How Many Essential Values Can You Have?
Robert Hackman, MSOD, CPC, ACC
Leadership, Team and Organization Development, Certified Executive Coach, Facilitator, and Trainer | Keynote Speaker | Offsites | Helping People Live and Lead with Fewer Regrets | Growing Emotional Intelligence
Cause it’s essential
Lyric from the song ‘Essential’
By Brean Marin
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How many essential values can there be for us? Doesn’t the word essential necessitate distilling down to what is core? If so, what makes choosing so challenging?
I recently worked with a colleague at a company with thirty-one principles. I applaud the leadership for its thoroughness and thought it was overkill. They reinforced them with their staff throughout the year.
Despite the focus, I imagined myself at the company trying to grasp the importance of all thirty-one. Which ones were genuine priorities? How would I know on which I should rely at any given moment?
Conversely, a longtime friend who recently completed a lengthy run as the CEO of a Private Equity-owned company told me his firm had a set of articulated values. However, the leadership did not regularly refer to them to infuse them into the firm’s culture. He could not remember them all.
The CEO told me, ‘We just loved them (their people), not perfectly, but we did our best’ – in addition to holding them to account. It was not an approach I expected to hear from the leader of a P.E.-backed company, yet it worked abundantly well.
What is going on?
What outcomes do leaders expect from core values? What role do they play in an organization’s culture? How are core principles best approached?
What do leaders expect from Core Values?
Leaders want their associates to integrate their designated values and interact with their stakeholders in accordance with them.
They count on them in marketing to reinforce their brand, aid recruiting efforts, and bolster engagement.
The best organizations include them in their evaluation criteria. To lead well, leaders must model the values themselves.
What role do Core Values play in Company Culture?
Core principles represent the fundamental building blocks of culture. As author Bernadette Jiwa asserts in her book, Story Driven – You Don’t Need to Compete When You Know Who You Are, ‘Collectively shared values allow us to unite around shared ideals. When we agree to them, we agree to be bound by behaviors that support and uphold them. They induce individual and collective responsibility and accountability. An organization’s culture is a manifestation of its values.’
She states, ‘Values are part of our personal and organizational GPS, constantly indicating your next move.’
If genuine, they guide decision-making and action. The degree to which core values are adhered to determines whether the coveted culture and brand are upheld or diminished.
Ultimately, how associates conduct themselves and what leaders tolerate becomes the culture, regardless of what is stated.
Strong cultures are self-selecting. They convince the right people to stay and prompt the wrong people to leave. Thus, they differentiate teams and companies in the best of ways.
What is the best approach to Core Values?
Is communicating, emphasizing, and integrating your core values required to strengthen your desired culture?
The short answer is no, as demonstrated by the success of the company my friend led. The associates clearly felt the message and understood the type of behavior that was expected. Instilling core values can be done in different ways.
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However, words are critically important. They represent a vital way we make sense of things and are fundamental to developing shared understanding. ‘We tend not to pay attention to what we have not put words to.’
I strongly encourage my clients to name and claim their core values. Core principles represent how an individual, team, and company aspire to act. Bernadette Jiwa states, ‘When we clearly articulate our values, we create a kind of moral shorthand that helps us to consciously and consistently act with integrity.’
Thoughtful leaders want their people to align with core principles.
Associates must comprehend what is significant to a team or company to maximize their contributions to them. Clearly and directly naming essential values and backing them up with congruent actions, processes, and structures represent vital leadership toolsets.
How many core values make sense? Is it thirty-one? Two? Or somewhere in between?
Many leaders resist this because they are afraid of loss. We all are. We feel the need to protect against loss more than we seek to gain. Choosing only two entails saying no to many others, which feels like a loss.
Nonetheless, how can associates hope to align their decision-making and actions around core values without readily recalling them? If that is not the goal, then what is their purpose?
On the other side of complexity, simplicity epitomizes sensible sophistication.
How prescriptive does it make sense for leaders to be? An inherent tension exists between individuals’ intrinsic need for autonomy and an organization’s desire for consistency. Narrowing down core values achieves the goal and relieves the friction.
In the whirlwind of business and life, honing in on what is essential is extraordinarily helpful. In decision moments, we need to recall the crucial. The list is small.
Abiding by core principles is one of the five Ps of Everyday Legacy Mindsets and a vital component of living and leading with fewer regrets.
Culture is an expression of shared values. Core principles must be recalled when needed. Narrowing down may feel like a loss. It is an essential gain.
Worthy Considerations:
1.???? Do you know your essential values? If not, what keeps you from identifying them?
2.???? Can your people readily recall your core principles? If not, what purpose do they serve?
3.???? How prescriptive do you want your leadership to be? Do you acknowledge your associates' innate need for autonomy and seek to balance it with your desire for consistency?
4.???? What would naming, claiming, and reinforcing your essential values do for you, your team, your family, or your company? What outcomes do you expect from your core values, individually and collectively?
5.???? What is the most potent number of values for you, your team, and your leadership? What other foundational elements, such as strategy and purpose, must be remembered? ??
Please reach out to me for help honing in on your essential values, to name and claim them to benefit you, your family, your team, your organization, and your community. I welcome the conversation.
Robert Hackman, Principal, 4C Consulting and Coaching, helps people live and lead with fewer regrets. He grows and develops leaders through executive coaching consulting, facilitation, and training of individuals, teams, and organizations. He is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He facilitates trusting environments that promote uncommonly candid conversations. Rob is also passionate about the power of developing Legacy Mindsets and has conducted over 50 Legacy interviews with people to date.
A serious man with a dry sense of humor who loves absurdity can often be found hiking rocky elevations or making music playlists. His mixes, including Pandemic Playlists and Music About Men, can be found on Spotify.
Bravely bring your curiosity to a conversation with Rob, schedule via voice or text @ 484.800.2203 or [email protected].