This is Why We Don’t Care How Many Calls You Make

Having said that… the right inputs are very important to success. We know this because we recently had a masterclass on High Performance at Orbit which started with a very simple definition of what a high performer looks like:

‘High performers do not focus on the outputs as they aren’t completely within their control. They’re obsessed with improving their own input and they love the process of what they’re doing. This is the only way to maintain high performance, it is a journey not a destination.’

The Input/Output Paradox

On first inspection this goes against one of our core principles as a business - be output focused. How can we be output focused and then bang on about getting the input right. The answer is in our values. Primarily our second value ‘be competitive’ and the context behind it. The competition we mean here is competition against yourself, not competition between employees or even external competition against companies with a similar goal to ours. As long as our people get better week by week then we must be growing as a company.

💡 We purposely don’t say day by day here as everyone has bad days - we feel week by week comes with less pressure and is more realistic. 💡

So what does this leave us? It’s clear that inputs are a personal thing and that is why we trust our people are in control of theirs - we don’t influence them. We’re here to help, mentor and coach, so if one of our people wants some pointers or advice on their inputs then we will do everything we can to support them. After all, personal growth = company growth.

The other side of this coin is making sure that the job is done a way that is consistent with our brand, a way that really personifies our values. This is where our training and incentivisation comes in to the mix. All of the above has led us to adopt a mantra at Orbit:

💡 ‘Focus on outputs, incentivise values and everything else is trust.’ 💡

Focus On Outputs

You get what you measure

At Orbit everyone has a number, this is the desired output linked to their role. To keep it simple, each role has just one desired output they need to focus on. Here are a few examples:

Talent Scout: 6 Meetings a Week

There are so many tools and channels out there for a talent scout to use to identify and engage with the top talent. This is awesome but it can also be the cause of anxiety as there are so many different things to focus on and can feel overwhelming. We encourage our talent scouts to keep it as simple as possible and the single number of ‘meetings booked’ allows them to cut through the noise and focus on what is working for them and easily identify and remove waste in their activities.

Talent Manager: 3 Placements a Month

Being output focused with our Talent Managers means they can also focus on what does and doesn’t work. Not only does this improve focus, but also it gives them license to be consultative and remove the ‘yes man’ attitude that can plague recruiters who are constantly chasing as much as possible. This helps give our people the autonomy to identify a red flag situation and not be afraid to walk away in the knowledge that keeping going wouldn’t be a good use of their time.

Incentivise Values

If your values are so intangible that you can’t assign incentives to them then how are your people supposed to truly live them? We’ve developed our own system to incentivise our people (more on that in another article). In the meantime, here are some of the ways our values are incentivised within that system:

Creative

Escape From a Project Breakout Room: We are very fortunate to have some awesome escape rooms on site in our offices. There aren’t many better ways to improve our teamwork and get the creative juices flowing than going up against some of the best escape rooms in the country.

Write an Article For The Company Blog: Company blogs get far too bland and safe if everything goes through a tight approval process. We want our blog to reflect the company we are with as many different voices, ideas and personalities as possible.

Competitive

Beat Last Week’s Incentive Score: We’ll go through the mechanics of our incentive system in another article, but if you beat the score of the week before then in my book that counts as improving week by week.

Get Over 80% on Your Weekly Habit Tracker: If you haven’t read ‘Atomic Habits by James Clear’ then you definitely should. In the book James introduces the idea of keeping a habit tracker to keep on top of all the positive habits you want to stick to in your week.

Curious

Research & Add a New Page to the Orbit Brain: We have a central operating system or ‘Orbit Brain’ that hosts all of our collective knowledge, processes, standards, ideas, notes, discussions and much much more (again, one for another article). We love it when our people add new elements to this about things they’re passionate about.

Finish a Book/Audiobook/Video and Share Learns: Part of our ‘Orbit Brain’ is the Learning List, a collection of everything we’ve consumed that we’ve found valuable and why. This includes everything from books, to podcasts, to videos, to newsletters. The latest addition was by our new starter Ed and it was the Michael Jordan documentary on Netflix ‘The Last Dance’.

Caring

Get a LinkedIn Recommendation from Someone You Didn’t Place: It’s easy to get a LinkedIn recommendation from someone you’ve placed, you’re in a win-win relationship. Getting one from someone who’s been unsuccessful means you’ve shown you genuinely cared about them and their job search to the point where you’ve added value over and above the usual recruitment transaction.

Refer a Candidate For a Role You’re Not Working: For us, caring is taking a short term loss if it means doing the right thing. Recommending a candidate for a role even though it doesn’t benefit you is absolutely this.

Credible

Write & Deliver a Masterclass to the Team: Learning at Orbit is democratised, we all have something to learn and teach whatever our job title. We love hearing new ideas, new perspectives and learning new things from everyone.

Complete Some External Training: There are so many incredible recruiters, thought leaders & courses out there that we haven’t discovered yet. The more of that knowledge we can bring into the business the better.

Everything Else is Trust

The rest is all about trust, and that comes from hiring the right people and making sure they feel valued, communicated with and given direction. In a previous article I wrote about who Orbit Isn’t a Good Fit For and I think that fits in nicely to the conclusion of this article.

💡 In fact the conclusion is the same - we’re not for everyone. 💡

If you don’t fit with the values and aren’t hungry to learn, teach and grow then Orbit isn’t for you. Yes, we’re output focused and your inputs are your business but that is a polarising style. It either works very well or goes tremendously wrong depending on every individual. Our model is at its best with high performers who themselves are extremely input focused and are so focused on excellence that they’re already at least one step ahead of any feedback given.

So if you're living the values, focusing on the right outputs, and pursuing the high performance attitude of owning and improving your inputs then the results will take care of themselves. And that is why we don't care how many calls you make, we’d much rather use our energy helping you  grow as a person. After all, personal growth = company growth.

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