Workplace Values: How to Bring Your Workplace Values to Life
What are these things called values that we all value so much at work?
Well, you’ve got values at an individual level, even if you can’t always articulate them, you have values that drive how you make decisions that drive your behaviors in your personal life and your work life values that perhaps you hope to live up to values that you perhaps hope to instill within your children.
At an organization level, every organization, every company has values.
They’re not always good values, but every organization has values and most organizations, of course, have a list somewhere of those inspiring rocking values.
Sometimes we put them on coffee mugs because they’re just that important, or on the nice posters with the pictures of the puppies and the rainbows and the unicorns because our values are so nice and awesome. And then you get your team together every now and then, and you hold hands, and you sing “We Are the World” because your values make you feel so good.
Now, here’s the challenge I’m going to give you when it comes to values. I want to remind you that every organization, for the most part, has a list of inspiring, rocking values.
In fact, some of your competitors, I guarantee you, has the exact same list of values that you have.
So, what makes a difference between those one percent companies that are absolutely rocking it, those companies that make it onto the coveted best places to work lists versus the rest?
Well, it’s remembering those cliche sayings that when it comes to values, actions speak louder than words and talk is cheap. In fact, the reason talk is cheap is because actions speak louder than words.
That’s how we know what our real values are through your actions, you at an individual level, at a leadership team level, at an organization level, communicate messages day in and day out to your employees and to your customers, through your behaviors and through your actions and through your non-action in big ways, sometimes in small ways, small simple things that we do at work.
Checking text messages during an important conversation with a teammate or during a meeting sends a message. Your phone call is very important to us. That’s why we’re placing you on hold for the next 45 minutes.
We believe the behaviors that we see.
That’s why values are absolutely critical if we get them right in terms of building a rocking successful culture.
Values truly are the building blocks of a culture. They help create an inspiring culture and reflect and inspiring culture. Your values are literally what you value, which means it’s where you invest your time, your money. It is where you invest your attention. It’s what you focus on.
Those are your values.
And if you look at the end of the week, if you keep a journal of how you spent your time during the week and you see that even though you say to yourself, you value this, you value connecting with your employees, or you value time with your family, whatever it may be, but that isn’t reflected in your diary, then you may aspire to value those things, but the reality is you are not valuing those things.
Our values are reflected through our behaviors, and when employees or customers see a disconnect between what we say we’re all about and what they’re actually experiencing or seeing with their own eyes, then cynicism goes up. Trust is broken. And Dilbert cartoons probably go on the rise in your workplace.
Your values help define your character.
Your values will guide your future if you get them right and if you use them right.
If you bring your values to life and if you use them in a meaningful way, your values will become your goalposts.
They will become your guiding lights for how you make decisions and how you behave.
They will be your checks and balances as you move your business forward. They will help you create a truly rocking, inspiring culture if you bring your values to life.
So, let’s talk about how we have to do that to make sure your values don’t just hang on a pretty poster in the lunchroom.
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame Speaker and author of nine books, including “The Humor Advantage,” “The Jerk-Free Workplace,” and 
the workplace culture book, “Small Moments, Big Outcomes: How Leaders Create Cultures That Drive Extraordinary Results.”
Michael is known as of North America’s leading speakers on workplace culture. To find out how he can help you energize your workplace culture book a call here!
