#395 How important are values for the organisation?
How important are values for the organisation?
Orientation in a difficult time
People love to talk about values.
Values are often given priority; people like to emphasise how value-driven they are, and it is often said that they play a decisive role in shaping and managing the organisation. A look at platforms such as Kununu or Glassdoor raises the first question marks here. Whether organisational, entrepreneurial, personal or political, values are omnipresent. However, the question remains whether people still believe the values expressed by organisations today or see them more as marketing, advertising or empty phrases.
How important are values for organisations today?
Values
Classical values consist of a triad of statements on mission, vision, and values. Mission, what the organisation exists for. Vision, where the organisation wants to go. Values are the values according to which the organisation acts. In general, however, more aspects need to be considered today. Entrepreneurial values show what the organisation is geared towards. Organisational values show how you want to and will act in the working world. Personal values show what you stand for as an employee or a manager. Political values that (hopefully) show a clear commitment to democracy and its guiding principles. Describing yourself as apolitical today is a political position, and it is not a good one. Social legitimacy is then quickly lost, meaning you will lose your impact as a manager. It is important to position yourself clearly and thoroughly.
Relevance
The question of the relevance of values is more important today than ever. Particularly in times of uncertainty, conflict and omnipresent insecurity, it is important for people to clearly recognise which values are being applied. The more uncertain people are, the less likely they are to follow your ideas. Values provide direction. Values show what is possible and not possible in your organisation. Values offer possibilities but also show the limits, which leads to clarity. Values show how your organisation is different from others. Values form the brand for the organisation, the employer, the manager and all employees. Values are an essential guideline that must be clearly defined at all times. You can learn more about this in this week's podcast; see the links below.
Implementation
Values and their definition are always a bottom-up process. Nobody listens to values if they have not been involved in their selection and definition. The next lift poster, marketing campaign, and employer branding effort will fizzle out without effect if participation is not guaranteed. Management or the executive level must work cooperatively and participatively with the components of the organisation. It goes without saying that anyone needs to live by the organisation's values. Asserting values without living them leads to the opposite effect of what is desired. Value congruence between statement and action must be fully guaranteed - anytime, anywhere.
Conclusion: Values are more important today than ever before. Take care of them because you are worth it as a person and an organisation.
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More on this topic in this week's podcast: Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the podcast transcript, read below.
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Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn
Website: www.NB-Networks.biz
Niels Brabandt is an expert in sustainable leadership with more than 20 years of experience in practice and science.
Niels Brabandt: Professional Training, Speaking, Coaching, Consulting, Mentoring, Project & Interim Management. Event host, MC, moderator.
Podcast Transcript
Niels Brabandt
You probably heard leaders talk about values, and some of you might now roll their eyes. Now those might think, well, that's a really interesting topic. The question is how important are values in today's times because the orientation in these difficult moments that we have right now is not always easy. People love to talk about values. It's one of the favorite topics of many people. However, living these values is a lot let's say, it's more rare that these values really, find their reflection and their practice in reality. When we talk about values, it can be organizational values, entrepreneurial values, personal values, political values.
Values are everywhere. The question is, do people still believe in organizational values or any kind of values from companies? Or do they think it's just all marketing? And especially after what we saw recently with large brands, many people wonder, is it still worth believing in organization or is it all just is it all just lies, all talk, no trousers? How important are organization how important are organizational values in today's times? The usual classic one when we talk about values is mission, vision, values. You've only heard these three statements.
They're not really old fashioned. However, many people have heard them. Many people say they're interchangeable. Many people also say, when I read our mission, vision, and values, and just if you haven't heard of these, mission is why is the company there?
What are you actually doing? Vision is where do you wanna be? What is your goal? And the values is, the the values after after which and with which you want to achieve what you mentioned before. However, many people say when I exchange our values with the company next door, they do exactly the same. You wouldn't even find out because they are so bland. They are so interchangeable.
