4 Impactful Actions to Take for Compromised Business Values

Your business culture is the fundamental support of your Future Vision. It supports your Systems, Talent and Management Strategy. Your Values determine your business Culture that is the shared attitudes, beliefs, assumptions and behavior that create your working environment and business results. The elements of your Culture are your Values or Principles. In this article, I will use these both words to mean the same thing.

Steve Carter writes in “5 Reasons Why Culture is Important”: “Your company’s culture is what defines it. As the only true identity of the company, the culture — values and norms — are what forms the personality of the organization. It is imperative to build a strong culture that establishes a foundation for your company.”

It’s important to embed a strong foundation of Values if you want a prosperous and growing business. Quality, excellence, timeliness and good business practices are in short supply in our country. These are good Values to adopt. Consumers are hungry for excellent businesses with great Values.

What’s happening when you think you have shown the importance of your Values/Principles to everyone in your organization and tried to model and support them as often as possible, yet some people are not adhering to the agreed upon Values/Principles? An example could be a worker or associate not showing compassion to a customer or coworker when Compassion is one of your Principles. Another might be, turning in sloppy or inadequate paper work when Excellence is one of your Values. A third example might be an associate designing a complicated system of buy-in for customers when Simplicity is a company Value.

These Values or Principles are actually behaviors. These behaviors may not be normal to everybody. In most cases they must be learned. Therefore the first action to take is to analyze your hiring, training and coaching Systems. Are they effective? These are the first Systems that can protect and build your desired business Culture.

• Design your hiring process to include a test of talent and Values. Open ended, situational questions with follow up questions are great for determining life habits. The answers will show examples of your Principles in action or not.
• Ensure that your training System is adequate and thorough. This is time consuming to design and implement, but it is critical to a smooth running organization. You will prevent many personal problems if your training System is well designed.

Your coaching System is related to how you train, but it’s different. Coaching is done in small increments over time. It’s like a follow-up plan that modifies and reinforces business behavior until your organization Principles are ingrained into the new hire. This takes time. This will also ensure a smooth running organization. I’m sure that’s what you want. The second action you can take is to continuously embed your Principles in your Systems. As you make changes or improvements measure them against your adopted Values. Observe all aspects of your Systems in action and evaluate them. Examples of where you can continuously embed your principles are in performance management, promotions, employee recognitions, associate relationships( suppliers, clients etc.)

Your internal and external communications Systems will be everyday channels for your Values. Are your communications timely and clear? Do they reflect all of your Principles?

A third action you can take is to “Walk the Talk”. This is it, no matter what else you try to do! Make sure your Principles are what you truly believe.

In “Tips about How to Walk Your Talk” by Susan M. Heathfield, we see some great guides to “Walking the Talk”.

• Model the behavior you want to see from others. There is nothing more powerful for employees than observing the “big bosses” do the actions or behaviors they are requesting from others. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Become the change you wish to see in the world.” And, it will happen.
• If you make a rule or design a process, follow it, until you decide to change it. Why would employees follow the rules if the rule makers don’t?
• Act as if you are part of the team, not always the head of it. Dig in and do actual work, too. People will appreciate that you are personally knowledgeable about the effort needed to get the work done. They will trust your leadership because you have undergone their experience.
• Help people achieve the goals that are important to them, as well as the goals that are important to you. Make sure there is something for each of you that will result from the effort and work.
• Do what you say you’re going to do. Don’t make rash promises that you can’t keep. People want to trust you and your leadership.
• Build commitment to your organization’s big goal. (You do have a big, overarching goal, don’t you?) Other than to make money, why does your organization exist?
• Use every possible communication tool to build commitment and support for the big goal, your organization’s values, and the culture you want to create. This includes what you discuss at meetings, in your corporate blog, on your Intranet, in social media, and so forth. Susan M. Heathfield

The fourth and final action you can take is to keep an internal voice of victory and stay enthusiastic. The change you want to see takes time and persistence. Hopefully, your Mission/Purpose is so exciting until enthusiasm is easy to keep. The enthusiasm that you show will be copied by your affiliates. This leadership perspective is critical for the realization of your Future Vision.

Related: “20 Directives for Small Business Success: Do or Die” Also: The GeniusCore Business Building Podcast