The Essence of Core Values in Servant Leadership

George Obado, October 21, 2019 wrote........

Values driven philosophies have a way of creating long lasting legacies and great success for institutions or individuals that make such important resolve and stick with it to the end.

Olivier Serrat once said, “Corporate core values should spring from integrity, morality and ethics which must be internalized and reviewed at intervals by the stakeholders of the organization.” Values driven philosophies have a way of creating long lasting legacies and great success for institutions or individuals that make such important resolve and stick with it to the end. Values driven institutions stem from strong convictions of members on such values. The members must establish and believe in the value statements which more than often will embrace teamwork, those to be served, passion, integrity, those volunteering, excellence and innovation among others. As a community in a nascent stage, we have to recognize that an organization must be defined by common interest (to see change in the leadership landscape in Africa) and established on common or shared values. With these ingredients, a long lasting culture (eg sharing knowledge freely) can set in. Peter Senge once said, “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!”

Values driven institutions stem from strong convictions of members on such values.

What then are corporate values? Corporate values are the first order of operating philosophies to be acted upon, that guide the organization’s internal conduct and its relationship with the external world. Robert Waterman, once asked, “How can an enterprise build capabilities, forge empowered teams, develop a deep understanding of customers, and-most importantly- create a sense of community and common purpose unless it has a relationship with its team based on trust and caring?”

When I woke up this morning, a thought came to my heart ?? in form of a question: Why would servant leaders care about corporate values? This is when it occurred to me that values are so essential for the survival and the desired impact of any existing organization in a given community with a specific mandate. Here now, are the five key reasons why you need corporate values:

First and foremost, corporate values will instill a sense of identity and purpose among the team members. Without clear values, members may not identify strongly with what the organization stands for. For instance, as far as I know, our servant leadership drive or push should be a distinct service offered with integrity, in excellence, respect and humility. Our purpose is to change the present perception of leadership in Africa using the servant leadership philosophy.

Secondly, corporate values are important in that they align and unify people to act as one. One of the most challenging aspect of leadership is the ability to create focus in a team. Values, therefore, become a tool of creating team alignment. For instance, the technology on which our program thrives is virtual and therefore knowledge sharing becomes one of the key ingredients if not value to create team alignment. So when it comes to a point of decision making, this element of participation or any other as may be defined will offer a guideline. Unity of purpose is a very important ingredient of success. No group of people can overcome any challenge without singleness of mind. Values have a special ‘glue’ that keeps people together. When values differ sharply, people usually part ways and the aftermath of parting ways also explain the individual’s values. I usually offer free advice to fresh graduates who join employment that when the day comes that you have to part ways with your employer, the circumstances not withstanding, never burn the bridges ??! How you achieve this explains your values. Kindly reflect on this for a moment.

Thirdly, well defined corporate values promote community ownership. There’s nothing fulfilling like seeing members of a community exhibiting community ownership. This simply means the organization has built resilience and will be able to withstand any shocks that can come on its path. Values have the capacity to inculcate community ownership and this criteria can be used in placement of members in specific roles within the community. Ownership can also be used in succession planning.

Fourthly, corporate values create loyalty and forgiveness for mistakes. Loyalty is an attitude thing. Everyone knows it when their attitude towards a person or a client is ‘stinking.’ How do you know that? We learnt it in emotional intelligence component 1 called ‘self awareness.’ So a loyal attitude is tangible and every ‘sensitive’ leader has capacity to perceive it. Loyalty to an idea does not mean being a ‘door mat’ but handling every matter especially those bordering criticism with lots of care. Remember that at least pugilistic boxers wear gloves ??. Avoid punching ‘souls’ with bare knuckles. This brings us to the ability to forgive when a mistake has been committed. Having this ability is one of the ten (10) key characteristics of a servant leader. Larry Spears, the successor of Robert Greenleaf - the modern day father of servant leadership, calls it ‘healing’ This is a deep aspect of leadership in not being too quick to condemn or criticize negatively. Well defined values can inculcate genuine forgiveness in an enterprise. Wow ??, the power of corporate values!

Finally, corporate values when well defined have a certain subtle way of attracting newcomers and retaining existing members. This forum, when fully developed, aims to attract every student graduating with a university degree in Africa! On the other hand, this forum has no desire to lose anyone of its existing members. We win as one! This is the million dollar question that we must answer: ‘How can we craft our corporate values such that it will attract new comers and at the same time retain the existing members?’

In conclusion using Olivier Serrat own words, “Corporate values articulate what guides an organization’s behaviour and decision making. They can boost innovation, productivity and credibility, and help deliver thereby sustainable competitive advantage. However, a look at typical statements of corporate values suggests much work remains to be done before organizations can draw real benefits from them.” Have you defined your personal values? This, if done well, will give you the much needed self-leadership. It is upon the foundation of personal values that leaders are able to design, define and put in practice appropriate corporate values.

About the author: George Obado is a leadership and organizational development consultant and a business leadership coach. He offers coaching on personal leadership and business leadership skills. He believes that?every business needs a leader who has grasped the role of organizational mission or purpose coupled with the role of organizational vision. He also believes that the understanding of corporate core values lead to positive organizational cultures. As an emotional intelligence coach, he understands that every leader must build a loyal team around the business so as?to be able produce more services or products. Finally, George believes that to dominate your market niche, the leader should develop a serve-first mindset in his team. For business strategy meeting you can reach him on: [email protected]