#15 Giving Employees the Right to be Entrepreneurs

Fish in the Boardroom

With Christophe Barman

If culture is key when it comes to having more diversity, then companies following new leadership models, such as Holacracy, should be inherently having more diversity. But is this true? And what does it look like to have a company culture so strongly based on values and trust? A company where there are no hierarchies and spreading power amongst employees is truly lived?

To gain a perspective on these questions, I talked to Christophe Barman, who created such an organization. We talked about how diversity is lived a Loyco. About what self-directed and self-responsible employees need, as well as how decisions are made when there is no authority role.

“The workplace is the only place after your parent's home, where someone else decides for you when you have to come, what you do and how you dress.”

What you will learn

· How giving full trust and authority to employees allows you to empower them to feel responsible and become responsible entrepreneurs within your company

· How using roles rather than positions, allows you to spread power amongst the team and give the right people the right authority

· The importance of feedback and coaching to truly enable people to live up to what is expected of them

Tips

· Don’t compromise on your values, be clear about them and specific about the habits that such values bring. Give feedback on that.

· Reflect on your vision of authority and trust. How do you feel about spreading authority amongst your team? Would you trust them enough?

· What is your definition of performance and success?

Resources

Christophe and Loyco’s inspiration for Loycocracy :

· Start with Why, Simon Sinek

· Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux

· Holacracy, Brian J. Robertson

Find Christophe online

LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

Overview of Christophe’s roles at Loyco

Loyco

Biography

Graduate of HEC (MSc, Lausanne, Innsbruck) and holder of a certificate in risk management, Christophe Barman is committed to sustainability, participative management training and risk management.

Passionate about human adventures, mountains and sports, Christophe is very active in the associative world: president of Geneva Snowsports, vice-president of Ski Romand and of the sports commission of the Loterie Romande (Geneva), president of the IDDEA Award of sustainable entrepreneurship and of the Fédération Romande des Consommateurs (FRC) and a member of the Board of the Swiss Banking Ombudsman and of Promotion Santé Suisse.

Christophe co-founded Loyco in 2013, a service company in French-speaking Switzerland that has grown to over 100 Loycomates and CHF 14 million in turnover in 7 years, without sales force nor hierarchy.