“The greatest waste in America is failure to use the abilities of people.” – W. Edwards Deming
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus the king of Corinth was famed as the craftiest of men and even considered himself a peer with the gods. He cheated death on two occasions and had to be dragged by Hermes to the underworld. His offense against the gods was so great that Sisyphus was condemned to roll a boulder up a steep hill in Hades. Before he could reach the top, the boulder would roll back down the hill and he was forced to endlessly repeat the cycle. In this Greek version of hell, Sisyphus was eternally condemned to perform demanding, but meaningless activity.
There is a great discrepancy in the workforce between the capability of people and their actual results. Many employees are condemned to work in organizations that provide little meaning to their lives, nor offer a clear connection between their efforts and the results of the business. This disconnect between effort and results causes people to give less than their full abilities, creates a lack of purpose, and can make people feel like they’re engaged in a Sisyphean task.
Without a purpose, no one in your organization will know what you are trying to achieve, or why you even exist in the first place. In a purposeless organization, everything feels meaningless. Purpose and meaning are essential if you want to create a work environment where people are committed to the goals of the organization. They must feel like they are doing something worthwhile, and that they are making a real contribution.
The political scientist James McGregor Burns published an influential study of U.S. Presidents who inspired effective national change. The common element of these men was that they inspired a compelling vision toward a worthy purpose which the nation could rally around. The purpose and vision allowed people to align their efforts to cooperate and solve pressing issues. Burns pointed out that a meaningful purpose appeals to the higher intrinsic nature of people, rather than to their lower needs of self interest and extrinsic rewards.
When your organization offers employees meaningful work that has a clearly defined purpose or mission, your business will benefit from highly-engaged team members who work for more than their paycheck. These employees feel true devotion and bring their energy and vitality to what they do. If you’re facing a difficult challenge, a worthwhile purpose will provide the impetus to overcome any difficulty.
Purpose also acts as a guide to keep your organization moving in the right direction. It allows you to manage your business without having to physically be there because people know the direction it is headed, and can make decisions that keep it on track.
Purpose starts with the leader and works its way throughout the organization to influence the products and services you offer, and impact the experiences of your customers. In fact, to discover your purpose you must start with your customer. Your purpose should satisfy a critical need or alleviate the pain, frustration, or challenge your customer experiences. People spend a lot of money, time, and energy for lotions, potions, and pills that remove pain, help lose weight, or make them feel younger. They buy tons of things that make their lives happier, easier, or better in some way.
Here are some of the stated purposes of well-known companies. Microsoft began with the purpose to put “a computer on every desk and in every home.” This offered Microsoft a vision and provided a scorecard to examine how the company was succeeding every day. Google’s purpose is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Facebook wants to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
Purpose-driven organizations are more innovative, attract highly-qualified employees, and are more productive. Your productivity will improve because you have criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of everything you do. The ideas of others can be gauged against the value it has to the purpose, and customers who are aligned to your purpose will become repeat, loyal customers.
If you’re struggling in a down economy, it might be worth your time to examine your mission and ask yourself if it aligns with the needs of your customers and inspires your employees to become fully engaged. An inspiring purpose may be all you need to change your circumstances and achieve your destiny.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Suffering from EMS - Entitlement Mentality Syndrome
“The worst day in a man’s life is when he sits down and begins thinking about how he can get something for nothing.” – Thomas Jefferson
Do any of these characteristics describe someone you know at work or people who work at organizations you visit as a customer?
• They are lazy and show no sense of urgency.
• They are under qualified for the positions they hold.
• They are wasteful with an organization’s resources.
• Their work quality is poor and they have no pride in what they do.
• They are very good at looking busy, yet produce little results.
• They tend to keep others from doing their job by frequently chatting about non-work related issues.
• They consistently arrive late to work, take long lunch breaks, and often leave early.
• They expect a promotion or raise simply based on their years of service.
If you know of such individuals, then they may be suffering from EMS – Entitlement Mentality Syndrome. This is an ailment that can be far more debilitating than any physical illness because few individuals ever recover from it. Simply put, EMS causes people to expect something for nothing. They believe they are entitled to things without making any sacrifices or giving anything in return.
