Behavioral Examples That Define Our Values

We’ve looked at how things can go really wrong without strong organizational values in place and how easy it can be to fall short of providing a picture of those values for everyone on our teams. We’ve also dug into how, even with specific values listed in various places throughout our office, we can’t assume everyone will have the same level of understanding. And to show just how often we provide our folks with feedback that lacks the detail they need to improve subpar performance or repeat what they’re doing well, I challenged you to think about the evaluations you’ve received (or given) that didn’t include a single example of actual behavior. While each of these are common, providing solid behavioral examples that define our values doesn’t have to be this way! It’s not complicated and it doesn’t require us to transform into some sort of super hero. All we need to do is provide a visible example and share that with our teams consistently.

Make no mistake, I do believe this is something each of us can build into our daily routines fairly simply. That said, I’m certainly not suggesting it will be easy… The challenge is to know what WE need to do to live out those values. It’s one thing to memorize the words or even spout off the definitions occasionally, but knowing exactly how we exemplify them through our own behavior will require us to become quite a bit more intimate with our core values than simply stating them in front of a group. Quite honestly, putting the intentional thought into how our behaviors model our values should be the most difficult part of the process. As leaders, we likely have the most discretion in how we executive the tasks we’re responsible for - and I’d hope how we’ve decided to take that action is indeed in line with what we’ve defined as our values.

With those dots connected, our next step should fall right in line: we need to be sure we’re explaining why we do what we do. Hold tight though, this ain’t about bragging about ourselves. It’s about making (and keeping) our values part of our team’s regular conversations. A few years ago, while a good friend of ours served as general manager for a heavy equipment company, he helped his team latch onto a mantra of “Customers for Life.” Each time someone in the office asked for help, the coworker providing the assistance would provide them with what they needed and repeat the phrase for everyone to hear. When a customer called for support, one of the first things you’d hear after the call ended was the team member sharing, “Customers for Life” as they hung up the phone. 

In leading our teams, we have opportunities each day to build our values into our conversations. When we tie those values to actions we’re taking, we’ve started the process of providing behavioral examples that define our core values. With this as a starting point, our next step should be detailing how the work our team members are doing connects to those values. We’ll pick up there next time!