolutely. By nature, I guess I really enjoy being an entrepreneur. So I’ve had a number of early successes early on in life. And I started out actually with a window washing company. And I built that up to about 1700 clients, and was able to take them and turn that for a pretty good profit. And in the process, got into investing in real estate before the crash.

And we were able to do pretty well in that business. And eventually started a risk management and then a business consulting firm. And now we work in close to all 50 states doing management consulting.

Alan
But you when it’s really moved on the fast track, and is an example of truly what an entrepreneur is, basically, if you’re under 35, or what Yeah, I was 31 years old, 31 years old, and all these businesses and well, so So where you’re at today, you moved over to the side of helping people to do performance management. That’s correct. So when I use the word performance management, what does that mean?

Justin
Absolutely. Early on in my career, I met an individual by the name of Tyler Norton, and Tyler’s father ran strategy for Kraft Foods worldwide, and a handful of other companies. His partner, Jim kilts, was the CEO of Kraft Foods, Nabisco and Gillette. And I was shown a process that I was really fascinated by.

And I realized how I had that process and how I’ve been able to apply that to my businesses early on, I would have had even a greater success on the outcome. And so when we talk about performance management, we’re really talking about accountability, we find that most organizations don’t really have an understanding of what winning is.

So if you ask someone, anybody in any organization, what is winning look like, for this company, we find that most people are rowing in different directions, they don’t really understand what winning looks like as an organization. You have a boss or a CEO that’s calling for commitment. And we use a really simple model in our firm called UAC, which is understand agree commit.

So you have somebody that’s asking for commitment, yet they don’t have an agreement, because there’s no understanding. So for example, I may get home in the afternoon, my wife will say to me, How come you haven’t mowed the yard? Now say I didn’t know I supposed to mow the yard?

And she goes, Well, let me help you understand, if you don’t mow the yard today, if you don’t cut the grass, you’re not sleeping in our bed and you’re not having dinner in my house. So I go out and cut the grass. I’m pretty committed. Because I now understand I now agree, and I’m committed.

Alan
And I think another way to put that is you need to listen to your why. Yeah, that’s exactly right.

Justin
We all know that that’s first and foremost in our homes. Absolutely.

Alan
So So in performance management, then when you’re getting people to greet understand to commit, you know, there’s a there’s a common thread that you’re trying to build them throughout the whole company that everyone’s rowing in the same direction. Yep, that’s exactly right. So how does the company get started using performance management?

Justin
Very good. I may share a quick story along those lines. When my partner graduated from college, he finished the top of his class and was excited about getting out in the corporate world. And he decided to go have dinner with his father who was living in Chicago at the time and his dad said, Hey, I’m gonna take you out on a river or lake dinner boat cruise.

And I’m going to share with you the secret to business and Tyler got very, very excited. He went out on the lake. And, and in the process of this, this dinner, his dad said, I’m gonna share the one secret and and Tyler thought, Man, I you know, he got out his pen and paper and his dad said think most people don’t take the time to think. And Tyler was really ripped off. He felt like he had been given some really bad advice.

And he you know, contemplated this all night long. And so we’re kind of the art guy enemy to Nike, not just do it, but do what, before you decide that you’re going to do it and so you need to get really clear on what winning as an organization.

Alan
You know, it’s all good stuff. Hey, Justin, we need to take a quick break. But after we get back I want to have you talk more about building accountability into your company. Great. We’ll be right back after these messages,

Alan
I’m here today with Justin Hyde. He is a founding partner of the Hyde Norton Group, a firm focused on performance management. And before the break, we were talking about what is performance management and how companies build that into the system? And essentially, if I can summarize that, is that is the process of making people accountable? Is that correct? Yeah, that’s exactly right. So how do you enforce accountability into a company,

Justin
like we mentioned in the segment before you really you have to make sure that the team is on the same page. So you got to make sure everybody on the on the team really understands what the goal or the objective of your company is.

Once everybody understands what the goal or objective is, then then you need to make sure that they’re committed to their objective, you need to make sure that they’re committed to their role or their responsibility, and what is the role of a supervisor, and then, you know, really, the role of a supervisor is not to just manage, but it’s to lead. And there’s a real difference between being a leader and a manager.

A leader is a guy that doesn’t do things just for the numbers, but he pays attention to the ethics and he pays attention to the things that are critical to those guys that are around him. And he does what’s right all of the time. And so really, you know, in order to be a supervisor, and to take that role, or the responsibility as a manager, you need to make sure that you’re leading those around you as well.