So what’s wrong with wanting something for nothing? It’s great to be given a gift, win a prize, hit the jackpot, or win the lottery – right? However, when individuals expect it regularly, it can become an addiction or a way of life for them. The real problem is that it lacks integrity. Most people equate integrity with honesty or truthfulness, but it really means the state of being complete or whole. To be whole means that you are in alignment with your “higher” self – that noble part of you that instinctively tells you that you should be honest with yourself and earn what you get. Regularly accepting things that are given freely without any expectations tend to corrupt our sense of integrity. It devalues the work ethic and encourages laziness and apathy.
After awhile, such individuals begin to feel entitled to the point of irrationality. They believe that someone will always bail them out of a tough situation, make excuses for them, give them another chance, pay their debt, or give them a job because of connections. They believe they’re not responsible or accountable, there are no real consequences in life, and they have no motivation to work for anything.
With the current economic meltdown occurring throughout the world, many private and public sector organizations are faced with making hard decisions to keep afloat. Even more difficult is the decision to let some people go or reduce their work hours so that the organization can remain viable. There are many good workers who do more than what they are asked and produce more results than their colleagues, yet they will have to suffer the same fate as their EMS counterparts. This will create one of several results for the productive workers in an organization: they will leave and find another job for better hours or pay, they will stay and continue to work hard to maintain their job and hope the situation improves, or more likely, they will stay and sink into the ranks of the EMS drones.
As an employer or supervisor, if you notice any of your employees suffering from EMS, act fast so it will not metastasize throughout the organization. If you allow EMS to remain, it will contaminate your entire workforce and turn your organization into a purposeless, service-less shell of low motivated individuals who will hinder your organization from growth.
EMS is spreading through our society at an alarming rate and we are seeing its debilitating effects in our younger generation. There has never been a generation of children with the sense of privilege that our children have today. Many tend to think that they deserve to have whatever they want, do whatever they want, and whenever they want without having to earn it first. This mentality is the root cause of most of the problems experienced by parents. Children with EMS tend to be lazy, bored easily, have low motivation, and make a mess and expect someone else to clean it. The rising generation wants instant gratification and tends to be addicted to electronic gadgets and technology. They believe that if they want money, all they have to do is hold their hand out, or stand at an intersection with a bucket.
Entitlement is like a velvet-padded bear trap with one of the jaws taking away the virtues that a person needs to succeed in life like self-initiative, responsibility, inventiveness, independence, and pride in doing your best; while the other jaw gives people vices such as conceit, laziness, apathy, and indulgence. Once the EMS trap is set, it rarely lets go. A person may think they are free, but in reality they have surrendered themselves and become dependent upon a provider such as a parent, spouse, relative, employer, or the local or federal government.
If you knew something was harmful to someone else, would you sit back and say nothing. Parents, teachers, and employers need to take responsibility to stop the harmful behavior of EMS by teaching the values of contributing to society with the talents, skills, and knowledge individuals have acquired – to give back when they receive so that the quality of life of all those touched will be improved instead of just taking and not giving back. Teach that there are true moments of need and teach the rising generation how to serve their fellow beings without expecting anything in return. Teach our future leaders to work and take responsibility to create a better world for themselves instead of whining about what others have. Teach our youth to be problem solvers, and not be part of the problem.
Breaking the EMS addiction is difficult because it requires developing a new mindset and behaviors. It requires a person to break the chains of dependency that have become a comfortable way of life. The harsh reality is that no one owes you anything. No one owes you a job, computer, education, food, house, car, health care, or to pay your bills. The only person responsible for getting you what you want in life is you. You are ultimately in charge of your life and your destiny. Don’t gamble away the precious gift of life by suffering from Entitlement Mentality Syndrome.
"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." – President John F. Kennedy
Do any of these characteristics describe someone you know at work or people who work at organizations you visit as a customer?
• They are lazy and show no sense of urgency.
• They are under qualified for the positions they hold.
• They are wasteful with an organization’s resources.
• Their work quality is poor and they have no pride in what they do.
• They are very good at looking busy, yet produce little results.
• They tend to keep others from doing their job by frequently chatting about non-work related issues.
• They consistently arrive late to work, take long lunch breaks, and often leave early.
• They expect a promotion or raise simply based on their years of service.
If you know of such individuals, then they may be suffering from EMS – Entitlement Mentality Syndrome. This is an ailment that can be far more debilitating than any physical illness because few individuals ever recover from it. Simply put, EMS causes people to expect something for nothing. They believe they are entitled to things without making any sacrifices or giving anything in return.
