SECTION 2
Chapter 6:
The Headcount Case
5 minute read
The quarterly reviews were already on everyone’s calendar—scheduled weeks before any of this started. Reid recognized that he was better prepared for these reviews than ever before.
He set the standard template aside.
Instead, he opened each review with the team member’s two worksheets—Relevant Business Results and Value-Added Outputs. For Ingrid, Devon, and Amara, the sets were already complete. For Tomás, this was the first conversation. The first part of the review went to completing the worksheets—naming the result, wording the output, agreeing on criteria. Either way, what ended up on the desk wasn’t a summary. It was a shared understanding—started in the first conversation, agreed and confirmed now.
"This is what we built together," he said, at the start of each conversation. "Tell me what’s changed, what’s missing, or what you’d say differently."
The reviews took less time than any performance reviews Reid had run before—even the ones that doubled as the second working sessions with the worksheets. That surprised him. He’d expected the detail to slow things down. Instead, the work they’d done upfront had already answered most of the questions a review was supposed to cover. No sparring over whether something merited "meeting expectations" versus "exceeding expectations." No careful interpretation of what a manager said between the lines. The language of value was clear, because they’d filled out this scoreboard together. They weren’t evaluating; they were confirming.
Ingrid was first. She arrived with two additions and a number correction. "This feels different," she said partway through. "Usually I spend the week before reviews trying to remember everything I did. But I’d already recorded everything that mattered. This is just—what I accomplished. I don’t have to convince you of anything. We already agreed."
"That’s exactly how it should be," Reid said. “I think it’s easier on me and on you.”
Devon came in with his phone open to the app. He’d been using it on his own since their first conversation—outputs, connected results, and for each status meeting a short paragraph to tell the story of what had happened. "Nobody can argue with a story they can read, connected to the results," he said.
Amara’s review was exceptionally easy. He had already seen the results she collected. Their discussion mostly focused what she felt was her next growth area.
Tomás was thrilled with his discussion. It wasn’t easy, and they would eventually need more discussions. Reid felt he finally had a way to capture the training, coaching, and technical support Tomás gave every customer—invisible work he’d never had language for before.
Reid thought about how many Devons and Danis and Amaras were in organizations across the CorporateBall league—people doing real work, producing measurable value, who were just learning to see it clearly enough to claim it. He thought about Tomás, whose value was woven through too many years of decisions to trace. He felt grateful to finally have a tool that easily made their real value easy to see and track.
At the end of each review, Reid made the same offer.
"I want to do something I should have offered already," he said. "In the app—once you’ve entered your results—you can submit them to me for validation. I can confirm what I’ve seen, what I know to be accurate. And then, when you share your results with anyone—a future employer, a promotion committee, anyone—the validation shows up along with your numbers." He paused. "It’s not just your word. It’s evidence with a manager’s confirmation attached."
Validation: A manager's confirmation of your recorded results. It's not required, but once given, it travels with your evidence to a promotion committee, a future employer, or anywhere your value needs proving.
He didn’t demand that they use the app and get his validation. He offered it. The difference mattered to him.
When he made the offer to Ingrid, she looked at him steadily. "I’ll gladly take you up on that."
***
The last review that week was with Dani. Two days before her final day. He’d almost left it off the schedule. But Dani had asked when she saw the calendar invites go out.
"Am I getting one?"
He’d taken her off the schedule, but her originally scheduled time slot was still open. "Do you want one?"
"Yes," she said. Without hesitation. “I’ve heard from the others about what you’re doing different.”
They worked through both worksheets together, Relevant Business Results and Value-Added Outputs. Dani had two helpful suggestions to the intake process numbers that made the picture more precise.
When they finished, Reid sat back and looked at what was on the desk between them: two complete worksheets, a Relevant Business Result with a Value-Added Output already tied to it, both already agreed upon.
He thought back to the headcount justification document he hadn’t been able to finish for her on that first day, two weeks ago now—the cursor blinking after her name, the two deleted attempts. Whoever took over Dani’s role now would inherit it with expected value metrics already attached.
"This is going to be the easiest requisition I’ve ever had to write," he said, half to himself.
"Because you already know what metrics have to move," Dani said. She wasn’t asking.
"That’s exactly it," Reid said. "I used to write these backward—a list of skills, a vague job description, then hope the right person would make something of it. This time I start with the result, the number the business already tracks, then work down to the outputs the role has to produce to move it. I’m not guessing what goes in the box. It’s already sitting right here."
Dani was quiet for a second. "That’s exactly where I fell apart in that interview," she said. "They asked for the measurable impact of my work, and I started listing what I did all day. I never once said the word 'margin' or 'onboarding time' until they asked me twice. If I’d started with the result—the one thing they actually track—I wouldn’t have needed the whole weekend to figure out what I was even trying to say."
"Same mistake, from opposite ends," Reid said. "I was building descriptions with no result attached. You were describing effort with no result named. Neither one means anything until you start with the number the business already watches."
"Start with the result, the thing the business actually cares about," Dani repeated, like she was filing it away for the next interview she’d ever sit through.
"I’ll validate everything I can confirm before Friday," he said. "Take that with you. It’ll matter more than a reference letter."
She looked at her phone. "You know, I’m going to walk into my new company and suggest they do this with everyone."
"I hope you do."
"They won’t know what hit them," she said, with satisfaction.
Reid smiled. "Neither did I," he said. "Neither did I."
Joel nodded. “I’ll put something on your calendar.”
***
That was the last review, so he pivoted and pulled out the headcount justification. He’d written a partial draft after the first meetings last week. Now he was ready.
More than ready. He had all he needed in front of him. And he was ahead of schedule.
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