features
Eight Things that Increase Engagement Every Day
Here is the leadership checklist. If you follow-it, being creative
and identifying ways to satisfy each, you will notice a significant
increase in the level of engagement in your people and teams.
And the results you achieve.
1. People need to know what the company is trying to do.
Think about it. Your people are fighting to succeed everyday and sometimes
all they can see are the tactical decisions and actions happening around
them. Some may make sense, some may not. In order to fully understand,
you need to take them to a higher level, explaining what the company is
trying to accomplish. What is our strategy and why ? What decisions link
with the execution of this strategy ? Sometimes things are being done well,
and sometimes mistakes are being made. Only by knowing the true intent
of the company, can your people ultimately value being a part of the
experience. What can you do to be sure your people know all about what
the company is trying to do ?
Some Tips
• Get a hold of the company “Dream, People, Culture” videos and share
some of the key ideas with your team. These include Brito’s speech at
the SLC, the DPC opening video, Interview with Jim Collins, movie scenes
that show our culture in action, etc. Contact your Zone or Country
Communications Teams to access these.
• Have regular meetings with your people. One to cascade key messages.
At other meetings, in addition to reviewing team targets, discuss what is
happening around the company and why. Be candid about challenges.
Remind everyone that in the face of these challenges, it is not the
company’s intention to make life difficult for people… that we are trying
to build a winning company and in doing so, much change is required,
and engagement is critical.
2. People need to value being part of the experience.
So your people know what the company is trying to do and the culture
we are creating. The important thing is to first hire the right people,
those that like this kind of environment : results - focused, accountability,
some pressure, informality, action orientation, challenging development
experiences, etc. At InBev, the best thing is to hire motivated people that fit
the culture and the leadership job becomes that much easier. For people
who are already here, be sure they are connecting to the company and are
inspired by our Dream. You have to want to be the best and you must have
people with the commitment to make it happen.
Some Tips
• Take time to go to recruiting events and find people that fit here. Take
time to interview carefully, test them for certain skills… and if you have
the right person, move quickly or they will be gone.
• The first few weeks on-the-job are critical for new people. Ensure proper
induction and continuity between the recruiting messages and their first
experiences with InBev. If you are absent, and if the induction is disorganized,
then there will problems right away. Your People teams have an induction
kit for you to use covering those areas that transcend any function. Your
function or local business should also have a plan in place.
• Check in with people on a regular basis. Things are very challenging,
and we feel this is a good thing. However, you need to stay close to your
people to see how they are doing.
3. People need to know what is expected of them and how they
contribute to the results of the company.
Leaders need to spend an adequate amount of time setting targets that make
sense. Leaders should ensure these targets are stretched, but also realistic,
based on some kind of benchmark. Lastly, leaders need to engage their people
and develop a Dream for the team that connects to the company Dream.
Some Tips
• Do everything you can to be sure the targets are right. Targets need to be
SMART. Specific, Measurable, Achievable (and stretch), Relevant (in line
with company and function priorities), and Time-Bound. If they are not
written in this way, people can be disappointed to find that they did not
achieve their targets because they were not measurable in the first place.
• If you don’t believe in them, challenge them. What do we mean by
challenge ? We mean you have the right to respectfully ask for where that
target came from. What benchmark, fact-base, or understanding leads us
to believe that it can be reached—even if only an 80% chance of success.
Once established, communicate clearly to your people on your team.
• Once you go to your team, be clear about expectations. Connect their
contributions to the targets to the overall team, department, function or
business. Recognize that targets are improvement areas. Expectations
also include routine aspects of anyone’s job.
• Develop a team Dream that inspires your group. Reference progress
against this in your monthly team meetings.
4. People need to know where they, and their team, stand
against these expectations.
It is the role of a leader to connect the dots and provide feedback. The
leader is in a unique position to do this.
Some Tips
Meet regularly through 1 :1 or in team meetings to let people know how
they are doing.
• Give them feedback early and often. Remember, they only see their work
most of the time, and they need to know they are making a difference for
the team and the company. Monitor results and let people know. Also
show them how the business is performing overall and challenge them to
contribute even more.
• Ensure you follow the People Cycle and discuss results of competency review.
• Be clear and communicate their OPR rating and what it means.
5. Our people need to be rewarded for meeting and exceeding
expectations.
Rewards are more than just money. In fact, money ranks seventh on the list
of what motivates people in many countries. When is the last time you
celebrated the little things ? The big things ? Make a big deal of it when it
makes sense. Let people know how they are doing and comment on the
specific behaviors they exhibit that were key to the success. And celebrate.
How about the following tips
• Say Thank you
• Dinner gift certificate for they and their spouse or movie passes to
recognize a job well done
• Inviting team to a celebratory BBQ at your house
• Celebrate birthdays
• When there is some practice worth sharing, give people the forum to
share this with peers in the team or even across functions
• Nominate ownership behavior in the Global InBev Owners program
• Identify a best practice and ensure people submit it to the best
practice events.
6. People need to be known by their leader.
Do you spend time with your people ?
Some Tips
• Just meet at least once to review their targets, offer support, and coach them.
• Ensure you spend time with them on performance reviews, identifying
the development plans and career interests
• Check in on how they are feeling and are they able to achieve a balance
with their families ?
• Try to know more about your people's personal interests and family.
7. People need to have enough resources and support.
One of the challenges we face is we all have beliefs about what is possible
and not possible. This is quite natural, as we are only human. However,
these beliefs sometimes are not helpful to us. Sometimes they limit what
we can accomplish. There is a great book you can read called “Every
Business is a Growth Business” that discusses how we as leaders can address
these mental models and develop a cultural mindset around growth.
After all, growth and top line is fun, creates a lot of energy, and promotes
even more dynamic thinking in the organization. The book is written by
Ram Charan if you care to pick it up.
These beliefs, which are sometimes called “mental models,” inhibit us.
One belief is that that InBev is all about costs. That we won’t invest in the
resources needed to win. Not true. InBev just wants to challenge people
to be creative, doing more with less. Studies show that people often find
interesting and innovative ways to achieve results when challenged in this
fashion. If you need more resources, build the fact-base and prove your
case. Bring the ROI, because InBev is about creating value.
Some Tips
• Reframe your people’s thinking. How ? Tell them to assume (only for
the purpose of this exercise) that target “x” can be achieved with the
currently available resources. What would they do to achieve it ?
Interestingly, this kind of exercise opens minds and allows for possibilities
never before considered.
• If they have a mental model that is not useful, ask them to argue the
other way. Can they identify a reason the belief is not true ? Or even
better, ask what they think the intentions are of the company. For
example, if people say we cannot celebrate at InBev because ZBB does
not allow it. What are the true intentions of InBev. Are they to eliminate
celebrations ? Of course not. Celebration is part of our DNA.
• Teach people how to build a fact base that supports value creation :
ROIC-WACC.
8. People need to know how to succeed.
Have you checked out the development options available to you at InBev ?
These will be listed in SHARP, so feel free to build your development plans
around them. InBev is investing more than ever in training and development.
features
As it relates to the behavioral competencies, here are the priority skill areas How do people learn these skills ?
to focus upon :