So what’s wrong with wanting something for nothing? It’s great to be given a gift, win a prize, hit the jackpot, or win the lottery – right? However, when individuals expect it regularly, it can become an addiction or a way of life for them. The real problem is that it lacks integrity. Most people equate integrity with honesty or truthfulness, but it really means the state of being complete or whole. To be whole means that you are in alignment with your “higher” self – that noble part of you that instinctively tells you that you should be honest with yourself and earn what you get. Regularly accepting things that are given freely without any expectations tend to corrupt our sense of integrity. It devalues the work ethic and encourages laziness and apathy.
After awhile, such individuals begin to feel entitled to the point of irrationality. They believe that someone will always bail them out of a tough situation, make excuses for them, give them another chance, pay their debt, or give them a job because of connections. They believe they’re not responsible or accountable, there are no real consequences in life, and they have no motivation to work for anything.
With the current economic meltdown occurring throughout the world, many private and public sector organizations are faced with making hard decisions to keep afloat. Even more difficult is the decision to let some people go or reduce their work hours so that the organization can remain viable. There are many good workers who do more than what they are asked and produce more results than their colleagues, yet they will have to suffer the same fate as their EMS counterparts. This will create one of several results for the productive workers in an organization: they will leave and find another job for better hours or pay, they will stay and continue to work hard to maintain their job and hope the situation improves, or more likely, they will stay and sink into the ranks of the EMS drones.
As an employer or supervisor, if you notice any of your employees suffering from EMS, act fast so it will not metastasize throughout the organization. If you allow EMS to remain, it will contaminate your entire workforce and turn your organization into a purposeless, service-less shell of low motivated individuals who will hinder your organization from growth.
EMS is spreading through our society at an alarming rate and we are seeing its debilitating effects in our younger generation. There has never been a generation of children with the sense of privilege that our children have today. Many tend to think that they deserve to have whatever they want, do whatever they want, and whenever they want without having to earn it first. This mentality is the root cause of most of the problems experienced by parents. Children with EMS tend to be lazy, bored easily, have low motivation, and make a mess and expect someone else to clean it. The rising generation wants instant gratification and tends to be addicted to electronic gadgets and technology. They believe that if they want money, all they have to do is hold their hand out, or stand at an intersection with a bucket.
Entitlement is like a velvet-padded bear trap with one of the jaws taking away the virtues that a person needs to succeed in life like self-initiative, responsibility, inventiveness, independence, and pride in doing your best; while the other jaw gives people vices such as conceit, laziness, apathy, and indulgence. Once the EMS trap is set, it rarely lets go. A person may think they are free, but in reality they have surrendered themselves and become dependent upon a provider such as a parent, spouse, relative, employer, or the local or federal government.
If you knew something was harmful to someone else, would you sit back and say nothing. Parents, teachers, and employers need to take responsibility to stop the harmful behavior of EMS by teaching the values of contributing to society with the talents, skills, and knowledge individuals have acquired – to give back when they receive so that the quality of life of all those touched will be improved instead of just taking and not giving back. Teach that there are true moments of need and teach the rising generation how to serve their fellow beings without expecting anything in return. Teach our future leaders to work and take responsibility to create a better world for themselves instead of whining about what others have. Teach our youth to be problem solvers, and not be part of the problem.
Breaking the EMS addiction is difficult because it requires developing a new mindset and behaviors. It requires a person to break the chains of dependency that have become a comfortable way of life. The harsh reality is that no one owes you anything. No one owes you a job, computer, education, food, house, car, health care, or to pay your bills. The only person responsible for getting you what you want in life is you. You are ultimately in charge of your life and your destiny. Don’t gamble away the precious gift of life by suffering from Entitlement Mentality Syndrome.
"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." – President John F. Kennedy
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Turnaround
.
On our first day on Saipan over 13 years ago, we took our young family on a trip and started driving around without a map or any direction. Our journey took us on a lot of roads and we knew if we got lost we would only need to turn around and travel until we found a familiar landmark. Many organizations are traveling on an economic path that is bumpy at best, and washed out at worst. The current situation requires many businesses and also non-profit and government organizations to stop and do a turnaround.
There are obvious steps that should be taken, such as take control of your expenses, cut unnecessary costs, renegotiate financing and vendor terms, and generate more sales. I’d like to share ten ideas that practically any organization can use to help get their organization unstuck and moving in the right direction.
