Try as you may to make a favourable nickname stick, we all know a nickname really only lives in the minds of others.
And so, it is with values.
The trap so many fall into is when they are discussed and agreed around the “echo chamber” of the boardroom or a leadership workshop.
They are often defined through a lens of corporate-speak, influenced by other organisational values (integrity, anyone?) and hard to live out every day by those outside the boardroom.
Values have most impact when they have meaning for your external audiences - your customers and stakeholders.
They should represent what it means to work in your organisation and be serviced by your people on a good day so there’s a truth to them.
There should also be an element of “stretch” to your values.
By involving your customers and stakeholders, that can reveal a gap in how your people show up and what more is needed.
They’ll tell you where you’re doing well and what you need to continue. They’ll also give you some truths around where you need to be better.
That’s exactly where the purpose and values need to work hardest; to bridge the gap from where you are now, to what behaviours get you to the next level.
In our own People Advantage research, we see the gap between the boardroom and the wider team; while 88% of the boardroom understand the organisation’s values, only 60% of those at “entry level” agree. Furthermore, only 55% of entry-level employees believe their values are relatable to their day-to-day work versus 82% of the boardroom.
So, if the values are there to bring people together under shared behaviours, more needs to be done.
To that end, we’ve developed a simple diagnostic tool called the Employee Alignment Index, which provides a way to measure the effectiveness of your values and how well aligned your people are.
If you’re wondering how your organisation’s values stack up, ask yourself these questions:
Were they designed with employee and customer input?
Can they be meaningfully translated into an everyday behaviour?
Do they feel compelling to your customers i.e. do they help build your promise to them?
If you’re coming back with “no” or “I’m not sure”, your next step should be to check our Employee Alignment Index diagnostic tool.
