I often hear that “People just need to be told,  this is how it is – so get used to it”.  I have a lot of sympathy with the idea from the perspective of keeping life simple and getting the job done on time and within budget.  And it works to the extent that people feel they are paid. But that is as far as it goes.

So the question is – is there further?, is there more that our staff, employees and team members can give and what difference will that make to the bottom line?  And the answer is absolutely there is more and the difference to the bottom line is exponential!

The old ‘ skills and capabilities’ model of hiring and managing our teams is only accessing one of the four intelligences available in the workplace – mental/intellectual intelligence or IQ.   And it leaves out of the equation the other three powerful motivators – social/emotional intelligence, physical/economic and spiritual.  These other intelligences are the ones that allow people to bring their hearts, heads, spirits and whole selves to work.  Sometimes the response to this is ” I don’t want any of that soft values stuff around here, they can keep their  personal lives out of work”.   But personal values are what make  people ‘do their best, complete work given to them, be proactive etc’. Presumably we do want these values at work.

So, how do values work?  Briefly – Our values are behind every choice we make and are therefore our most powerful motivators.  If I value obedience / duty I will put myself in a work situation that has a high level of compliance with moral and legal obligations etc.  If however I value compliance and find myself in a work situation where the culture does not expect,  acknowledge or support compliance I will become frustrated and my energy will be sapped each time a compliance opportunity appears and is let slip.  A person who values compliance will not be motivated to work independently or in situations where there are no fixed guidelines.  The reverse is readily understood.  Someone who does not value compliance will struggle with rigid rules and systems.

Sometimes a business identifies a list of values they wish to grow the business aligned to, but the team don’t seem to get it.  This is a result of the beliefs around the values being different.  Take a value of ‘accountability’ for instance.  When the business owner believes that accountability means people will be accountable first to the success of the business but that definition is not made explicit, then the employees will be confused.  And, importantly will not feel inclined to align with the value of accountability (even if they normally behave that way themselves) because they no longer trust its meaning.  i.e. Their experience of accountability does not line up with their belief around it.

Note also that the values that are espoused (i.e. on the list that is published) must be alive in the company structure, policies and ways of doing things.  A recent example I came across was a business with a value expressed as “people are our most important asset”.  However in reality the impact of decisions on the people involved was not discussed before a decision was made.  Clearly the ‘value’ was not being lived and had in fact become counter productive.

So what is the impact on bottom line of working with values in your organisation?  In research conducted by Kotter and Heskett companies with strong cultures based on shared values grew four times faster than other companies over an eleven year period.  Worth your consideration?

For a complimentary business values inventory email admin@creatingwhatmatters.co.nz