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Breathing Life Into Your Values-Based Culture

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What does your company’s culture look like? Can you clearly define it and how it contributes to the overall success of your business? Could your culture benefit from some special attention? Throughout my 25 year career, I’ve admired certain companies that consistently outshine their competition. What is their secret ingredient? I’ve arrived at an undeniable conclusion? company culture.

But when it comes to building and establishing that culture, where do you start? I’ve learned that one of the most essential steps is determining the difference between your company’s priorities and values. Priorities are the day-to-day demands of our jobs. They can shift and change constantly. In contrast, values are the glue that bind us together. Our values must not change; they are non-negotiable. Our daily decisions are grounded in our values, and the key is discovering what is most important to us. I learned where my values lied when I was working for a former employer. My boss was a headstrong individual who would lock in on an idea, lobby some employees to join his cause, then push his ideas on everyone else until he got his way. His behaviors led to some ill-conceived and financially dangerous decisions.

[wcm_restrict]In a value-driven decision, a small group of leaders chose to put our careers on the line and expose the dangerous actions being taken. We chose to put our integrity-based values above everything else and informed the CEO we would willingly tender our resignations if our boss continued to be allowed to move down this path of dangerous business decisions. Within 24 hours, our boss was gone. We had put our values above our jobs, and had chosen to do the right thing, rather than be led by our fears. This was one of the greatest lessons I have learned over the course of my career. I learned to separate priorities, which change daily, from values, which are consistent and never compromised.

Since this experience, I have become firmly committed to lead companies where values are defined, non-negotiable and integrated into the culture. Ensuring values are woven into your company’s DNA is the critical component to establishing culture. Culture is:

  • Shared beliefs and values
  • Empowered employees doing what is right
  • Accepted patterns of behavior
  • Process driven

Culture is behavior-driven, and acceptable employee behavior stems from the company’s values, which is why ensuring that these two align is crucial. All companies have a value statement, but a fancy poster on the wall displaying the statement has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not those values are lived through the employees at your company. In fact, positioning values on the wall and then accepting contrary behavior will justifiably breed cynicism. But how do we operationalize our company’s values? Writing down the values is the easiest part. Breathing life into the values is far more difficult. Based on my own company’s values, here are some concrete action steps to operationalizing them:

Value: Teamwork

  • Written processes and procedure so that each team member knows the team’s mission and his or her role on the team
  • Bonus or advancement plan that contains a balance between individual and team performance. Encourage individual excellence but not at the expense of the team
  • Productive team meetings with broad participation focused on continuous improvement
  • Call out behaviors that undermine the team. Look especially for politics and finger-pointing, and stop these unproductive behaviors immediately

Value: Integrity

  • Do not allow even the tiniest of lies to go unnoticed. If you have a customer service problem, admit fault quickly, apologize and fix the problem. Tolerating one lie paves the way for thousands more
  • Don’t make a deal if you cannot honor it. So many agreements are made to get the deal done, even if you doubt your ability to perform

Value: Respect

  • Create an environment that encourages fierce and open debate. However, establish the ground rules up front; that way, debate cannot become a personal attack
  • The greatest respect that you can show is to acknowledge that an individual is a human being first and an employee second. Promoting a proper work-life balance for all employees shows a simple respect for people’s lives outside the business

Once you are able to articulate your company’s values, you can begin to build your culture around them. From there, you and your employees are responsible for breathing life into them through a plan to ‘operationalize’ your values.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Brian Fielkow is the author of Driving to Perfection: Achieving Business Excellence by Creating a Vibrant Company Culture and owner of Jetco Deliver. in Houston, Texas. He and has presented to thousands of people across the country on how to establish a healthy culture. To continue the conversation, contact Brian at brian@drivingtoperfection.com, and learn more at drivingtoperfection.com.