Alan
I want to switch over to moving from the manager to how a person should define strategy, accidentally company,

Justin
okay, great. The best definition of strategy I’ve ever heard is strategy is nothing more than leveraging or capitalizing on resources to create competitive advantage. So strategy is really nothing more than leveraging, exploiting and capitalizing on key resources to create competitive advantage. And so I think about strategy this way.

We’ve got a partner in our firm who’s had a three year old son that had a health problem. He was limping around the house, and our partner was kind of amped up and worried about it, his son couldn’t describe to him what was bothering him, but he’s his leg was really hurting him. So my partner took him to the to the doctor’s office, and the doctor said that, we’re gonna go ahead and put a cast on this leg.

And we’ll watch it after a week after we pull the cast off. And if he’s still limping, then we’re going to lead to run a bone scan. So they casted his leg, they took the cast off, they watched him for a week, and he still was limping around the house. So they took him in and they did a bone scan. Now in order to do a bone scan, they had to inject a, a isotope with a half radio life into his blood, and watch it on the scanner.

And they asked my partner to leave the room. And he said, This is my three year old son, I’m not leaving the room, tell me what I’m looking for on the screen. And they looked at the screen, he said, we’re looking for Christmas lights, we’re looking for anything that lights up anything that flashes on the screen. And he saw on the screen, some flashing lights, and my partner started to freak out.

And he said, Don’t worry about that. That’s growth plates. And we’re looking for off growth plate Christmas lights. So they found on the bottom of his leg, there’s a little area that was was lighting up and he said, that’s a pain point. Now they were able to come in and solve that, that as we go in and help organizations define their strategy. We’re looking to solve not only growth for organizations, but also pain points.

And those pain points are called critical issues. We every organization, no matter the age, stage pace or place as six to eight critical issues that need to be solved to help take them to the next level, or keep them above water so to speak.

Alan
How often should a company be redefining Strategic Initiatives

Justin
often, at least once a quarter you should be meeting together as an executive management team and really making sure that you’re aligned and that you have the right strategies in place and you’re achieving your your goals that you set forth to achieve

Alan
so having it having an organization hire you guys to come in. You’re not there to be anybody’s friend.

Justin
Sure. Yeah, we occasionally make a handful of enemies. But in the end, it always works out best for the organization.

Alan
And, and that’s how companies grow. That’s exactly right. Absolutely. I visit here with Justin Hyde. He is the founding partner of the Hyde Norton group of firm focused on performance management. We need to take a quick break, Justin. But after we get back, I want to talk some more about measuring performance by industry. Thanks, Alan. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back and busy here today with Justin Hyde. He is one of the founding partners of the Hyde Norton group, a firm focused on performance management. And before the break, we’re talking about performance management, accountability and organizations. And I want to I want to move over right now and get into talking about measuring performance. Absolutely. So how do you do that?

Justin
No. measuring performance really is a team effort. And I’ll share a story of a company that we helped out nearly seven years ago, when we came in and worked with the organization, there was two employees, they were just launching, they didn’t really have revenue at the time. And we got a call from this organization who implemented an accountability and performance management system.

From the top down. He shared a story we went down, we visited his office, and he showed us in his boardroom, they’ve got several 100 employees. They’ve gone through a couple rounds, rounds of funding from Goldman Sachs and a handful of other private equity and venture capital firms. And he told us a story about his first round of funding, he said that one of the venture capital firms walked into his office.

And he saw his performance management system taped up on the wall. And he said, you don’t really run your business this way. And this, this was in in Arizona, and the sun was shining through the window and, and the gentleman stood up, and he walked over to the wall, and he pulled the tape back on the piece of paper.

And he wanted to see if the paint had faded on that wall if he really day after day and quarter after quarter ran off of this system. And when he realized there was a bunch of pin holes in the wall and realized that the paint had faded from the sunlight that this was a culture in their organization. He quietly walked over close the door and he said we’re going to fund your business.

And so that was a great, great success story of someone that really uses accountability within their organization and help them go to the next level. Now on the other hand, we worked with an organization not too long ago, I flew down, I sat down with the President, the CEO, the chairman of the board, the only executive staff. And we got a few minutes into our initial discovery process.

And the chairman of the board looked at me and he said, I don’t think we need your help. In 15 minutes, I knew their organization was a mess. And I said, Would everybody around this table, please take your piece of paper, flip it over. And tell me what your five strategies are for this organization. And on the top of that piece of paper helped me understand what winning is for your team over the next three years.

So that I know what all 700 of your employees in this office are doing. And they all kind of looked around the table that of each other and and kind of got sheepish and they flipped over their pieces of paper. And not one of those individuals out of all 30 had the same thing written down for winning, nor the same strategies compiled on the piece of paper.

