Is a Results-Oriented Culture Enough?

John Waid

February 8, 2020, · 5 min. read

By John Waid at jwaid@corporatecultureconsulting.com

A good friend of mine joined a company in the wine business. 

The company had been extremely successful. One of the brands my friend helped develop broke records for sales in the category of wines under $10 dollars.

My friend was extremely happy.

I had dinner with my friend after not seeing him for many years. He brought me a bottle of the new wine they had just launched. The brand and label were unique and I knew he had hit another “home run.” I could see the look of pride on his face.

Why do defined and lived values get great people to want to stay?

My friend's company had a Founder/CEO who created a culture based on 3 values (fun, creativity, and results). My friend loved the company and the simple straight forward values were lived every day.

According to my friend, the CEO had created an environment that excited him to come to work. They were no special perks (other than wine tastings) and despite that, he loved what the company stood for. The thing that struck me most was when he said: “I will never leave this place.” In other words, (like the photo below the headline to this story) he would be a “life-timer there.” 

Isn’t it amazing how a results-based culture can totally “gut” a company?

Several years later I was back visiting the city where my friend lived. I invited him to dinner again and he said: “I really need a strong drink.” When I saw my friend he was in a completely different mood. He seemed sad and like the “wind had been taken out of his sails.” I will never forget what he said next.

 “I can’t wait to leave this company.”

He explained that the Founder/CEO had sold the company and that the new owners were ruthless in their pursuit of “results at all costs.” My friend said that he predicted that in less than 6 months all the people that had made the company successful would be gone. They all left in 3 months. 

That’s why balanced values are critical to a company’s success

The fact that culture is important to success is nothing new. What struck me as new is that my friend's company had some simple defined and lived values and the one that bought them was just about the results. 

 My friend had performed at his highest level in a company with clear and balanced values. He was now performing at his worst and drastically wanted to leave at a company with only one value (to perform and make money).

 So is a results-oriented culture enough?

 The new owners had been hard-driving businessmen that worshiped the balance sheet and income statement. Their company had been successful, and yet it never had the brands that “wowed” consumers. They purchased the company my friend worked at for these successful brands. Their wish was to keep growing these brands and get more like them.

 This wish disintegrated quickly when everyone at my friend's company left.

 So what do companies need? Of course, they need to build a culture that creates results. This is what I call “the survival values.” Most companies have this value(s) well defined or they would not survive. 

 So what else do you need? Well, after a long time working with companies/leaders on their values and behaviors I realized that the great companies had defined, balanced, and lived values.

 With this in mind, I created the “values pyramid” with 3 balanced and lived values every company, team, country, family, etc. should have to be really successful. 

• The Operational Value: “The Accountability, Results-Oriented, Bottom-Line Focused, Get it Done Value.”

• The Growth Value: “The How Do We Get Better, Customer-Centric, Humility, Make it Better, Continuous Improvement Value.”

• The Inspirational Value: “The Dream, Pinnacle, Fun, Fulfilling, I Can't-Wait to Come to Work to Change the World Value.”

Do you want to get to a higher valuation, record stock price, best growth ever, get promoted, or even avoid sabotage, major public relations/dilution catastrophes or getting fired? Then, balanced lived values as part of your culture equation is a key to success:

I also know from personal experience that most companies, teams, countries, and families have more survival (operational) values than any of the other ones and this lack of balance is leading to lots of problems.

There’s no denying the unbelievable correlation between balanced values and success. After all, the company my friend worked for was doubling in size every few years and the only way the company that bought them would double in size was by buying them. 

So why do CEOs mostly focus only on a Results-Oriented Culture?

Well, I can imagine that if you are reading this, you are a human being. Human beings tend to try to survive first and that is also true for businesses. With no money, there is no business.

So it’s not a surprise that they promote this.

I have worked with hundreds of companies/teams with CEOs/leaders that almost exclusively focus on the top and bottom-line results and that gets them promoted to the highest levels while not growing or inspiring their people.

I realize that is normal now. Most of the time that I have worked for these types of people I get a feeling “like I do not matter.” That, in my life, has led me to perform and make them profits, while at the same time “eventually abandoning a ship with only 1/3 of an engine.”

There has to be a better way.

I have learned from “the school of hard knocks” that being a leader is all about inspiring, growing and getting results from people. If inspiration, growth and getting results are each a cylinder then most companies are only running on the “results cylinder.” 

As I work with leaders who focus (rightly so) on getting results (the operational values) I have to convince them of this analogy of only running on 1/3 of a motor. For the ones that get convinced of this and want to run better, I work with them to develop and promote the growth and aspirational values. 

Leaders need to lead, coach and manage

Let’s say you know that as a leader you are only focusing on the operational/results-oriented values. You are doing well and know you could do better.

Of course, to do better, you know it will not be easy.

You, the leader, are going to have to function on 3 instead of 1 cylinder

You can’t just keep doing what you have done in the past if you want to be better. It doesn’t work that way. You have to develop and live the growth and aspirational values and understand that as a coach you need to help your people grow and as a leader you need to inspire. 

It is no longer your sole role as a leader to manage. You have to do more if you want yourself and your company to be great.

Change requires changing and the only one you can change is you.

Will you do it?

The success of your self and your company depends on it.

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