Core Values: Clarifying Values for Your Organization

• What are the core values around which your team aligns?

• Can you easily rehearse the behaviors that you and your team have agreed to expect from each other?

If you can’t quickly and clearly define your core values and behaviors, don’t sweat yet. You aren’t alone. Most of the teams I work with initially balk at those questions. The inability to easily call to mind those values stems from two common deficiencies. One: the behaviors your team would value have never been clarified or agreed upon. Two: if the values are clear, they have not been discussed often enough to merit easy rehearsal. Gain clarity and alignment around your values and you will facilitate sustainable success and satisfaction in the pursuit of your vision!

What does “core values” mean?

Most organizations have a documented body of “core values” that adorn the walls of lobbies and conference rooms. More often than not, they occupy more physical space in the office than in the active memory of your team members. In a healthy organization, the values represent a group of behaviors your team is unwilling to compromise in the pursuit of their vision. Reaching agreement around, and clarifying, the behaviors that matter is the result of an intentional process. (For more on the value of a process, see Magic Beans and the Power of Process.) When that process is ignored, stated values are often vague or generic. Most companies state that integrity is a core value. So did Enron!

Vague, generic values elude accountability

Healthy teams bypass terms like “integrity” or “honesty” because the vocabulary is cheapened by overuse. This doesn’t mean that integrity is unimportant, it simply needs definition within the context of your organization. Your values are the specific behaviors that your team deems important for the health of your team in pursuit of your vision.

Gain clarity in your organization

The process of mining for accurate vocabulary to define core values is illuminating and often funny. When I help clients move away from vague and ill-defined ideas that serve only to populate inter-office posters, their desire for healthier cultures really begins to emerge. The process of identifying specific desired team behaviors tends to expose underlying dis-ease with the status-quo. In my client work, few things are more satisfying than seeing a team coalesce around behaviors they can agree around.

The second deficiency is common even among teams who have been through a clarifying process. It is a lack of frequent rehearsal of those values. Many teams make the mistake of identifying the values, codifying them in the corporate documents, and promptly moving on to the next issue at hand with no plan for reinforcing the values through the ranks of their organization.

You have to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse your core values.

You have to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! My first flight instructor brilliantly approached certain critical processes with me. Brett drilled me mercilessly regarding necessary response to dangerous flight attitudes. He told me, “If I call you in the middle of the night and ask you how to recover from a stall or spin, I expect you to give me the exact process.” He understood that my behavior in those situations needed to be so ingrained that it was basically an involuntary response. He knew that my life and the life of my passengers would depend on my behavior under pressure in those moments.

Your organizational health depends upon clear values that are reinforced.

As leaders, we often let communication of vision and values fade because we feel like we are being redundant. The desired behaviors that you agree to as a team are critical to your health. In light of that, we need to remind each other continually of the behaviors that facilitate our pursuit of success. Find creative ways to reward team members who best exemplify the core values. For example, I recently spent a couple of days with a leadership team in central Kentucky. We evaluated how well team members were reflecting the behaviors that matter. The employee from each site that most often represented the team’s core values received a letter and a gift card from their manager. That’s one simple way to reinforce the value you place on your values. (Sorry, I couldn’t help but go there…)

Make it clear

Take your team through the process of identifying the behaviors that you expect from each other in the pursuit of your vision. Once you have a simple list (4-6 statements are easier to assimilate than 10-12) that everyone agrees with, then rehearse them at every level of your organization.

1. Take a moment in team meetings to recite or discuss at least one value statement. This doesn’t have to be a lengthy discussion; just keep the ball in play.
2. Revisit the desired behaviors monthly to ensure alignment and integration. Informally score yourselves on your reflection of the values.
3. Creatively reward team members who exemplify your core values. Rewards are not limited to financial compensation.  Public acknowledgment is an effective reward and a motivator to others to embrace and reflect the team’s values.
4. Hold each other accountable to model the behaviors you want to see. Gently remind team members who are consistently behaving in ways that don’t reflect what your team values.

Identify the values that matter to your team and rehearse them consistently—that will promote healthy accountability. Those desired behaviors will ultimately become the standard by which you vet new team members, vendors, and clients. That level of alignment in your organization will give your team an unsurpassed competitive edge and greater personal satisfaction in the process.

 

Lead well,

Bill Perry