🦈 What appearing on Shark Tank taught me about workforce management

Eons ago, I had the surreal opportunity of appearing on the hit TV show Shark Tank at the height of its popularity. This is a true story about how I learned the power of knowing how to measure performance and how to talk about performance in changing outcomes. Sounds like a stretch? Stay with me.

In 2012, I was invited to pitch my thriving tech-enabled services business in front of the Sharks. As you'd imagine, these pitches are practiced ad nauseam before filming to iron out all the wrinkles. A day before filming with the Sharks, all this practice culminates in a full "dress rehearsal", where the producers go over every detail of the filming and the pitch.

My then-business partner and I, both type-A recent Wharton MBAs, knew a thing or two about over-preparation. And so, we walk into the dress rehearsal overflowing with confidence.

And then it's our turn to do the dry run. And we kill it.

Or so we think, till we come face-to-face with producer Bill.

"That was fine....", says Bill.

Fine?! What more does the man want?

"...but you need figure out how to turn up the energy by about 3x, and look wayyy more excited and animated to appear just normal on camera."

"Yessir", we say. We go straight to the nearby convenience store, pick up 6 Red Bulls, and start practicing turning up our energy.

Next day, we show up for the actual taping (while chugging Red Bulls).

In the green room, minutes before walking in front of the Sharks, appears our friend Bill again.

"They are ripping everyone to shreds today over valuations. You won't get aired if it becomes about valuation. Ask for less money."

"In Bill we trust". We go in front of the Sharks and ask for 25% less money, 100% jacked up on Red Bull.

We do the pitch. We not only get a deal, but are also chosen to be aired as the last pitch on the season finale of the highest rated season of the show, ever.

Bill was the perfect "co-pilot" we needed to up our performance and not get eaten alive in the Tank. I find it fascinating to think about what he did, and what lessons we can all learn in driving performance management at our own businesses.

Having a clear "Scorecard" for performance and quality

"Be animated. Don't get caught in the valuation conversation." Bill had developed his own formula- after overseeing hundreds of episodes- for what led to fantastic or flopped pitches.

It would be great if you could have such a formula for performance clearly defined for your workforce. At Arya, we believe that if you're in the "services" business (translation: your people are the product) , you must have a clearly articulated point of view on performance. Our customers call this the Arya Score- a measure of quality and performance, powered by real-time data from across your company.

If you're not clear on how your organization values everything from showing up to shifts on time, to getting good customer reviews, to keeping your credentials and availability up to date, you're asking your workforce to fly without a radar.

When- and how- you communicate about performance matters

It wouldn't be particularly helpful if Bill said "I knew it" after we bombed our pitch. Instead, Bill told us what we needed to do better as soon as he had the data, and he knew how to package it to 2 type-A personalities for maximum impact.

In the full-time knowledge work setting, we rely on things like career ladders and competency matrices and quarterly performance reviews as a way to motivate and course-correct employees.

But if you're a healthcare worker , or a construction worker, or a retail or warehouse worker, the only piece of feedback you usually receive from your company is a paycheck every 2 weeks (or worse yet, a termination letter). Companies either don't have the capacity or expertise to be able to do performance management at scale, or they are too afraid that their frontline managers will say something that will cause more harm than good or expose them to lawsuits.

Everyone deserves a Bill in their corner. And there's now technology that allows you to give everyone their own Bill without worrying about the downsides.

Something Bill never said, but needs to be said

Bill didn't need to give us a reason to listen to- or act on- his feedback. It's because our incentives were clear- we wanted to get a deal with the Sharks. Performance management isn't that simple in the real-world.

When you want to improve performance, a pat on the back may be too small a carrot, and a slap on the wrist may be too long a stick.

The late Charlie Munger said, "show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcome."

It's not surprising, then, that a lot of services operators want to tie performance scores to financial incentives using Arya's pay campaigns.

But how do you design the right incentives to drive performance changes without setting money on fire?

This will require me telling you another Shark Tank story about how we turned down Kevin O'Leary after the show, and how he offered to host us for an extra day to wine and dine with him as a way to reconsider.

Until next time.

Kunal Sarda
CEO@ Arya
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunalsarda/
540-250-2633