Deeply-held values, beliefs, and principles form the foundation for the information and approaches recommended on this site.

12 Deeply-Held,
Foundational Values and Beliefs

  • We are all equal in the workplace. We just have different jobs and callings through which we are challenged to add value every day.
  • We operate from our own value system. These values profoundly affect everything that we do or say. Thus, identifying and living our values is crucial.
  • Employees/co-owners are your most important assets. Organizations you influence should appreciate employees and act out of a genuine belief that employees, along with the customers, matter the most.
  • 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–so that employees who lack integrity are dealt with quickly–before they affect the commitment and engagement of the rest.
  • 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.
  • Your employees are grown-ups. Treat them like the thinking, choosing, life-living adults they are. Adults don’t need close supervision or a boss who tells them what to do. They don’t need a mother. They need colleagues, friends, and organization leaders.
  • Employees must be involved. Don’t ever expect a colleague to support, with 100% of their energy and passion, any process, decision, or approach, that they were not part of creating, if it affects their job.
  • Work is most congruent with our needs and values when the contribution we make also fulfills our personal mission and vision. Identifying and living a personal mission and vision is key to this balance.
  • True diversity will rock your workplace. We are not referring to artificial appreciation or politically correct (PC) statements and mandatory programs about race, color, or creed. Demonstrate genuine appreciation for and integrate the vast variety of talents, skills, backgrounds, experiences, generational differences, and beliefs that employees bring to your workplace.
  • 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 fits and matters. 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.
  • 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.
  • Managers are the most powerful force for good–or for ill–in an organization. They must interact with people in ways that empower, enable and reinforce positive power in your work environment. You can train skills; you can’t train attitude, emotional maturity, beliefs about people, or values.