Values Need Oxygen
By Bill Marklein
sayhello@employhumanity.com
Every year, Employ Humanity leads inspiring leadership development workshops, keynotes and strategic planning retreats at companies across the United States. Excitement is always greeted with a hard reality. Most companies have values that are lifeless. Values are designed to give an organization purpose and direction and should guide behaviors and, ultimately, culture. However, most of us are falling short. Our values need a boost of oxygen.
Just as New Year's Resolutions are fun to dream up but hard to execute, values are the same. We partake in strategic planning retreats, become ecstatic about the new buzzwords and even partner with high-end marketing firms to splash the values all over our walls and beyond, but do they come to life? Are they coming to life? Do our stakeholders see and feel the values? Do our employees truly believe in the values? Are the values clearly articulated?
Leadership is the daily discipline to make certain values are alive in the halls, not just on the walls. Leadership is making values:
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Behaviors: The values must be articulated as behaviors so people can put them into action.
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Collective: The values must have buy-in by the entire team—all employees.
Behaviors: Think of some of the common values organizations adopt: trust, innovation, creativity... what does that look like? What does trust look like with your customers and within your team? What does innovation look like within your market? What does creativity look like in your brainstorming meetings? You see, values need to come to life with behaviors. This should be part of your strategic planning and staff discussions. It's no different than any goal whether New Year's Resolutions or daily—goals and values must have actionable behaviors to reach a desired outcome.
Collective: Do values become established with 10 key people off-site and then are commanded to follow in an email, town hall or marketing? The goal and challenge is to have the majority of employees be part of the process—an inclusive 360-degree culture. This can be established with focus groups, surveys and beyond. When values are collective, accountability flourishes. Accountability is crucial for any organization to thrive. Culture is not the human resources department. Culture is every employee authentically believing in the values. It's no different than if only one spouse has goals and dreams for the household, it will fail. Goals and values must be collective and shared.
Values are your guiding light. The organizations that excel are the organizations that are purpose-driven. When the why becomes stronger, the how gets easier. To your continued success.
About the Author: Bill Marklein is a sought-after keynote speaker in the space of leadership, culture and emotional intelligence and invites you to Employ Humanity Leadership Day 2025 in Green Bay at historic Lambeau Field. If you liked this article, please give it a share.