Anthony Onesto
The New Employee Contract
How to Find, Keep, and Elevate Gen Z Talent
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Logo of the publisher
Anthony Onesto
Staten Island, NY, USA
ISBN 978-1-4842-8053-9 e-ISBN 978-1-4842-8054-6
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-8054-6
Anthony Onesto 2022
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To My Core - Debbie, Nicolette, Frankie, and Ella - thank you for inspiring me every day. Remember, hearts and smarts, always.
Thanks to B.J. Mendelson for his help in researching the topics in the book.
Foreword
Matt Britton, CEO, Suzy
Earlier in my career, I believed that culture was just a buzzword. Something uttered by thought leaders as a form of virtue signaling. How could something not directly connected to my companys revenue matter? I would utter to myself. Then, when I was running my marketing agency, I was blindsided when a top-performer told me she was leaving. I didnt understand why she would want to leave; we just had our best year ever and earned nearly double what she had the year prior. When I pressed her as to why she made her decision, she said, I just dont feel like I am a part of a culture that is allowing me to grow.
At that moment, the value of culture started to carry much more weight. If my high-performing team members didnt feel valued and inspired, then their ability to help me achieve our business goals would be diminished or, in this case, non-existent. I decided to prioritize our team, their growth, and our CULTURE just as much as our customers and our balance sheet.
Over the past two decades, I have continued to lead high-performing organizations that have strived to leverage culture as a secret weapon. I have made a ton of mistakes along the way, but at the same time have uncovered some clear mandates in recruiting, engaging, and training high performers in fast-paced environments:
Embrace initiative as a core pillar: create an environment where people are encouraged to develop and run new projects even if it is outside of their responsibilities. Allow others to become intrapreneurs, and your business will expand to areas you never dreamed of.
Beware of middlers: A great company is made up of thinkers and doers, and an average company is made up mainly of those that are neither. Be clear about your expectations of your team and their impact on your companys goals.
Set fewer, more precise goals: Set goals around your people, your product/service, and your revenue; anything else is simply a distraction. Make it a priority to ensure that everyone is clear on how their jobs ladder up to company goals.
Embrace their side hustles: The dreams and aspirations of your team dont start and end with those of your business. Each employee has their own set of goals that may involve working on side hustles. The more you embrace this, the more they will embrace your vision.
Let them leave with a smile: There will be a time when some of your best performers will decide to leave; let them and make it clear the door is always open. Always remember that their journey isnt just about fostering yours.
Set clear goals & paths for advancement: Make it crystal clear what is needed for your team to advance, commit to consistent and thorough performance reviews, make sure everyone knows where they stand.
Promote emerging stars with reckless abandon: The genuinely great emerging stars wont come along often, and when they do, prioritize their ascent. Throw your conventional notions of experience and age out the window; the stars will wait for nobody.
Be data-driven: When you benchmark metrics such as employee happiness and recognition, your decisions suddenly become more clear. You will never have to question if your culture is improving or eroding when you have data to tell the story for you.
Never forget to have fun: What is it all for? Embrace the rid, the ups and the downs, the wins, and the losses. One day your business will be a memory, if not to you, to so many others that will come in and out of your doors. Let them remember the celebrations, the adventures, and the triumphs where the beauty of business lives.
I have had the pleasure of working with Anthony Onesto for the better part of the last five years as we have been building a fast-paced, high-performing culture at our enterprise software company Suzy. Whatever definition I had constructed in my head of a modern, robust business culture has been forever reinvented through my collaboration with Anthony. Anthony possesses a unique ability to merge the art of an inclusive and motivating work environment while also prioritizing the data and processes needed to scale. He led Suzy in deploying sophisticated technologies and techniques that have enabled our leadership team to indeed have our finger on the pulse of our growing teams. To identify issues before they become problems and to seize opportunities so they can become movements.
Throughout Anthonys tremendous contributions at Suzy, our company has successfully assembled a growing world-class team that drives elite results in a hyper-competitive enterprise software market. Without Anthonys presence, I do not doubt that we would have achieved a fraction of the success that we have managed to attain. And we are just getting started.
I was honored when Anthony asked me to write the Foreword to this book, and I feel that it is a must-read to anyone that strives to create an inclusive and high-performing culture built for tomorrows employees. If you want to understand how to deploy empathy, embrace a data-driven culture, and create something built to last, you have come to the right place. Im looking forward to seeing the impact Anthonys work will continue to have on the business community.