To Create Value or Build Values, That Is The Question

Every senior business leader at some stage or the other of their journey will encounter a situation where they need to make choice. A choice between doing what's right (guided by their "moral compass") and what's required (guided by the P&L / investor needs etc). To address this perceived dilemma, my thoughts at finding the path to creating value by building values are -

1. Back people. But don’t just empower them but also power them (give them the resources they need, in reasonable measure (read this as a frugal approach aimed at validating the idea in scalable circumstances), to help them succeed. There is a difference between frugality and magic. Recognise it.
2. Pay for performance, not importance / indispensability of the individual and walk this talk. At the end of the day, everyone knows everyone’s salary / ESOPs etc and employees decode who gets how much for what (and hence whether performance or relationship drives remuneration)!
3. Do not ever think anything stays hidden - organization networks are most efficient. Indeed, an organization (informal) networks’ efficiency is sometimes inversely proportional to direct employee productivity (corollary - their is nothing known as over-communication as regards values). Practice what you preach.
4. Flowing from the above, make decisions knowing that everyone will know about them. To prevent a "fall-out", be consistent in your decision making. Predictability, in this case, is a strong virtue.
5. Remember "borrowed money = borrowed time". Effective leaders see the latter coming before the former arrives and are ready for it. (Interestingly, I recently read the line "Fake it till you make it" - it kind of captures my view accurately).
6. If you want a valuation on the back of changing habits, make sure you have the resources to be the "last man standing". Else, dominoes is round the corner (can take different forms, not just a closure).
7. Cultivate truth tellers, not nay sayers. Seek the truth, not views that echo what you believe.
8. Disagree but still commit. Disagreement <> Disagreeable. Recognise the difference.
9. It’s all about culture. Culture is all about behaviours. Behaviours is all about values. Values is all about what we stand for, and for what we are willing to pay a price. And whatever you are willing to pay a price for, communicate that. Stand by that. And if you can’t think of anything that you value, think again. And again.
10. Great organizations reward these these mindsets and behaviours and great leaders practice these.

Btw, a big reason why JVs are marriages made for the divorce lawyers and PMIs fail is the differences in approach to balancing the 2 objectives - Creating Value & Building Values.