Dear leader… Valueless?!

Dear leaders, how is it going with your corporate values? Are they still up-to-date, or due for a renewal?

In recent years, I have been astounded by seeing serious debates in more and more boardrooms discussing the right values for the organisation. Well, serious – surreal might be a better description. Or do you really think that you should ‘select and establish’ your values (based on your strategy), and then ‘roll them out’ via posters, workshops, and toolkits? So why do directors still allow themselves to be persuaded en masse to invest valuable time in these kinds of pointless practices?

Do not get me wrong, an organisation’s values play an important role. They are quite literally the things that people find valuable and important, and that they as a collective more or less impose on the individual. If you are new in an organisation, you immediately feel their influence, especially if you do something that goes against the prevailing values. Thus, collective values largely determine the behaviour of both employees and managers. All the more reason to emphasize them. But please not through a campaign in which the Official Vales are announced (usually a good description of what the organisation is not). Values should not be talked about too much, values should be lived and done. The good news is: as a leader, you have a very big influence on the real values and norms in your organisation. You largely determine whether the customer is central, whether integrity and respect are genuine values or just words that people use. You determine that by what you say, but more importantly by what you do, by the decisions you make and the actions you take.

I know a lot of organisations where there is a lot of talk about the need for a stronger performance culture. Such a culture is characterized by values like ambition, performance, competition, growth and improvement, accountability, honest feedback, and making a difference. In many Dutch organisations, however, other values are much more important: collegiality, freedom, equality, harmony, sociability, stability, and security. Recognisable? Then ask yourself the following questions: Do I always speak up to my direct reports about agreements and performance? Do we give each other honest feedback in the MT, or do we leave each other alone as long as it does not affect ourselves? Are there departments or top people who have been underperforming (visible to everyone) for years? When announcing results, do I always feel the need to put a positive spin on them? Do I differentiate sufficiently between assessment and reward from my direct reports?

You see, your own behaviour and that of your colleagues at the top has more influence on the prevailing values than all the words in the corporate values booklet.

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Dear leader… 
Under this title, we are reissuing a series of 10 classic blogs on leadership communication and change. Michiel van Delden wrote them over the last few years, translating key lessons from these two disciplines to the world of managers.