They're so exchangeable in general that many people say it's not really something new. It looks a bit like marketing, but not like something that I would believe. So we have to look at what are the values we are talking here. So first, we have entrepreneurial values, and that is where do we aim as an organization? And these organizational these entrepreneurial values do we work part time or full time? How do we work together? Do we work on our own or in teams?
And there are a lot of things to define. And sometimes you will find aspects where you say that is really not familiar. I'll give you a very simple example. When you, for example, work for Blokhaus, that's a steakhouse chain in Germany, the owner who is Catholic, every single time he opens a new restaurant, he always gets a priest in to put, to do a ceremony in the restaurant and wish the restaurant all the best from religious point of view. And some people say that's really not for me. Well, no one forces you to work there. So entrepreneurial values are values that are focused on the on the enterprise itself, on how do you want to accomplish what you set as your goals.
Organizational values is how do we work together and of course, you know that there are lots of arguments going on from should we work in a hybrid model, should we work from home, should we work in the office, and often these organizational values become a point of your argument because some people say it's a bit more random. There's a new manager and then suddenly everyone gets get called back in the office for no reason and then people quit and then you have new colleagues who you do not like.
How do you work together? These organizational values need to be very well defined. If you do not define these values well, you very quickly will run into trouble. The personal values is the values that you have as a manager, executive, or even as an employee. What are the values you stand up for? Are you a person that says I'm pretty confrontational or more straightforward in times of conflict? I'm a bit more taken aback.
I'm I'm a bit more calm. Maybe you want to have a a direct addressing in public or you want to have it first when you sit in a meeting room that you have a private chat about that. What are your personal values? How do you want to work together with others? What are your values that you stand up for? And, of course, how do people interact with each other and especially as a manager, what kind of interaction do you allow? What kind of interaction do you condemn?
An additional aspect today which needs to be talked about is political values. And when you in today's time say that you are apolitical, that already is a political position and hint, not a good one. When you today in when when you in today's time say you do not care about what's happening in the world out there, when you do not care if it's a far left wing government or a far right wing government, people will, for a very good reason, not not take you seriously. And by the way, when you very seriously, for whatever reason, say, my point of view politically is get the immigrants out, which is straightforward nazi garbage, then of course organization, then of course you will now claim this is freedom of speech, which by the way in many countries it isn't. It's a crime to incite violence and instill violence against minorities or against anyone. So when you now say it's freedom of speech, your part of freedom of speech is to make this blatantly unacceptable statement and the organization and the executives kind of free speeches that they say we do not work with you. So very important is that the political values you have need to include that people need to know what is accepted here and what is not accepted here.
When you say our organization accepts absolutely anything, this usually is not true because that would mean, politically, you would accept anything from far right wing Nazi utterances to far left wing communist statements, and it's impossible that you agree with both. Make it unambiguously clear where do you stand politically. Not to instill debate, not to have arguments at work. However, especially in today's times where many people now feel insecure and not protected for a very good reason, you need to make sure to tell people where you stand. And when you have no stand, when you do not have a spine for whatever reason, then please do not claim that you are in for the better. And please never claim that you are a good leader because you are nowhere near that. And, of course, some people right now say, come on, Neil.
I'm I'm really just there to to get my work done. Why is this relevant? Values give a direction. Values bring teams together. Values tell people this is what we work on. Values also tell people this is what it's possible here, and this is what's not possible here. A lot of talking, a lot of arguments will not happen when you have very clear values set out.
I give you a very simple organizational value here. You probably know Rolex, the luxury watch brand. That they say, we have an on-site culture of work. And some people say, well, that's that's not not for me. That's not very modern. You should have a hybrid model or you should have remote work policies. And Rolex can live with the fact that you will not apply for work with them when you want to have a hybrid or remote work model.
They decided that their values are you when you want to work for Rolex and with all the benefits that comes along with it of great pay and the big brand and whatnot and the amazing piece in your CV. When you want to have all of that, you have to align with their values. And if you don't, feel free to apply somewhere else. So values tell you what's possible, what's not possible. It offers opportunities, but it also shows the limits, what we are not going to do. Values also give a very clear cut which shows the the difference between you and the organization next door. When values become interchangeable and you say, well, we're a production facility and we produce key rings, So we do key rings, you know, there are machines and at the end key rings fall out and we sell them in one place or the other in different levels of quality.
