Improve company culture in one step

Our values act as guideposts as we navigate our days, weeks, years.  We cling to them when we have a decision to make, we bump into them when confronted with something that just doesn’t feel right.  Values are not rules in which we abide by, but rather compasses that help us find our way.

Organizations carefully craft their value statements, often pouring over every nuanced word.  However, just hanging a poster of the company values or rattling them off in your annual review does not cut it.  Company values are the framework in which leaders should develop their own values.  Leaders must articulate their own values to their employees, in meaningful ways that directly tie to the day to day work of your team.  

This jump from Organization to Team/Department to Individual is key to delivering on a company culture that people can get behind.  If company culture is weak, the first question to ask is “what are our values, and how are we living them?” 

Because here’s the thing: if you’re not living your values, they are just meaningless words.  Living your values and creating a positive company culture are not words - they are behaviors.

Sure, employees hear what you say but more importantly they see what you do.  And, as they say, seeing is believing… but seeing is also behavior-changing: if they see you on time to every meeting, they will be on time to every meeting.  If they see you giving great customer service, they will give great customer service.  Conversely, if they see you cussing out a colleague when you hang up the phone, you are modeling the type of behavior that you value, so don’t be surprised if your employees take your cues.  

“As leaders we must model the behavior we want our employees to exhibit.”

As leaders we must model the behavior we want our employees to exhibit.  Living our values is a relentless task, yes.  But that is why we are leaders - we are the model by which we grow and develop future leaders.  We will trip up and make mistakes, sure - everyone had bad days.  But, how we respond to those bad days is just another opportunity to model good behavior and live our values.

So, how to improve company culture in one step?  Live your values.   

What are your values?  Innovation? Agility? Stewardship? Well-Being? Curiosity? Growth?  How are you living those values every day, and how are you modeling good behavior as a leader?

How to start?  Need a values-refresher?  I highly recommend checking out Salesforce’s well-lauded Values story.  Find it here.  

///

Photo by @FloorTwelve on Unsplash