1. Stop and assess your present situation. The first step is to gather objective data you can review to determine what got you into your current situation. You should assess the internal and external factors impacting your organization and their immediate and long-term effects. Did your competition implement a marketing campaign? Have socio-cultural factors changed buying habits? How have political, economic, or technological changes impacted your organization?
2. Examine your business model. Your business model has three elements: your customers, the goods and services they buy, and how you operate your business to serve your customers. This can be broken down into the who, what, and how of your business, and changing any of these three areas will change your business model and the results you’re getting.
3. Focus on your customers. The most successful organizations focus on their customers and don’t take them for granted. Your customers will ultimately determine your success, and better serving their needs will encourage them to buy more, return, and tell others about your business. Even government and non-profit organizations rely on “customers” to justify their existence. What can you do to better serve them?
4. Meet with key leaders, your board of directors or advisors. Before you implement a turnaround program, you need to meet with your key leaders, directors or advisors to gain their approval and support. Share your findings and get their input and support.
5. Involve your key employees in the turnaround process. Now that you have approval from your key leaders, it’s time to meet with your managers and key employees to explain the current situation and the consequences if no action is taken. Share an outline of the proposed actions and listen for comments. Support from this group is critical because they will be charged with implementing a plan and delivering results.
6. Create a shared vision and core values. Often, vulnerable organizations go through a period when they lose sight of their vision and values. Without a commonly understood vision or values, an organization tends to make arbitrary decisions that go unchallenged. A credible, attractive future should be founded on the organization’s core values, and used to unify everyone’s efforts to achieve organizational goals.
7. Develop or update a strategic plan. Plans chronicle both the good and poor performance of the past, and they document the vision for the future. Your plan should identify your highest priorities and the steps needed to achieve your goals. Organizations that write and implement plans on an annual basis rarely get into trouble.
8. Implement new or updated systems and procedures. Continuing your old practices will lead to similar results you realized in the past. In order to meet the goals of the strategic turnaround plan, new or updated systems and procedures should be implemented. Develop checklists, rules, policies, and procedures to improve your operations and ensure consistent results.
9. Develop a strong organizational communication system. It’s critical to communicate the plan, vision and values to ensure everyone is on-board. Strategic execution will succeed or fail on the quality of your communication system because if your plan is not on top of the mind of key people, it will most likely collect dust on your shelves.
10. Monitor, measure and take corrective action. If you implement all of the things I’ve suggested so far, but neglect to monitor and measure your progress, your organization will eventually go off-track and get lost again. It takes constant vigilance and corrective action to ensure that your plan is being implemented.
Don’t lose hope for your organization during these difficult times. The community and employees need your products and services for a better way of living. Implement some or all of these ideas to survive the rough ride that everyone is facing in the CNMI. Difficult times can often be “Storms of Perfection” to create a better organization and provide a greater quality of life for everyone involved. If you do not like the direction your organization is headed, use these ten ideas to turn around and take a different course for a brighter future.
On our first day on Saipan over 13 years ago, we took our young family on a trip and started driving around without a map or any direction. Our journey took us on a lot of roads and we knew if we got lost we would only need to turn around and travel until we found a familiar landmark. Many organizations are traveling on an economic path that is bumpy at best, and washed out at worst. The current situation requires many businesses and also non-profit and government organizations to stop and do a turnaround.
There are obvious steps that should be taken, such as take control of your expenses, cut unnecessary costs, renegotiate financing and vendor terms, and generate more sales. I’d like to share ten ideas that practically any organization can use to help get their organization unstuck and moving in the right direction.
1. Stop and assess your present situation. The first step is to gather objective data you can review to determine what got you into your current situation. You should assess the internal and external factors impacting your organization and their immediate and long-term effects. Did your competition implement a marketing campaign? Have socio-cultural factors changed buying habits? How have political, economic, or technological changes impacted your organization?
2. Examine your business model. Your business model has three elements: your customers, the goods and services they buy, and how you operate your business to serve your customers. This can be broken down into the who, what, and how of your business, and changing any of these three areas will change your business model and the results you’re getting.
3. Focus on your customers. The most successful organizations focus on their customers and don’t take them for granted. Your customers will ultimately determine your success, and better serving their needs will encourage them to buy more, return, and tell others about your business. Even government and non-profit organizations rely on “customers” to justify their existence. What can you do to better serve them?
4. Meet with key leaders, your board of directors or advisors. Before you implement a turnaround program, you need to meet with your key leaders, directors or advisors to gain their approval and support. Share your findings and get their input and support.
