We’re bringing back a TG Classic - with a few tweaks - to help you shift the way you can harness what’s great about your mission and purpose as we move forward through continued uncertainty.
Dear NLOV,
This is a wonderful, hope-filled question. Many leaders work hard to build their company on positive values. Like all healthy routines, we know this effort takes practice, adjustments, and regular assessment of how well your values are modeled in action. You’ve likely changed your organization with success over the last two years, and now can be a wonderful time to hone in on what values you want to see in your organization.
Here are a few practical steps to help you answer your question.
1. Be very clear about what matters most
If you don’t already have a list of behaviors and actions you want your organization to be living, create one. You can use phrases or one word. The trick is having definitions of what it would mean if you caught someone in the act of living the value out. If a list already exists, you may want to revisit yours and keep going until they are so clear you can put them on a button or a t-shirt. Here’s ours.
2. Get all-in commitment
Bring your list of values to your next leadership meeting. Ask the group how well the list captures who your team is at its best and explore commitment level to what you’ve outlined. Explore what’s missing and what could be better. What could you let go of because you’ve changed in recent years?
You don’t want people saying, “I’m kinda in on that integrity thing… I’ll do my best.” Commitment is the foundation for accountability when it comes time to put values into action.
3. Reinforce with stories of values in action on a regular basis
At every staff meeting, ask the team to share stories of how they’ve seen the values in action. When we asked this of our team, we shared things like:
Value: Stronger Together
Story: Chris stepped in to help facilitate a team session when a team member was sick with Covid.
Story: Rather than reinvent the wheel, Katie helped Erin develop a new workshop offering using updated materials from years prior.
Value: Commit to Better
Story: This year one of our defining objectives is “Successful Staff & Evolved Roles” This includes planning for maternity care, extended rest for leadership, and growing our team. The past two years have been taxing, and we want our team to have room to grow personally and professionally.
Story: We kindly call out when data is missing in our weekly reports and recommit to a deadline for when all inputs must be received.
In your conversations, if people have lots of stories in a certain category you can bet that value is being lived out. If instead, people are struggling to come up with examples, the value may be more aspirational and need attention. How are you including all members of your organization in these conversations? With hybrid workplaces and more people working remotely, staying connected takes intention and care.
4. See how your values are embedded in your business
Experiencing your company’s values is one side of the equation. The other is knowing the impact of the choices you are making when you have people and your community in mind.
This month is B Corp Month. We’re proud to be in a network of organizations that believe in the responsibility to care for people and the planet. The B Corp’s Impact Assessment is a wonderful tool to measure social, environmental, and community impacts for both your employees and your customers. This free tool provides a baseline for your organization and areas of improvement where you can make adjustments to build a better business.
5. Look Outside Yourself & Your Company
We’ve always believed teams are stronger when they work together well and we invite leaders to look outside of themselves for support, mentorship, and creative ideas.
One way to do this is to make a list of businesses you admire. Which leaders align with your values and how can you be challenged to improve your impacts? Where could you work together on projects to move the dial forward?
Rather start with a group already underway? We love the B Corp Movement, Small Giants, Great Game of Business and Good Business Colorado.
6. Move beyond checking boxes
Regularly evaluating progress on goals is essential to increased team success. Many teams make adjustments and can increase diversity demographics or reduce their electric energy use with gusto. We’ve found, however, teams best live their values when they use them to make decisions and hold teams accountable to the choices they’re investing in.
When choosing a new supplier or drafting a maternity leave policy, consider how your values are showing up in the choices you are making to serve your people, your products, and your community.
NLOV, this work can be humbling and hard. Whether you’re preparing for a significant transition, are a founder with values near and dear to your heart, or your goal is to foster greater commitment from your team, we’d love to help. Let’s find a time to talk.
