Business, Behaviour and Values
The impact of behaviour on your organisation
When people are looking for their new employer, their next challenge, their next project, they will, sooner or later, realise that the exact phrases of self-confirmed, excellent and value-driven behaviour repeat themselves on most organisation’s websites.
While organisations often claim to focus on the employee being the most crucial part of their business, the reality often is very different. Reading employee evaluations about the employers, you see that only a few organisations manage to show congruency between the values they claim to have and the values by which they live. We always saw ups and downs in employee engagement. Still, when, according to GALLUP, two-thirds of your employees are either indifferent or actively disengaged (Source), we need to face the facts: a significant change in our world of work has to happen very soon.
How can your organisation improve by delivering on its promised values?
Orientation
A lack of strategy often is the beginning of the issue. When senior leaders are unable or unwilling to design, create or communicate the strategy, the people working for you will feel lost no matter what their job is. You may assume that some people have a “9 to 5 mentality” and do not care much about which task they do. Do you want to make that the bar to meet in your organisation? Are these the people you are looking for who should work for you, your organisation, your clients? Certainly not.
The same applies if your so-called strategy is only reactive behaviour or changes every couple of months or even weeks.
Design, create and communicate a strategy. You cannot have a credible set of organisational values while at the same time not having a known direction to where you are going.
Approach
A common approach to values is the “values workshop”. The first mistake happens when this workshop is agreed upon and set up to take place. Often, only senior leaders are part of the group. Inside their filter bubble and echo chamber, they conclude that they deliver excellent work. Anyone who disagrees is either not talented, envious about the leader’s career or simply someone who has no talent or value to the organisation. Some weeks later, they bring together everyone and present the organisation’s values with a PowerPoint presentation that is so sterile, stereotypical and uninspiring that your employees will not even be remotely impressed with your attempt.
You need to engage with everyone in your organisation when you want to get a clear picture of the values in your organisation. Interviews, surveys, coaching, workshop, many different steps are needed to get to a conclusion with which at least the majority of your employees will agree.
A management-led-only approach will fail no matter how hard you try to market it (and using your value system for marketing only is enough of a bad idea already).
Living and Demonstrating Values
The most critical part of these activities will be how sustainable they will be implemented. Getting to the time when the organisation communicated your strategy and values is only the starting point. Frequent interviews with employees from all levels, having (appraisal) interviews, doing surveys, and offering anonymous feedback from everyone about everyone are much-needed options. These steps may sometimes have unpleasant statements and give a rather blunt picture of the reality, but the honesty will lead to better results.
When the markets are challenging, the economy is tight, and the shortfall of available talent is omnipresent, values are a soft factor that positively sets you apart from any other competitor. Remember this aspect any time you make and communicate a decision.
Business, values and more are the topic of
this week’s podcast: click here to listen and learn.
Leading and living by values is important to your organisation?
Let’s talk: NB@NB-Networks.com.
