How to Evaluate Your Team on Results and Values: Cameron Herold's Four Boxes

May 27, 2014

5 min read

Updated: Oct 29

Most owners know who their best people are. Fewer have a simple way to see the whole team at once, and fewer still act on what they see. Cameron Herold, a business mentor, coach and former chief operating officer, uses a tool he says was drawn for him by the CEO of General Electric, describing a system from Jack Welch's era. It is a square split into four boxes. Results run up the side, from low to high. Core values run along the bottom, from low to high. Every six months you put each of your direct reports in a box, then each of their direct reports. Cameron says it takes about 20 minutes. The value is in what you do next, and in being honest about the box that hurts most.

Inspired by Paper Napkin Wisdom Episode 83 with Cameron Herold.

What to do with low results and low values

The bottom left box is the easy one, and Cameron says few CEOs struggle with it. Low results, low values. You set them free.

That phrase can sound callous. It isn't. By the time someone lands here, their leader has usually been on them about missed objectives and poor alignment. They know every day that they are not doing the job, and they are not enjoying it either. Nobody likes coming to work, missing results and not fitting the culture.

Another company may have very different values. One office works independently, another works collaboratively. Someone who wasn't great for you can be great somewhere that fits better.

How to keep your A players

The top right box holds people with high results and high values. Cameron calls them the people you have to handcuff to the company. These are your God forbid they ever quit people.

The key is that every A player wants something different. More vacation, equity or phantom stock, more responsibility, a division to run, leadership development, visibility in the press. One program for everyone doesn't work.

Cameron tells of a business owner who gave one of his A players a 20% raise every year for three years. She quit anyway, for less money and more vacation. She didn't have time to spend what she was making. He had never listened to what satisfied her.

The good news is that A players will usually tell you what they want if you ask. When Cameron was COO from 2000 to 2007, he didn't want more money or more time off. He wanted visibility in the press and a speaking platform. That is what kept him.

What to do when someone fits the culture but misses results

The bottom right box is high values, low results. These people fit the culture well. Before you coach and train them, Cameron asks whether they are in the wrong seat.

His own school years are the example. He was given a French tutor because he was bad at French. Yet he had won citywide public speaking competitions, but nobody got him a speaking coach. The focus went to his weakness.

He once sat down over coffee with someone who was struggling in customer service. Cameron asked what he had studied. Accounting, and he loved finance. An accounts payable job was opening up the next month. That move came from caring about a person who already fit the culture.

This box deserves real leadership time. Cameron's advice is to help people see how their work aligns with a bigger purpose, tie their projects to company goals, and help them break projects into tasks. The job is to support people, not just hold them accountable.

Why you should let go of a high performer who breaks your values

The top left box is the hard one. High results, low values. The superstar salesperson everyone hates, or the engineer nobody can get along with. Cameron says these people have to go too.

He cites a figure that keeping such a person costs about 15 times their annual salary, because of the negativity and the problems that spin off them. For someone paid 100 grand a year, that is $1.5 million.

His test is simple. Imagine a phone call 20 minutes from now telling you this person has left. You would make a list of the top five things you'd have to do to replace them. So make the list, let them go, and start on item one.

I know this one from the inside. I have held on to top performers who weren't aligned, and looking back I can see how much it hurt me. In the moment, it felt like losing them would sink us. Cameron is blunter about it. Most entrepreneurs hold on because they are scared.

Enron is his warning. Its stated values were communication, respect, integrity and excellence. The company kept people who broke them all the time.

Why the answer has to be yes or no

Cameron treats both axes as binary for this exercise. Are they hitting results, yes or no? Are they living the core values, yes or no? You either cleared the bar or you missed it.

We like the maybe. They're close, they're kind of there. A high performance coach would never accept that answer from an athlete. When Cameron hears that someone almost got there, he hears that they missed. Then the question becomes what was missing in the system. Was the goal set up properly? Was the project broken down, were there milestones, did the team get coaching, are the right people on it?

This is also private. The matrix is not a public measuring stick on the front door. It is a leader's tool for knowing where people are, so you can support them.

How to use the four boxes this week

Set aside 20 minutes this week.

Write the names of all your direct reports, each in one of the four boxes. Then do the same for the people who report to them.
For each person in the top right, ask what would keep them here for years. If you don't know, ask them.
For each person in the bottom right, ask whether they are in the right seat before you invest in training.
For anyone in the top left, write the list of what you would do if they left tomorrow. Then start on it.
Check one more thing. Can the people you call culturally aligned recite your core values? Do they use them as a filter for what they do?

Put the next review in your calendar for six months from now.

Related Insights

If you know who your stars are but haven't acted on the one who doesn't live your values, see what your team is telling you. The Growth Pattern Diagnostic

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