Sustaining High Expectations Around Our Values
Setting high expectations for modeling our core company values is a must. That said, getting our teams to perform at that level on a routine basis will only happen if we’re willing to establish a culture of accountability. Make no mistake, I’m not suggesting this is based solely on enforcing discipline, but creating an atmosphere where each team member knows exactly what’s expected from them, why it matters, and the specific ramifications of what they do to exemplify our values as well as when they miss the mark. Without that kind of accountability in place, anytime we rant about the importance of our values will eventually be viewed as empty talk…
While most of what I shared just prior to this was focused on helping the individuals on our teams create habits for building our values into their daily tasks, each thing they do personally contributes directly to the results our organization achieves as a whole. Establishing accountability with each team member, from the newest and least experienced to the most senior and highly skilled, does indeed set the tone for the results they achieve in their own role but it does so much more; that’s how our internal culture builds around what we’ve defined as our core values.
If Truett Cathy would have backed off his insistence on saying “My Pleasure” with his most tenured drink-filler-upper, what message would he have sent to the trainees? And what Craig allowed his son to be rude to their team members or customers? Would others around them have bought into any of their core values, let alone family?
When we, as leaders, are willing to develop the discipline within ourselves to establish and maintain accountability for living out our values in every role within our company, we’re able to transform the actions of each team member into an internal culture that perpetuates itself. That said, failing to discipline ourselves that way has a perpetuating effect in our culture, too - just not in a way we’ll be very excited to accept responsibility for, and it usually happens much faster.
When we can create accountability around our values, and do it consistently for long enough that we begin to see it take root within our culture, we’ll be well on our way to building a strong external reputation that our organization is known for far and wide. And since this never happens as quickly as we’d like, our efforts to keep the importance of each value in front of our teams will need to be ongoing and we’ll need to help them develop a clear picture of the legacy we’re working toward.
Casting a Vision, Built on Our Values
To sustain the effort required by our high expectations, accountability must be built into our culture - at all levels. But detailing what our team members need to do and how that needs to happen is only part of that process. Even the most ingrained habits supporting the simplest behaviors can still be incredibly tough to stick with when stuff hits the proverbial fan. Our best shot at providing our team members with the inspiration they need for consistently choosing the harder right over the easier wrong won’t come from understanding exactly what our core values mean or precisely how they should be modeling those values in their daily routine, this will require us to help them see exactly why living out each value matters every single day. We’ll need to become experts at casting a vision that’s built on our values.
I opened Leading With A Clear Purpose, by stressing just how daunting leadership can be without having a very specific reason - a clear purpose, if you will - for accepting the challenges of leading rather than simply going through the motions in a normal job. The second half of the book built on that idea, challenging leaders to provide that same type of clear purpose for each of their team members. Not only does that help each of us fight off the increasingly prevalent risk of burnout, a clear and definite purpose can be the driving force that earns the 57% increase in discretionary effort I referenced multiple times in that book and almost constantly throughout What’s KILLING Your Profitability?...
For even the best team members, or leaders for that matter, to consistently put in the effort necessary to exemplify our core values, connecting what those values mean and how we each display them in practice, casting a vision that details how achieving our organizational purpose is achieved and who we impact in the process truly serves as that critical why - for our team members and for ourselves!
In 2017, a friend provided the opening keynote for an event Cindy and I hosted. He shared a message detailing the legacy his late wife built for their family through her battle with breast cancer. Thankfully, only a select few in the audience could relate to what he and his children experienced, but he was very intentional about tying that message back to challenging everyone to identify the legacy they wanted to leave. When we paint a picture of the clear purpose our organization is working to achieve in a way that everyone on our team can connect with it, we’ll have the foundation for creating a legacy that’s built on our core company values. Make no mistake though, this should never be focused solely on reaching our own goals or reaching the company’s objectives; this should also be geared at helping everyone involved win.
Values that Ensure Everyone Wins
In the final lesson of our Emerging Leader Development course, Cindy opens by challenging participants to consider the real driver behind why they’ve accepted leadership responsibility. She goes on to compare things like power, position, money, and prestige with influence, growth, opportunities, and serving others; the first batch being tied directly to the individual and the second being focused on the teams those individuals lead. Whether we like it or not, our team members depend on us.
Along those same lines, I had a conversation recently with a friend who heads up a state agency dedicated to serving veterans with barriers to employment. He shared a scenario he had just been through where a comment he made in fun to a coworker that he had always interacted well with was received far differently than he ever imagined. Rather than in the spirit of camaraderie he intended, the coworker responded by verbally attacking him, saying that his comment was offensive. He asked if I had experienced anything like this, where someone seemed to be looking for something to be offended by. I explained two separate scenarios. The first being a story I share occasionally where, during a small group session that Cindy and I facilitated soon after starting our business, one of the participants repeatedly asked what would keep someone from using the concepts to manipulate others. After attempting to address their concern kindly several times, my patience wore thin and I drew a line in the sand by stating, “The only way I know to avoid being manipulative is to not be manipulative!” In case you’re wondering, that didn’t please the participant but the question didn’t come up again…
The second scenario dealt with a business owner who was constantly looking for how any service provider he dealt with was trying to “get one over on him.” While I've enjoyed most of the interaction I had with him over the years, I could never understand why he put so much thought into that. There are indeed shady characters out there but those are generally few and far between, and their shenanigans usually stand out like a sore thumb. I realized over time, that as pleasant as he was one-on-one, he was often looking for an angle to get one over on most of the people he dealt with - his team members included. As I discussed both scenarios with my friend, I explained that, at least in my experience, the folks looking for negative in others were often the ones dishing out that same treatment and therefore expected that from anyone they dealt with.
When casting our vision of the legacy we hope to achieve through living out our core values, simple practices are a must. We also need to hold everyone involved accountable to our high expectations. Our consistent example is critical, and that example must be one that clearly demonstrates how modeling our company values serves everyone in the equation; the clients & community we serve, everyone on our team, and lastly, ourselves. When everyone we serve wins, we have a real shot at creating a legacy based on those values - and achieving our organizational purpose!
With all this in place, we’ll wrap things up soon by working through some real-life examples with hopes of providing some clarity of what to - as well as some pitfalls to avoid along the way.