Leadership Management Method Functional Skills

• Business Sense • Analytical skills & • Skills and process
(Acumen); problem-solving unique to your job
sometimes referred and function, as
to as “finance for • PDCA/SDCA defined by your
non-financial” • Project Management excellence programs
• Strategic Planning • Company
• Critical thinking & performance
Decision-making processes

• Persuasion / • Target setting &

negotiation monitoring

• Networking across • ZBB monitoring &

boundaries & control
cultures • Talent Management
In many companies, a long list of training courses is offered where people sign
• Communication • People Development
skills - questions, up and typically enjoy. This may be fine for most companies; however, it is not
listening, feedback • Management rituals the real way people learn. In fact, research indicates that less than 10% of the
that apply to
content covered in these workshops is actually retained by the participants
coaching,
presenting, and even less.
facilitating, etc.
• Building & The graphic above shows that people actually learn in the same way they
developing teams learned how to ride a bike : by doing things. Accordingly, this is largely the
• Change approach of InBev. When building your development plan around a skill you
Management want to develop, you will see recommended solutions that focus on
experiences, coaching & feedback, and self-directed learning. Yes, there will
be some workshops in a handful of very important areas—though people who
fit our culture recognize and appreciate the value of doing things and learning
from this experience. This is training at InBev. Not normal for most companies,
but we are not an ordinary company. And you are not an ordinary leader.

