IS THERE A GAP BETWEEN YOUR STATED VALUES AND YOUR ACTUAL VALUES?
All organisations have values, but these are usually different to the ones articulated on the poster.
Recently, a multi-national mining company destroyed an almost 50,000-year-old indigenous heritage site, setting off a huge national scandal. After obfuscating for some time, the company eventually released a statement of apology. As a student of leadership, there was one line in the apology that caught my attention; “The destruction was wrong; it should not have happened, and it does not reflect the values that we aspire to.”
Therein lies the problem. Values are not an aspiration; they are a behavior. They are not a ‘where to’, they are ‘how to.’ They must represent the minimum expected standards of behavior, not something you hope to be able to demonstrate some day in the future.
If you want to see the actual values of a company, don’t look at the poster. Sit in on a leadership team meeting and watch them deal with a contentious issue. That’s a much better indicator of what’s really valued in that organization.
It’s not possible to build a culture of high-performance when there are substantial gaps between what we say we value, and how we behave day-to-day. These two things must be aligned.
INSPIRATION FROM OTHERS
“People don’t listen to you speak; they watch your feet.” – Anonymous
“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. The culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.” — Frances Hesselbein
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON
- Where is there a misalignment between your stated values and the behaviour of team members?
- What are the implications of this misalignment for your performance and culture?
- What could you do to address this misalignment?
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