Mission, Values, Vision: Part 3
This is Part 3 in a series on Mission, Values, and Vision. You may want to check out Part 1 and Part 2 before you read on.
Listen to the five-minute Mission, Values, Vision: Part 3 audio program from Coach’s Corner.
In today’s post I’m going to explore a key role that a leader plays in an organization: clarifying and communicating the organization’s values.
An organization’s values are key rules or behavioral norms that drive the team’s behavior, define how to be, both with each other and with those the organization serves, and describe a particular kind of focus for how the organization will do its work.
Here are a dozen examples of values:
- Hospitality
- Creativity
- Excellence in all things
- Data-driven decisions
- Listening and understanding
- Competitiveness and needing to win
- Caring and loving
- Teamwork and togetherness
- High corporate growth
- Being environmentally friendly
- Work/life balance
- Innovation, creating the leading edge
These are just some examples. I could list many more. Which of these would you be against?
Most people agree with most values. We all have basically the same values, but we prioritize them differently. So for me innovation might resonate at a higher level than competition. But for you, a sense of winning might be the stronger pull.
Which organization’s list is right?
- There is no right or wrong, just what will be best for your organization. This prioritization of values has usually been established by the founder or the person who led the organization to its current level of success.
- In his book Built to Last, Jim Collins wrote that clear values made a big difference, regardless of what the values were. There is no right list.
A good friend of mine built a very successful company over many years and was moving toward retirement. He came to realize that without his presence, the company could lose its way, so very wisely, he decided that he needed to clearly define the values that led to the company’s success before he retired.
As he looked back at the history of what brought them to this point, he believed there were three key values that formed who the organization had become. He coined these values in three simple words: Soft, Solid, and Risky.
- Soft: being compassionate.
- Solid: being honest, open, and competent.
- Risky: being willing to take calculated risk in order to move into a better future.
He was able to tell several stories about each value and did so on videotape so the company would hold on to these values going forward.
These clear values help this company know some important things:
- Who will be a good fit on the team.
- How to treat teammates who are struggling at home or at work.
- When to say yes or no to strategic opportunities.
- How to deal with business or people issues that arise.
This is a good example of how the clarification and communication of values helps the entire organization make better people and business decisions. And of course, it’s the leader’s job to ensure that the organization’s values are defined and communicated effectively.
I have to say that in my years of coaching and consulting, I have found it to be rare for leaders to have this kind of clarity around values, whether in a business or in a church. This is an opportunity for you as a leader to have greater impact with your team for your mission.
Lastly, I would say that while stating your organization’s values is a great first step, they won’t become real unless they are based on actual behavior. In the case of my good friend, he defined in words and stories values that were already true for his company.
If you are choosing values that don’t describe your current reality, but a preferred future, then you, as leader, must change your behaviors. You must create some action that demonstrates these new preferred values. This kind of change is always a big challenge and creates some real resistance in the current team, but with perseverance and a belief that actions speak louder than words, the new values will take root.
So here’s a simple exercise for you this week:
- Can you state the top three to six values in your organization?
- Ask others in the organization what they would name as the values.
- Assess how well the organization’s behaviors align with these values.
- Should you work to clarify them further and then communicate them to your team?
- Should you take some bold actions to ensure the message is being communicated in the most effective way?
In my next post we’ll explore organizational vision. Until then I pray that you experience God’s rich blessings.
Post by Rodger.
Image by the half-blood prince.
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