As an example, take a look at examples of the types of development solutions in this table (in this case for the skill of project management).

Skill Classification Audience Solution Covers

Identify project involving your function that you can join and
contribute, above and beyond your current role - supported
On-the-Job Experience :
Project Management Experiences & Coaching Anyone, anytime by coaching from project manager. Opportunity to
Join Projects
experience working on a functional / cross functional
projects first hand learning ho

Identify project where your manager or a colleague is

involved and “shadow” their work behind the scenes while
On-the-Job Experience :
Project Management Experiences & Coaching Anyone, anytime getting coaching. Opportunity to better understand what is
Shadowing
involved with project work, perhaps contribute behind the
scenes via a third party, l

Course requires that you have a project you are working on

InBev Workshop : and during the “classroom” experience you will learn the
Project Management External Workshop Band IV, V, IVa
Project Management management and leadership skills necessary to lead a
project from start to finish, with the desired results

Become a leader of a cross-functional project above and

beyond your current role. After having participated in 1 or
On-the-Job Experience :
Project Management Experiences & Coaching Band V 2 projects, learned from the experience, here is great chance
Lead a Project
for you to take the lead in smaller project and get some
experience…

On-the-Job Experience : PACE : Switch role to take on full time assignment

Project Management Experiences & Coaching Band IV
PACE Move responsible for project.

features
And in keeping with our InBev focus on challenge, we have PACE. Research has Also, be one the lookout for workshops in seven critical areas for InBev :
shown that taking on challenges and being stretched is the best way to grow/
Leadership Method
develop. These challenges can come from mainly 4 areas : PACE
1. Business Impact (Acumen) 1. Project Management

P = Challenging People Management Experiences (such as a Plant Manager or 2. Coaching 4 Results 2. White Belt/PDCA
sales supervisor) 3. Leading Teams @ InBev 3. Green Belt
A = Challenging assignments (such as a global project or audit mission) 4. Persuasion / Negotiation
C = Commercial roles (direct within sales or marketing or indirect in working
closely with them)
E = Expertise roles (the one you likely trained for coming out of University) These programs were developed by a global team (including the zones)
and are available in most zones each year. Please ask your local People team
PACE is for everyone, as we expect from everyone that they keep on developing about these.
by taking on challenges and being stretched (ref "We think big and take on big
challenges"), even when they stay at the same level or function. Lastly, each zone offers a variety of initiatives locally that fall under behavioral
and/or functional areas.
However, the level of challenges that you take on, will be different for everyone,
depending on your potential and ambition. If you want to grow to the top, Some Tips
you need to take on big challenges that really put you out of your comfort • If you care about development, build a development plan and ensure
zone, and this usually implies moving across functions and geographies. your line managers aligns with it. Share it with your People teams or
People who prefer to stay in their function, should also consider taking on learning
different challenges by e.g. taking on a project, moving closer to the operations support people.
by taking on an indirect commercial role (PPM commercial, People sales
manager, country finance director). • Meet 1x monthly to discuss progress against targets with each member
of your team. Help them problem-solve
For the High Potential Pool and coach them on how to achieve
For those classified in this area (people that have an OPR rating of 4a or 4b in these objectives.
any given band), there are the cornerstone leadership development options
found here : • At the same meeting, engage them
regarding their development plans.
Track these as you do targets.

• InBev believes in leader-led learning.

This means you need to get involved
coaching at 1 :1 meetings, teaching at 1 :
Team meetings, and supporting learning
events where you help others grow.

• Hold your people accountable for learning.

Check on how they apply the learning
and ensure they bring something back to
the company.

features