One of the most challenging things to do as a leader is to “walk the talk” or embody your company’s goals, values, and mission consistently and strategically. It’s fairly easy to agree on a set of values that reflects (or should reflect) your company’s goals and strategies and describes how you want your employees to behave and treat both your customers and each other. But implementing the desired behavior and measuring it is a challenge that most leaders find daunting and difficult. Here are three steps you can take to measure how effectively your employees reflect your company’s values:
- First, make sure your company values truly reflect your organization’s culture. You’ve hired competent, talented, and capable people, but are you constantly communicating and modeling the behaviors, expectations, and values that your company has embraced? Do your employees understand what is expected of them in all areas of their work? Are you communicating with them consistently and constantly? If not, review your communications program and make changes.
- Second, conduct a comprehensive review of each department within your organization and measure morale, productivity, quality, and turnover. Look for areas where employees consistently underperform, cut corners, and display poor attitudes. Find the reasons why your employees are not modeling the desired job performance and make changes quickly.
- Third, create ways to support, encourage, and reward the behaviors and performance you want and that reflect your organization’s values and culture. Most companies have a reasonable level of expectations regarding individual job performance, but tend to focus on and reward only exemplars while overlooking the regular daily behaviors that make a company a great place to work.
Too many business leaders embrace a set of “generic” values that supposedly position their company as a desirable and fun place to work, but fail to provide the guidelines and standards that reflect their company culture and desired strategic growth. . Take the time to review your company values and compare them to the culture that currently exists in your organization and make the necessary changes to trigger the growth of your company.
Your employees are one of your company’s greatest assets, but they require the most time and attention to fully create and support a culture that propels your business to greatness. Communicate, focus and reward positive behavior and watch your business thrive and grow.
