Orangeworks Insights is a new podcast series that gets to the root of high performing teams and employee engagement. We ask questions such as; What makes employees tick? What’s the secret to putting together the perfect team? How can you make your team members feel more engaged and surpass targets? We’ll meet and talk to team leaders from major companies, psychologists, and well-known sportspeople who can all offer unique and insightful perspectives on this crucial subject.
Let’s kick off our very first podcast episode with an Insight into How the worlds leading CRM company, Salesforce builds teams and keeps employees engaged with Terri Moloney, Senior Director of Employee Success at Salesforce.
In this episode of Orangeworks Insights, Terri talks about:
- High performing teams, employee engagement, how to get them both right
- How to balance resources between the teams that are doing well and those that are not
- How Salesforce uses data to boost employee engagement
- Why Terri doesn’t believe big companies should have full-service kitchens onsite
- The one thing that every company Terri has worked for excels at and is central to their success
“You know teams tend to evolve rather than being built.”
“We have to do some work with that to make sure that the team is setup as successfully as possible with the skills that are either in the team or to identify gaps that might exist in the team and unveil those. So it’s almost a dynamic process.”
“It’s looking at do you have the right scales obviously to achieve the goal that you’re setting out to do. But also do you have enough different perspectives because what you don’t want is just more of the same. Sales force is known for its innovation and I think bringing together people who can be innovative who can be creative and unusual mixes actually tends to produce very unusual results usually very positive sometimes you know not but that’s OK too because failure is only a learning experience so. But really making sure that we build the team and we continue to build that team as it evolves to create the right dynamic.”
“We bring people into the organisation at all levels, all ages, all cultures. That in itself creates diversity creates different perspectives, that cognitive diversity”.
In the following extract, Terri explains how Salesforce approaches underperforming teams. She also discusses how they support and encourage transparency and communication within high performing teams.
“Understand the problem, first and foremost. One of our philosophies in Salesforce is the person first rather than the problem first. So trying to understand what the problem is. Is somebody underperforming? or the team is underperforming because there’s a problem within the team dynamic? is there an individual that’s maybe not pulling their weight because of something that’s gone on at home? So if you start from the bottom up work with the individuals on the team and try and fix it that way through supportive structures and support of approaches first. We try to create an environment where people can actually talk and say things without fear of consequence, being able to give feedback both positive and negative feedback. If we can get [the team dynamic] right then it really overcomes a lot of those performance issues.”
“We spend a lot of time investing in our high performers to really get them super ready to move on and take on the next challenge quickly.”
“We have a process called a veto mom which is Vision Values methods obstacles and measures. It’s essentially our plan for the year or two years. It starts at Marc Benioff, our founder and CEO. From there then at each level of the organisation they look at Marks V to mom and how [they] can contribute to the goals of the company. And they write their plan for the year. How can they support the one above. And then it cascades down to the organisation.”
If you enjoyed this podcast episode of Orangeworks Insights, be sure to subscribe or follow us on:
…or wherever you get your podcasts.
Never miss an episode of Orangeworks Insights.
If you want to learn more about high performing teams, check out our blog on 3 ways role play games can help boost your team’s performance.
