12 Deeply-Held,
Foundational Values and Beliefs
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We are all equal in the workplace. We have different jobs and callings and are challenged to add value daily, no matter our role.
- We operate from our own value system, profoundly affecting everything we do or say. Thus, it is crucial to identify and live our values.
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Employees/co-owners are your most important assets. Organizations you influence should appreciate employees and act out of a genuine belief that employees and customers matter the most.
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Trust and respect each colleague. They will most frequently live up to the trust you accord them in keeping with your high expectations for their performance–and their own. Trust–but verify if necessary–so that employees who lack integrity are dealt with quickly–before they affect the commitment and engagement of the rest.
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Hire employees who are passionate and accountable about serving customers and each other. Customers are the reason your organization exists. Decisions are made not because employees consider them convenient but because they serve customers most effectively.
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Your employees are grown-ups. Treat them like the thinking, choosing, life-living adults they are. Adults don’t need close supervision or a manager who tells them what to do. They don’t need a mother. They need colleagues, friends, and organizational leaders.
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Employees must be involved. Don’t ever expect a colleague to support, with 100% of their energy and passion, any process, decision, or approach they were not part of creating if it affected their job.
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Work is most congruent with our needs and values when our contribution fulfills our individual mission and vision. Identifying and living a personal mission and vision is key to this balance.
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True diversity will rock your workplace. We are not referring to artificial appreciation, politically correct (PC) statements, or mandatory programs about race, color, or creed. Demonstrate genuine appreciation for and integrate the wide variety of talents, skills, backgrounds, experiences, generational differences, and beliefs that employees bring to your workplace.
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Develop with colleagues and share widely the mission and vision. Employees want to be part of something that is bigger than themselves. They want to feel that their employer has an overall direction in which their work and contribution fit and matter. Share the mission and vision in a conversation with each employee to identify their fit into the broader work of other employees. When organizations hold these conversations, magical partnerships ensue.
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Make company operations transparent to employees. Share successes, failures, challenges, financial results, goals, prospects, customer interaction, benefits cost and review, competitive environment, industry prospects, financial outlook, and all aspects of a company’s operation so people can be accountable.
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Managers are an organization’s most powerful force for good–or ill. They must know how to interact with people in ways that empower, enable, and reinforce positive power in their work environment.