From Tee Ball to the Board Room: Values that Drive Success

Company values hold more weight than we can imagine. They drive decisions, provide focus, and build culture. Like one’s personal values, they can quickly affect the rise or fall of organizations. It then becomes an essential component for leaders to take seriously. What values drive you? What values drive your team? 

Establishing Values 

What is the number one discussion item on the first day of children’s team sport practice? Team Rules! “Have fun, encourage your teammates, no trash talk, and always do your best.” It is the responsibility and role of the team leader to establish those values at the onset and ensure they are followed all season long. 

Similarly, organizations choose Team Rules, or core values. Values are deep-seated convictions about how the team should accomplish its mission. They are the principles that influence decisions and directions, how a vision can best be achieved. Some companies write their values on walls, on posters, and on signature blocks. Have you seen them around? Executive leaders know that these need to be seen and reviewed; otherwise, they fade into obscurity and face being forgotten. Which core value resonates most with you? 

A corporation’s values are its life blood. And they direct decisions like a ship rudder, allowing sailors to remain on course in the face of stormy seas.  

Consider the actions of Johnson & Johnson in the face of seven deaths from cyanide-laced Extra Strength Tylenol capsules. Quantities of the product valued at over $100 million were quickly recalled. James E. Burke, CEO, observed that it was the company’s philosophy and values that played the most important part in its decision-making process during this incident: “We believe our first responsibility,” begins the Johnson & Johnson credo, “is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and all others who use our products and services.” Consensus about the meaning of this responsibility facilitated prompt corporate action, recount Kouzes and Posner.  

Within a staff, a team value could be, “Deliver on your promises” or “We speak life.” Whether it’s a rough-draft proposal or a returned phone call, staff members know the values and meet them. If for some reason, a staff member cannot fulfill a responsibility, he promptly communicates it and seeks assistance since meeting the company’s standard is more important than delivering a weak product or poor service. Values matter! How well can your team identify your key values? 

Cultivate Participation 

One important value is that leaders invite, encourage, and esteem the contribution of every team member. They build teams with spirit and cohesion, helping them feel like family. It takes intentionality to help others feel like owners, not hired hands. 

Participatory style of leadership is the commitment to allow each person the opportunity to influence a decision or direction. Divergent views are encouraged. Closure on a given topic may take time due to the dedication to forge a collective agreement. It is necessary to have someone in charge. However, it is not necessary to manage people by reminding them who the boss is. For a leader, using authority is like soap: the more you use it, the less you have.  

Also, the team leader needs to make sure that ownership is in the hands of those who execute the work. Those performing the task need to have the ability to make their own decisions on the spot. There should be autonomy on the frontlines. This is where vision and values are so important. The rule of thumb here is to centralize vision and values and to decentralize decisions. 

Like farmers, leaders cultivate the soil of participation. And the fruit of their labors will yield a highly productive team.