In order for your organization to transform into a Patient Organization through utilization of the 7 Question - 7 Promise Framework, it is essential for you to identify and codify the real core values of your business. If you have already taken the steps to establish core values for your company, you are undoubtedly on the scent, we want to make sure you are on the correct path. Unfortunately, there is a strong possibility that the core values of your company have been misidentified, and if this has happened, the effects can be disastrous when it comes to solidifying the culture of your company and summarily applying those values to your organization’s hiring and firing practices.
The definition of culture = the combination of attitudes with institution to create individual level growth. The core values outline the attitudes, how we use them to hire are the institutions. They set the baseline for the absence of fear, people can only grow when fear is not present.
Unless your business is formed around accurate, meaningful core values, the hiring practices of your company may be compromised by the absence of substantive guidelines around attitude. In order to help you to elevate correct core values, and also to assist you in reworking improper values into worthwhile protocols that can aid your company, here are six reasons why your company may have the wrong core values in place.
I am looking for clients to make a promise to their employees that “this is the type of person, the type of work attitude, that people will bring to work every day.” The Attitude of Culture.
1. Your core values are really goals.
Core values should represent your organization’s targeted attitude of today, and not the achievements that you wish to attain tomorrow. It may be a goal for your company to be #1 in its industry by some measurements, but within the confines of the workplace, this identifiable goal has no clear meaning in terms of the actions undertaken by employees on a moment-to-moment basis. Guidelines for employee engagement, like guidelines that workers should bring a sense of enthusiasm to every customer interaction, are far more meaningful.
2. Your core values are obvious baselines.
It may seem reasonable to have a core value that encourages employees to be honest or trustworthy, but in all reality, would you any company ever hire a candidate with an obvious aversion to telling the truth? If your core value sets a bar so low that almost everyone can easily step over it, then it is an obvious baseline which can never be used to establish an inherent quality that differentiates your company from any other.
3. Your core values are really just marketing.
It is common for core values to take the form of pithy, clever slogans, and there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with this. However, the temptation is often to craft a statement about the organization that will sound good to potential clients and customers, to use that slogan in the company’s marketing and branding, and then to subsequently apply that catchphrase to the staff as an internal ideal. It is difficult for a core value to be one of the internal motivators for your staff it is simultaneously broadcasted to everyone outside of the organization. Effective core values are more likely to be developed when shaping the attitudes of staff members are foremost in mind, as opposed to influencing the opinions of customers.
4. Your core values are just skills or raw intellect.
No matter how highly your company may prize intelligence as a trait which all employees should have, the possession of intelligence says absolutely nothing about how well an employee will interact with other members of the staff, or with customers. In the absence of a core value intended to mitigate harshness, like “warm personal engagement,” the otherwise intelligent employee might do more harm than good inside of an organization in which his intellect was accompanied by arrogance or a lack of compassion. Therefore, a core value should ensure beneficial behaviors from employees in spite of their natural skills or attributes; core values should not consist of skills or attributes over which employees have little control.
5. Your core values are industry specific.
If someone can determine the industry your company is involved in simply by reading its core values, then your core values are wrong. A core value is meant to echo the special qualities of an organization back to the staff; it is not meant to be an empty statement with no connection to the true nature of the operation. If your core values mention “using careful consideration before taking measured action,” your company will attract people that identify with this approach, and your organization will benefit from the presence of people that mesh with this line of thinking.
6. Your core values are accidental.
The owner tends to be the ultimate leader of an organization, and the core values of each organization are typically a natural outgrowth of the business principles and methodologies that the owner holds dear. As such, these principles are such an inherent part of who the owner is as a business person that they are often easily articulated as values. However, there are other potential value candidates that manifest themselves as a result of the everyday course of doing business. Not only are these unintentional traits of the organization not to be confused with values, but they are often negative. In order to be a true core value, the value must be intentional and not accidental.