5. Involve your key employees in the turnaround process. Now that you have approval from your key leaders, it’s time to meet with your managers and key employees to explain the current situation and the consequences if no action is taken. Share an outline of the proposed actions and listen for comments. Support from this group is critical because they will be charged with implementing a plan and delivering results.
6. Create a shared vision and core values. Often, vulnerable organizations go through a period when they lose sight of their vision and values. Without a commonly understood vision or values, an organization tends to make arbitrary decisions that go unchallenged. A credible, attractive future should be founded on the organization’s core values, and used to unify everyone’s efforts to achieve organizational goals.
7. Develop or update a strategic plan. Plans chronicle both the good and poor performance of the past, and they document the vision for the future. Your plan should identify your highest priorities and the steps needed to achieve your goals. Organizations that write and implement plans on an annual basis rarely get into trouble.
8. Implement new or updated systems and procedures. Continuing your old practices will lead to similar results you realized in the past. In order to meet the goals of the strategic turnaround plan, new or updated systems and procedures should be implemented. Develop checklists, rules, policies, and procedures to improve your operations and ensure consistent results.
9. Develop a strong organizational communication system. It’s critical to communicate the plan, vision and values to ensure everyone is on-board. Strategic execution will succeed or fail on the quality of your communication system because if your plan is not on top of the mind of key people, it will most likely collect dust on your shelves.
10. Monitor, measure and take corrective action. If you implement all of the things I’ve suggested so far, but neglect to monitor and measure your progress, your organization will eventually go off-track and get lost again. It takes constant vigilance and corrective action to ensure that your plan is being implemented.
Don’t lose hope for your organization during these difficult times. The community and employees need your products and services for a better way of living. Implement some or all of these ideas to survive the rough ride that everyone is facing in the CNMI. Difficult times can often be “Storms of Perfection” to create a better organization and provide a greater quality of life for everyone involved. If you do not like the direction your organization is headed, use these ten ideas to turn around and take a different course for a brighter future.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Shared Values
.
These difficult times tend to make people better or bitter. The CNMI is going through a crucible experience with events that are causing people to reflect on their core assumptions at an emotional level. Some of the assumptions that have worked well in the past are no longer valid; whereas, some assumptions will continue to guide the decisions and actions of individuals.
It’s important to periodically evaluate our decision-making processes and the underlying values that influence us, particularly if something isn’t working as planned. This is true as an individual, family, organization, or a community. Individuals and organizations tend to drift during times of confusion and chaos. Periodically examining your values serves to renew commitment for values that are deeply shared and promote discussion on the relevance of those values that no longer serve the interests of the organization or its constituents. If the organization is not making a positive impact, then it may be time to make some changes.
I’ve been reading about individuals who have focused on their values to overcome challenges, become better leaders, and are able to transform their organization to create an empowered culture. Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) helped Zappos, a shoe company, grow from almost nothing to over $1 billion in gross merchandize sales annually. In the beginning, Hsieh resisted developing values for the company because he thought of it as a very “corporate” thing to do, and he wanted to maintain a more informal culture. However, as the company grew, it became necessary to formalize the definition of Zappos’ culture by getting everyone’s input to come up with its core values.
Initially, there were 37 values that helped define Zappos, but over the course of a year those were whittled down to the ten most important core values that they were willing to hire and fire on. As the company grew larger and faster, their values helped screen applicants that fit with their culture. Zappos conducts two different sets of interviews, the standard interview to determine the applicant’s relevant experience and technical ability, and then an interview by the HR department to examine the culture fit. Candidates have to pass both interviews in order to get hired.
Another gentleman by the name of Gordon Binder, the former CEO of Amgen, tells about the time when a middle manager took the initiative to define the company’s values. Binder decided it was too great for him to do alone and got the entire company involved. After interviewing 400 people, it was determined that Amgen, a biotechnology company, had eight core values that everything was based on, including their culture. Binder believes that process to clarify the company’s values “was the most important thing we ever did.” People are hired on the basis of their values, those who live by them are promoted, and individuals who act out of line with the values are fired.
Shared values are just as important for a small company as they are for larger ones. An organization’s values are the collective principles and ideals that guide an organization’s thoughts and actions as a team. Values are critical because they define the collective character of the firm and serve as decision guidelines. They provide the parameters for the hundreds of decisions we make every day. Values not only let a company know what they should do, but just as importantly, values help determine what a firm stands for and what it will not stand for under any circumstance.
