Everything Communicates – The Values Foundation

Many companies take their leadership team offsite to develop the vision and mission for the organization, then return to work without a plan to integrate the information into the day-to-day work of the organization. In addition, often they fail to focus on what the company really values and what is currently communicated through the behavior of everyone within the organization. Unless an organization takes time to assess the current state, how will they understand when progress is made? Also, leadership needs to take time to identify how the values will look like in their organization. They may generate words like innovative, passionate, excellence and integrity, but the meaning to those words lie in the people, not the words themselves. What integrity means to one employee, may mean something different to another. To create consistency across the organization, leaders need to help employees understand the meaning at their organization. This integral step will help to create a clear understanding of what it means and how it will be measured.

Let’s start by identifying why values are developed for companies. Core values support the vision of the company, shape the culture and reflect what the company values.  They are the principles and beliefs on which the company says they operate. Today’s workplace is increasingly stressful and values provide guidelines for individuals especially during chaotic times. They are also provide guidance during times of change…employees can think “how do I implement change based on our values.” Additionally, values can be a good recruiting tool and a way to measure of success for individuals. Clients may be attracted to your organization if the company values align with their own. The key is to make them real and observable throughout your organization.

When company values are merely words on the wall or website and not integrated into the workplace behaviors, they are meaningless. In fact, they often can make matters worse if the espoused values are not modeled by leadership. When defined in terms of behaviors values help employees understand what they need to do to create consistency for your organization. The key, however, is that everything communicates and if leaders just talk the talk and forget to walk the walk, a cultural transition will not take place.

It starts with recruiting and using your human resources department more strategically. When employees are recruited based on fit into the corporate culture, and then taught the values by which they should work, the culture is supported. During my research interviewing CEOs from Great Places to Work, many simple, creative ideas emerged helped to reinforce the values and get employees utilizing them from day one. Then when those behaviors are rewarded, all employees are reminded of what their company stands for and how to better live and work by those principles. It is a good way to recognize and reward people as well as reinforce the importance of your values. One of the reasons for recruiting based on values and cultural fit is the importance of aligning personal values with company values. Working only for the money is no longer acceptable with today’s employees and there needs to be alignment between the company and the employee. The benefits of achieving this alignment is imperative as it will create employees who are actually in sync with their organization and intrinsically motivated to accomplish the goals of the organization.