And so you couldn’t expect any one of those 700 employees to really understand what they’re being held accountable for. Nor expect any a performance if they don’t have a clear understanding at the top.

Alan
You know, once companies start getting their performance management together and measuring performance growth is the next step. So how do you manage growth?

Justin
That’s a great question. And that’s a question that most big organizations or smaller organizations that would like to be big ask themselves. One of the gentlemen that was behind the process that we use, suggests that if you don’t have your growth plan on one page, you don’t have a growth plan.

So we see these big, long, elaborate business plan and vision statements and things that get put on the bookshelf and never used. But really, again, it’s just clearly articulating and defining what that growth plan or strategy is. And then helping those that need to execute on it, understand it and know what they need to, to accomplish or be held accountable to.

A great story along those lines is a credit union, one of the largest credit unions in the country that we did some work for.

My partner walked in several months or even a year after the engagement, and visited with one of the tellers, and he kind of smiled, and they looked at her and he said, Hey, could you tell me what the five strategies to your organization or your corporate headquarters your bank is? And she smiled, and she told him all five strategies, and he was kind of taken aback.

And and he said that how do you remember those and she said, Well, we execute them on a on a daily basis. Then she quietly reached behind her cubicle and pulled out a one page plan that had the entire growth strategy for the organization, right there in behind her desk at the teller.

Alan
That’s a great story. And also, it’s a it’s a testimony to a well run company, when an employee can bring that out there. That’s right, bringing this back, a company startup growing, they’re like, Okay, we need some help. What’s the biggest challenge that companies have to implementing their first strategic initiative?

Justin
Excellent. Really, you need to clearly define what resources you’re going to build your strategies around. And so typically, one of the main resources or one of the fault that three to five at an organization note, no matter how big or how small, should never have more than three to five strategies. Now, one of those three to five strategies almost every time is around people.

And you must have good people to grow your organization and to be able to scale. And so I would suggest that in order to build a growth plan and to execute on a growth plan, you’ve got to go out and find the right people.

Alan
Excellent eight, Justin. All good content today, what you brought about performance management, putting companies on the right track, if somebody wants to hire you, how do they find you?

Justin
We’ve got a website, hide norton.com hydnorton.com. And we’d love to visit with whoever is out there and who would like to figure out how to take their company to the next level.

Alan
And what’s the normal process what you cannot visit if you do it by phone? Yeah, absolutely.

Justin
We’ll start with a phone interview and really try to understand what their objectives are and and where their company is currently and where they’d like to go. And then if there’s a fit, then we’ll we’ll get on an airplane and come see him wherever they’re at, and then tried to figure out really what winning is for their organization.

Alan
We’re gonna visit here today with Justin Hyde. He is the founding partner of the Hyde Norton group, a firm focused on performance management. Justin, thank you for being on today’s show.

Justin
Thanks, Alan. It’s been great.

 

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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About Justin Hyde

Justin Hyde is a founding partner and president of the The Hyde-Norton Group an award winning strategic planning and risk management firm. He also manages his firms partnership interests in multiple auto dealerships, health clubs, resort, ranch, and hotel properties, as well as mobile and bio technologies.

Recently The Hyde-Norton Group purchased interest in the Utah Blaze a professional arena football team. Justin also founded the Annual Rocky Mountain Economic Summit & Retreat. The event is hosted every year in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and features many of the world’s foremost experts on world and US economies.

The event is covered live by Bloomberg T.V., CNBC, and Reuters. Attendance is by private invitation only.

Justin is very active in the community both in charity, civic and church organizations. He sits on the Board of Trustees for the Columbus Community Center, a foundation created in 1968 that serves individuals with disabilities within the local community of Salt Lake and its surrounding cities.

He also sits on the board of the Global Interdependence Center, a Philadelphia based nonprofit organization with global reach, founded in 1976.

It’s mission is to encourage the expansion of global dialogue and free trade in order to improve cooperation and understanding among nations, with the goal of reducing international conflicts and improving worldwide living standards.

He recently formed the Bronze Buffalo Foundation and is chairman of the board. Justin currently serves on Mitt Romney’s Finance Team as the Wyoming State Finance Chair. He also enjoys being a leader in the Boy Scouts.

Recently he was selected as one of Utah Business Magazine’s 40 under 40 picks for 2012, a highly selective annual recognition program.

Justin is married to his beautiful wife Stefanie and has one son named Bentley. Justin and his family reside in Holladay, Utah.