Values, values everywhere.  Every company seems to have a list of values they claim to be important.  Most of the time those values are a list of words on a website or a poster.  Integrity, Service,  and Teamwork are among some of the most common values companies claim.

But, we all know that just because a company or an individual claims a value, it does not mean they live by that value.  The values a company demonstrates truly is the character of that organization.

What does integrity look like in practice?  What does service look like in practice?  What does teamwork look like in practice?

What Does Good Look Like

A lot of leaders wonder why the character of their organization does not reflect the values they claim.  One of the reasons is nobody has ever defined what good looks like.

Recently, I spent time helping a large organization define what good teamwork looks like for them.  Teamwork had always been a value.  But, just like their other values people had different ideas about what Teamwork meant.

Below are the results of the work that a leadership team did on their core value of Teamwork.  I was fortunate to be hired to facilitate this process.  I think they did a great job defining what good teamwork looks like where they work.

Teamwork

We act selflessly to achieve our common goals, putting our team’s needs before our own desires.

• We will maintain open lines of communication and listen with respect.
• We will address concerns directly with an individual before moving up the chain of command with those concerns.
• We will own our mistakes by saying,” I am sorry.”, “I was wrong.”, and “I will do it better next time.”
• We will assume the best intent of others instead of the worst and maintain and open mind to the ideas of others before formulating our own opinions.

Imagine

Imagine working in a company where everybody demonstrated Teamwork as these leaders describe it!  What would be the result in productivity, employee engagement, employee retention and profitability?

Defining Is Only The First Step

Once a team has defined what good looks like, there are four more steps leaders must take to ensure a value becomes part of that team’s character:

• Communicate The Values Frequently
• Coach The Values
• Hire For Values
• Fire For Values

I described this process in recent blogs:

Corporate Culture Left Adrift

Integrity Is A Lousy Core Value

Hire and Fire For Values:  Part 1

Hire and Fire For Values:  Part 2

The Bottom Line:

Claiming that Teamwork is a core value is where many teams stop.  When that is all leaders do, the values are rarely valuable.

Defining a value using the dictionary or Wikepedia is not enough.  To give a value life and meaning to the people on the team, they need to know what good looks like.

• What does Integrity look like when we do it?
• What does Service look like when we do it?
• What does Teamwork look like when we do it?

This company has taken the first step in establishing Teamwork as a truly valuable value.  With communication, coachin, values based hiring and values based firing, Teamwork will be what the organization demonstrates.  As a result, Teamwork will become part of that organization’s character.

Question:

What values do you claim that need to be defined?  At work?  At home?