At Nextdoor probably, this another company does exactly the same. So when there are no values, very quickly people will compare the pay and the benefits. And usually these benefits also come down to investing money to employees, and very quickly people will say the best pay then gets me. When there are no values, there is no reason why I should work here or there except the better pay. And I give you an example of how values can very quickly affect if people stay or not. I just give you example of 2 of my companies. With 1, there is a former IT leader who really didn't catch up with the development, who's now doing different work, but he's still there.
He didn't get fired. With another company, there are 2 people who work in admin and they are doing okay ish work, but they are a bit slow and they also are a bit too slow. However, both of these companies, by the way, owner led companies, all of these people are more than 30 years in the organization. And the ownership said, these people are set. They will not be fired. And of course now some people might say, I find this really a nuisance. They get well paid.
They work slower than I do. Why do why do they get the same pay or maybe even more than I do just because they are there longer?
And that's called values. Some companies will not have these values. Some companies say as soon as you're not productive anymore, you have to leave. And some companies will say, when you earned your way up and you worked for us for 25 or more years, then you will stay if you want to until you retire. And you might be annoyed right now when you're 21 years old. However, when you think forward maybe you are affected by such a development in 20 years time and then maybe you are just happy that someone says, no worries, you can stay here until you retire. These are values and values help.
Values show the brand as an organization. Values show the brand of an employer. Values show the brand of a leader. The brand of a person working in the organization. Every single person has to make their values unambiguously clear. And when you want to implement that, be aware, it is a bottom up process. When you say we don't do bottom up, we do top down.
And suddenly, there are posts on the wall which say, oh, here are our values. It's respect and teamwork and results. And people say, well, why didn't anyone ask me about this? Because I I think I worked for a while so shouldn't I have a say on this? People will not accept values that that you simply put upon them. And of course, there are different people who have different belong with the organization. Someone who is there for 4 months probably will not claim to have a say on the values.
Someone who is there for 25 years most likely wants to have a say on what the values are. No one's listening to values when there was no participation in the first place. So with the implementation, be sure that participation happened.
It must have happened. Management and executives need to work cooperatively on the matter and also question yourself, do you really have the right impression of the people? I give you very simple example here with, one very well known production company in Austria. They now started surveys, and they wanted to win an award with this, of course. And when they started surveys, management said in press, they're expecting to be in the top 10 companies of the more than 500 that are going to be evaluated, and they expect that people are at least they expected more than 80% of the people are happy with their workplace. Well and then the results came in. And good news, the trainees, everyone on vocational training or educational, academic, vocational training or students who work there, more than 85% of per percent of these people were happy.
However, with the main workforce, so as soon as people leave, the status of getting the vocational training or studying there and then doing these dual dual studies meaning studying and working at the same time, from there, as soon as you have a full time contract, the satisfaction within a couple of years drops to 58%. So a bit more than half are satisfied, and management and the executives were very disappointed with that. Well, you have to question what happened there. And the surveys will give you a hint. And with the values, you can then check if they were actually in practice, if you ever have any values, if any values were communicated, then you can do better next time. Values need to be lived. They need to be seen in practice.
When you go on platforms such as Kununu, which is the German equivalent to Glassdoor or you go on glassdoor.com, where you see people saying on the walls it says respect and we have executives yelling around. When you see that, you shouldn't be surprised that probably happiness or satisfaction isn't cutting edge in your organization. Setting all of this up, values are more important than ever. If you take care of these values, not only the values of the organization but also the values that you live by yourself, you you show by yourself, you demonstrate by yourself, you will count more as a person and as an organization as a whole which will always lead to better business and organizational outcomes. And I wish you all the best doing so. And when you now say, I think we haven't done too much on that and we should do, happy to have a chat. Just drop me an email, nbnbhyphennetworks. com. Just drop me an email.
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