THE VALUE OF VALUES
Stephanie Bown
Transforming the way leadership teams connect, align and inspire. Speaker - Award Winning Author - High Performance Partner - Advisor - YPO Certified Forum Facilitator (CFF) - GAICD.
So we’re back!
How is your 2021 shaping up?
Mine started with a nice long break over summer. For the first time in our young boys lives - both Clinton and I spent the entire school holidays with them. We felt very privileged to have been able to do that. Many people needed a break after the year we all had, but didn’t get one. So regardless of where you were or what you did over the Australian summer - my genuine hope for you is that you did what you needed to come into this year with new perspective and fresh energy.
In my downtime, I spent a lot of time thinking about value. Time is precious. Energy is precious. So how am I spending them? What is of value in my life? What do I deem valuable? How am I actually creating value?
The path towards discovering the answers to these questions lay in the realisation that what is of value, creates value.
That is, our values define what is valuable to us. And how we live them is how we create value for others.
Let me share an example. It’s now commonplace to sanitise hands when entering and exiting shops, supermarkets or any public spaces for that matter. It’s acceptable to wear a face mask, if not required. It’s encouraged to maintain a respectful 1.5m distance from people in public. These basic and simple behaviours are examples of us demonstrating what we value most above all things - our health and safety. Because without our health, we have nothing.
Values create value.
Leaders who know and live their values, create value for customers, their teams and their organisation. Their values are the code for how they interact, how they communicate, make decisions and prioritise their time.
Organisations with clear codes of values and behaviours - attract people with similar values - who willingly adopt and demonstrate what they know drives exceptional employee and customer experiences.
- For global retail powerhouse Zappos - it’s “deliver WOW through service”
- For Australian success story Atlassian it’s “don’t #@!% the customer” (kinda really like that one - it’s naughty)
- For rapid rise to success Afterpay it’s “trust and empower shoppers”
Do you think these behavioural codes have worked for them? If their share price is one measure of value - then the answer is yes.
For your organisation - what’s the equivalent of wearing a face mask? What’s the equivalent of sanitising your hands? What’s the sign of respect, the signal of integrity, the commitment to quality that generates exceptional value for people and customers?
For me, it’s being clear about who I help, how I help, and concentrating all my efforts on those things.
So I’ve made a decision to be far more discerning with my time; driven by a clear and unapologetic desire to create value - both in my life and the lives of the people I know I can help.
Who I help….are the CEOs and senior leaders of small to medium sized enterprises. Typically those of 50-500 people, experiencing rapid growth, realising they can no longer get around to personally influence every person in the business. Instead, they need to rely on people around them to lead and communicate in ways that perpetuate the cycle of growth.
How I help...is developing the skills of these leaders to embed simple processes that take;
- Strategy from invisible to actionable
- Culture from toxic to adaptive
- Leadership from hostile to inspiring
This year - my team and I will be concentrating on being generous with our time with these people, on this work. We will be sharing content and knowledge that helps business leaders who want to see the same things we do.
We’ve already set up a calendar of free information sessions for industries that we believe need them the most and have the greatest opportunity for change. Check out the links below and sign up. The invitation is also open to people on my email list - just know the context for application will be somewhat specific.
Each quarter we will focus on an aspect of our practice that helps business leaders - and this quarter it’s about culture. What is it? How do we define it? Harness it? Leverage it? What happens when culture is corrupt?
To finish, I had a piece of feedback yesterday from a client - a leader of a multi-million dollar regional business in Far North Queensland - who truly made my day. Amongst other beautiful things he said in the presence of his team ("you’ve saved my career", "you’ve made me a better person"), the best thing he told me was that I was value for money. And while that may sound trite - I honestly could not think of a better compliment in business than that.
So, the call to action. If you want to discover what generates true value in your business; if you want to engage your team and ignite passion in your business; if you want to become the kind of leadership team that generates value for the people you serve, then let’s chat.
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MORE ABOUT STEPHANIE BOWN
Stephanie Bown is passionate about performance and helping people move from simply functioning to fully flourishing. Since she was in her early teens, Stephanie has studied the deep inner workings of the mind and how people survive or thrive at work.
Having completed over 9 years of tertiary education and over 5 professional accreditations, Stephanie has devoted her life to discovering the dynamics of individuals, teams and organisations at work and lives to share her insights with her clients. Her mission is to deliver life changing learning experiences.
Stephanie Bown
m: +61 439 044 940
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Transforming the way leadership teams connect, align and inspire. Speaker - Award Winning Author - High Performance Partner - Advisor - YPO Certified Forum Facilitator (CFF) - GAICD.
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