In a four-year study by John Kotter and John Heskett, involving nine to ten firms in each of twenty industries, they discovered that firms with a strong corporate culture based on a foundation of shared values outperformed their competitors by a huge margin: their revenue grew more than four times faster; their rate of job creation was seven times higher; their stock price grew twelve times faster, and their profit performance was 750 percent higher.
Your organization’s shared values are not just some well-chosen words printed on a placard and hung on your walls. They are the unifying principles that you most care about, and they should come from the beliefs that are inside each individual. For people to understand the values and agree to them, they must participate in the process. Consensus about values encourages consistent implementation throughout the organization.
If you haven’t identified your core values, then take the time to develop them. Determine what beliefs and principles you are absolutely committed to live by now and in the future. The challenges we are facing can help solidify our guiding values and foster teamwork and esprit de corps. Challenges offer the opportunities for greatness, if one is ready for the moment and has a solid foundation built on shared core values.
These difficult times tend to make people better or bitter. The CNMI is going through a crucible experience with events that are causing people to reflect on their core assumptions at an emotional level. Some of the assumptions that have worked well in the past are no longer valid; whereas, some assumptions will continue to guide the decisions and actions of individuals.
It’s important to periodically evaluate our decision-making processes and the underlying values that influence us, particularly if something isn’t working as planned. This is true as an individual, family, organization, or a community. Individuals and organizations tend to drift during times of confusion and chaos. Periodically examining your values serves to renew commitment for values that are deeply shared and promote discussion on the relevance of those values that no longer serve the interests of the organization or its constituents. If the organization is not making a positive impact, then it may be time to make some changes.
I’ve been reading about individuals who have focused on their values to overcome challenges, become better leaders, and are able to transform their organization to create an empowered culture. Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) helped Zappos, a shoe company, grow from almost nothing to over $1 billion in gross merchandize sales annually. In the beginning, Hsieh resisted developing values for the company because he thought of it as a very “corporate” thing to do, and he wanted to maintain a more informal culture. However, as the company grew, it became necessary to formalize the definition of Zappos’ culture by getting everyone’s input to come up with its core values.
Initially, there were 37 values that helped define Zappos, but over the course of a year those were whittled down to the ten most important core values that they were willing to hire and fire on. As the company grew larger and faster, their values helped screen applicants that fit with their culture. Zappos conducts two different sets of interviews, the standard interview to determine the applicant’s relevant experience and technical ability, and then an interview by the HR department to examine the culture fit. Candidates have to pass both interviews in order to get hired.
Another gentleman by the name of Gordon Binder, the former CEO of Amgen, tells about the time when a middle manager took the initiative to define the company’s values. Binder decided it was too great for him to do alone and got the entire company involved. After interviewing 400 people, it was determined that Amgen, a biotechnology company, had eight core values that everything was based on, including their culture. Binder believes that process to clarify the company’s values “was the most important thing we ever did.” People are hired on the basis of their values, those who live by them are promoted, and individuals who act out of line with the values are fired.
Shared values are just as important for a small company as they are for larger ones. An organization’s values are the collective principles and ideals that guide an organization’s thoughts and actions as a team. Values are critical because they define the collective character of the firm and serve as decision guidelines. They provide the parameters for the hundreds of decisions we make every day. Values not only let a company know what they should do, but just as importantly, values help determine what a firm stands for and what it will not stand for under any circumstance.
In a four-year study by John Kotter and John Heskett, involving nine to ten firms in each of twenty industries, they discovered that firms with a strong corporate culture based on a foundation of shared values outperformed their competitors by a huge margin: their revenue grew more than four times faster; their rate of job creation was seven times higher; their stock price grew twelve times faster, and their profit performance was 750 percent higher.
Your organization’s shared values are not just some well-chosen words printed on a placard and hung on your walls. They are the unifying principles that you most care about, and they should come from the beliefs that are inside each individual. For people to understand the values and agree to them, they must participate in the process. Consensus about values encourages consistent implementation throughout the organization.
If you haven’t identified your core values, then take the time to develop them. Determine what beliefs and principles you are absolutely committed to live by now and in the future. The challenges we are facing can help solidify our guiding values and foster teamwork and esprit de corps. Challenges offer the opportunities for greatness, if one is ready for the moment and has a solid foundation built on shared core values.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)