Are Your Organizational Values Still Relevant?

As leaders welcome the new year and identify priorities for themselves and their organizations, one topic stands out that may be badly in need of more attention. It’s their organizational values.

Organizational values are at the core of each company’s culture. They are the key principles that guide and direct the decisions made at all levels within the group, and lead to the desired business results. Astute leaders understand the importance of ensuring their values provide a foundation to govern behaviors both at an individual and team level. They are therefore purposeful in identifying the most critical beliefs that will drive performance to create the desired culture.

The most effective way to communicate values is to be explicit in identifying and discussing them, along with providing examples and descriptions of how they should be applied. Then ensure the organization’s strategies, structure, policies, and processes are aligned with them. And finally, provide recognition and rewards to employees who exhibit them.

The primary question for you as a leader is whether your values continue to reflect how employees should behave given the changing current events and environment in which we are operating? While values should be enduring beliefs that are embedded in the organization, leaders need to periodically review them to ensure they meet the needs of and respond to the evolving issues faced by employees at all levels.

The unpredictability of the past two years, including the pandemic, politics, climate change, supply chain issues and the “great resignation” and _____ well you fill in the blank, has left organizations and employees grappling with questions they haven’t experienced in the past.

Here Are Some Examples:
A company value that communicates employees first might have interpreted that in the past as providing certain levels of medical and life insurance benefits, vacation time and development opportunities. Now that company may need to provide more mental health benefits, meeting-free Fridays, and train leaders on how to demonstrate empathy and compassion.

A customer first value may need to be further clarified by training employees on how to handle increasingly unacceptable consumer behaviors such as name calling, verbal outbursts, and refusal to comply with business requirements (think about flight attendants and service workers). Another unintended consequence of this value is the recent story of an employee operating a fast-food restaurant alone because none of the other workers showed up. Customers were initially irritated by how slowly everything was moving until they realized she was trying to do it all herself. They then gave her a tip for her effort and left without ordering anything. While her initiative was admirable, is that what she should have been expected to do?

Quality is another popular value that companies espouse. But how does that apply when there’s a shortage of component parts, and higher than normal turnover of workers, resulting in additional time for training and repairs. Then add an increasing backlog of orders and first line managers who are incentivized to make production targets. What guidance do the company’s values provide in addressing this situation?

Every organization wants their customers and employees to trust them. But if there are lapses in safety, or employees are being told to cut corners in products or services, this sends a clear message about priorities and expectations. It also applies during financial crises when some companies reneged on promised benefits to employees and retirees, then wondered why employee engagement (an outcome of trust) plummeted.

Refresh to Become Relevant
While your core organizational values may be still appropriate; the behaviors, policies and expectations that accompany them may not be fully relevant to the new environment in which we all now operate. And without identifying the new challenges and discussing how you as leaders want the organization to respond to them, employee conduct and decisions will vary and result in unexpected and different outcomes.

This is an opportunity for self-reflection within the leadership team; for discussion and employee feedback on how the different challenges are driving conduct that aren’t aligned with the values.

Consider these questions:

  • Do your values address the current reality experienced by your employees?
  • What new decisions are they expected to make that they didn’t have to make in the past? How have you prepared them to properly consider these decisions?
  • How are employees empowered to interpret the values when considering future information?
  • When are employees faced with choices of aligning with one value while violating another?

This isn’t a one-and-done exercise. It’s a probing and extended dialogue designed to uncover behaviors that may be detrimental to the organization’s objectives and business results. It requires listening to stakeholders, absorbing unpleasant feedback, and acknowledging gaps in planning. Financial sacrifice and public apologies may be necessary. And your team will know whether you’re serious or just going through the motions. Ultimately, what you do will reflect your own personal values as a leader, such as transparency and authenticity. This might be the time to refresh them as well.

Copyright 2022 Priscilla Archangel

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