Turning Team Values Into Team Performance

When we focus on turning team values into team performance, it helps us face reality. We want to believe the best of our people and we should want that.  But as leaders, we must define the reality of our team's performance, which takes us to behaviors.  This is all about action and inaction...knowing inaction is an action too!

In a recent article by Harvard Business Review titled, Make Your Values Mean Something, I found this… What do you think of these core values? Communication, Respect, Integrity, Excellence.  These core values are strong, concise, and meaningful. Maybe they’re similar to some of your company’s core values.  They sound pretty good, don’t they?

These are the corporate values of Enron.  As events have shown, they were not meaningful; they were meaningless.  While Enron is an extreme case, it’s hardly the only company to have a hollow set of values.  Empty value statements create cynical and frustrated employees, alienate customers, and undermine leadership credibility. If left unaddressed, the very culture of the organization breaks down like we saw with Enron.

On the other hand, leaders who hold their people accountable for living out the core values of the team and help them become better, empower team members to reach their potential while having greater purpose and fulfillment at work.

The first step in turning team values into team performance is holding ourselves and our people accountable to our actions and attitudes, matching our values in everything we do.  I (Cindy) believe this is the best place to start because everyone can control their own actions and attitudes.  As a matter of fact, that’s the only thing we truly can control within ourselves!

It’s our privilege and our responsibility as leaders to help our people become better. To reach their potential and to, in turn, be a key player in the organization reaching their potential.