Happy April Fools day!
Today’s post is no joke, values are an important part of building a strong Corporate Culture.
Anything that changes your values changes your behavior. ~George A. Sheehan
image courtesy of Billy Alexander
Mixed messages are prevalent in many companies. Companies who are truly innovative and collaborative address these conflicting statements and work with the entire employee population to develop a set of values and guidelines for the company. With a set of clearly articulated values and guidelines, all actions in regard to company direction, decisions and risks can be based by following that clear set of values or in other words; “Walking the talk of who we say we are as a company.”
Companies without a clear set of values are taking a scary risk.
Companies who do not follow a clear set of values risk paying lip-service to those values. Taking action and setting direction with tunnel vision, continuing to send conflicting messages about what they say and do only mixes up employees tying to take action. Employees WANT to do well for the company if they are given the opportunity.
Let me make myself clear – Values are not a list of things a company says they do on a website somewhere. Values are a code of conduct for clients and employees alike, “This is how we behave here and we guarantee it”.
That means when a company identifies their values, they have to commit to those values at an executive and management level. Commitment means backing those values up with actions and support at every level, and yes, even the executive must live up to those values.
Mixed messages come in many forms, and a lot of companies are not even aware they’re doing it!
Here are some examples of mixed messages:
- We are building an innovative organization
o We have a strong risk aversion process to avoid any and all risk
- We want efficient and high performing employees
o We do performance review based solely on profit margins and net income
- We want our employees to have passion for what they do
o Our employees must seek approval for every decision they make
- Our employees are our greatest resource
o We do our strategy sessions without any input from our middle management down
- We offer our guests/clients the greatest experience possible
o Cut back on every single ‘extra’ and reduce your budget by 5-10% per year
What does committing to a set of values involve?
- It involves hiring and firing based on those values.
- It involves identifying unacceptable behaviours and creating consequences for them
- It involves ensuring the HR department is aware of the regulations regarding certain behaviours (such as violence and bullying)
- It involves performance reviews based on those values
- It involves repeated conversations around how to best meet those values at every level
- It involves inclusion and transparency to ensure everyone is aware of whether the values are being met
Employees are smart people, mixed messages from a company only leads to anger, frustration and a culture of mistrust.
Keep issuing statements about “who you are” without the follow-through in behaviour management – and your values are simply lip-service. It doesn’t stop there, however, your customers will recognize you don’t walk your talk in an instant and you have just chosen the most difficult model for doing business that exists today.
Patti is a speaker, strategic advisor and trainer in Leadership, Customer Service and Cultural integration through Mergers and Acquisition. You can book her to speak at her personal page. Need Strategic Sense for your business? – hire us for Leadership Development of individuals, teams, group training and company strategy. Happy Workplaces Succeed, take the path to get there. (403) 201-8512