Make Your Core Values Stick!

As a leader, I always get pumped and excited when we have an event, like Our Values QIC-Day, to get our employees involved in “how” we should “live out” Our Values.

In a previous blog post, I shared that I met with our “Value Leaders” immediately after our QIC-Day event where I introduced Our Values, and how I…

• Cast the vision of the importance of their role

• Talked about forming their Value Team

• Defined and clarified their task and responsibilities, and

• Gave them a one month deadline to report-out at our next company-wide QIC-Day

WOW!!! I was amazed how quickly the Value Leaders stepped up into their new roles. As soon as I stepped away, the Value Leaders had their own stand-up meeting.

Tip: Stand-up meetings are a good tool for the leader’s toolbox. Standups encourage people to quickly…

Determine the main objectives,

Define the priorities, and

Decide on next actions to move forward

It was fun to overhear the Value Leaders talk about the selection process for their Value Teams. You would have thought this was the official NFL draft, by the way they were trading team members between themselves.

Anticipation

When our employees arrived at Our Values follow-up QIC-Day one month later, there was great anticipation because they…

• Were wearing their G.I.V.E.R.S. T-shirts

• Heard upbeat instrumental background music

• Were welcomed with a ticket for door prizes and a pre-printed name-tag with their new table assignment

• Smelled the breakfast we had ready for them in the meeting room

We warmed up the room by playing another Icebreaker game, Wheel of Values (like the Wheel of Fortune game on TV).

• The table that guessed and yelled out the correct phrase first got to go and spin the game wheel for prizes.

• The key phrase was Our Values Statement – People, People, People.

Agenda

I kicked-off the half-day QIC-Day explaining the purpose of the day and reviewed…

• Our Values

• Our Purpose

• Our Vision

• Our Super Objectives

Observation: Repetition is a necessary task for the leader who aspires to make a difference. We possess the grand ideas that drive purpose and define the values of our organization. Repetition is the conduit through which we transfer our vision to those who follow us.

The agenda continued in a similar format as we took each letter in G.I.V.E.R.S. (Each letter represented one of Our Values.) –

• Starting with the letter “G” for “Pursue Personal Growth”, each Value Leader presented the outcomes from their Value Team discussions on how we were and should “live out” that value.

Insight: When you let others in your organization “take the stage” in a leadership role, you empower them to learn and grow – AND their job satisfaction sky-rockets!

• Then I shared additional comments about what we heard on that value.

• Afterwards, each table went to a flip chart to discuss and record any additional thoughts as to how we, as a company, were going “live out” that value on a daily basis.

• Later, we used the Wheel of Values game to continue the fun in an intentional and a meaningful way. This time the key phrases for the game reinforced Our Purpose, Our Vision, and Our Super Objectives.

• I closed this fun and exciting day with final remarks, the showing of new video of our People, People, People, and finished by celebrating the revealing Our Values plague in the entryway for employees, customers, and suppliers to view each day as they enter our building.

Tip: Create visual representations of the most important principles in your company, like your Core Values. It doesn’t have to be a video or plaque, it can be as simple as a framed certificate on the wall of your small business. These serve as visual reminders to you, your employees, customers and suppliers!

Reinforce

As leaders, we must reinforce our Core Values in order to effectively communicate their importance to the whole team. We can accomplish this by:

1. Assigning Values oriented leadership responsibilities and

2. Repeating our spoken Values statements

3. Introducing visual reminders of our Values

What’s one new way you can reinforce the Core Values of your organization?