Are You Wasting Your Time on Values Statements?
Marshall Goldsmith
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Recently, during an interview with Moustafa Hamwi for his show Passion Sundays, Moustafa asked me an important question: how valuable is it for a company to invest in helping employees find their own personal passions, not just business passions?
This is a great question! I think there is a huge value in helping employees find their personal passions! My friend Jim Kouzes, co-author with Barry Posner of The Leadership Challenge, did an important study. Jim found that there is a strong connection between values and engagement and that the key to engagement is not that the company has stated values. The key to engagement, Jim found, is that employees can live their own values while working at the company.
We all know “the corporate credo”. Companies have wasted millions of dollars and countless hours of employees' time agonizing over the wording of statements that are inscribed on plaques and hung on walls. There is a clear assumption that people's behavior will change because the pronouncements on plaques are "inspirational" or certain words "integrate our strategy and values." There is an implicit hope that when people -- especially managers -- hear great words, they will start to exhibit great behavior.
Sometimes these words morph as people try to keep up with the latest trends in corporate-speak. A company may begin by striving for "customer satisfaction," then advance to "total customer satisfaction," and then finally reach the pinnacle of "customer delight."
But this obsession with words belies one very large problem: There is almost no correlation between the words on the wall and the behavior of leaders. Every company wants "integrity," "respect for people," "quality," "customer satisfaction," "innovation," and "return for shareholders." Sometimes companies get creative and toss in something about "community" or "suppliers." But since the big messages are all basically the same, the words quickly lose their real meaning to employees -- if they had any in the first place.
Whether or not the company chooses the right words for the plaque on the wall is not the real question you need to ask when it comes to employee engagement. The real question is: Can your people live their own values every day? People who can live their own values while they are working at an organization are highly engaged. People who cannot live their values while working at an organization are often not engaged.
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Business Advisor, Executive Coach, Adjunct Professor, Global Speaker, Author
5 年Time spent on Values is seldom wasted time. As Dr. Marshall Goldsmith shares, personal values statements that become our roadmaps for behavior are invaluable. And many companies have used diverse teams to create compelling corporate values statements that employees take to heart and put into action. Thanks for this post Marshall!
Global EHS Director . Industrial Operations Director . Cultural Change Enabler
8 年Makes sense since above my company values should be always my personal values . If they get in conflict, the personal values will always be the preference and, if for some reason you are forces or see yourself obliged to chose the company values in conflict with yours, the confidence and engagement with th company drops down dramatically. I thought you were speaking about Safety. If that's business now there is a excess use of values and policies as solution for everything and a big miss of technical concepts that also require some dedication.
ONE TRUTH, THE WORD
8 年values do not need to be written - it is an accepted way things are done - it is who the individuals are and their ability to collaborate that makes the company - I recently wrote about the future of business - https://maximumlifeclub.com/blog/future-of-business ... the only value a company should promote is "WE VALUE YOU"
Researcher, Interested in Strategic Management, Public Administration, Value Nets, Business Management, Grants' management
8 年This is true also in Government: for example, in Finland, the ministries are value-driven organizations and their operative strategies are written considering the value statements, but in fact, they are just words, no real connection to every day life. The workers do not see any connection because the daily management styles do not embrace the values, and also because the operative environment changes fast, and the government lacks the resources to keep up with the changes. When there is lack of employees, too many tasks to do, and the managers prioritize, the values are forgotten.
Chargée de la gestion des carrières et des mobilités
8 年So true !