Values-Based Leadership Newsletter

Welcome to LDi's Value-Based Leadership Newsletter. Here I will write about personal and organizational core values, share with you why it is important, how it can influence success, and an anecdotal story of the effect of the core value. You will find each article refreshing, inspirational, and most important, foundational to your success at home, at work, and in your community. My wish is for you enjoy reading these newsletters as much as I enjoy writing them. If being someone others willingly follow, making smart decisions, personal character, and success - however you define it - are important to you, then I believe you will most certainly find something to take away from each and every newsletter.

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​Values-Based Leadership 
​CORE VALUE ALIGNMENT

Organizational Values + Personal Values = Organizational Culture

When personal values and organizational values are not aligned you will typically have an employee who is unhappy in the job. From the employers’ perspective, this person will be, if not in reality, likely perceived as nonproductive as well. If this is pervasive throughout the organization, department, or office, it is likely the culture of that entity is dysfunctional. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come across companies or government organizations where there are either one or even a few dysfunctional teams/departments amid an otherwise extraordinary organization. Visa-versa I’ve seen some extraordinary teams/departments that were in total sync and are islands of success in a sea of dysfunctionality.
 
We only need to look to our evening news and our run-up to this past presidential election to see this played out with some extreme examples of what it looks like when individual values are not aligned with the party’s values (both Republican and Democratic), not to mention us as a nation as a whole. But I digress.
 
How do your personal values fit in with your organization’s values, stated or unstated? The more closely aligned they are, the more likely you have high job satisfaction and enjoy coming to work.
 
Let’s say the stated organizational core value is excellence, yet the values on the ground - the culture - is, “it’s good enough”, “shortcuts if needed”, get it done fast versus doing the job right; yet your personal values are tenacity and excellence and you take the time to cross all the t’s and dot the i’s, you may very well be perceived by the organization as slow, stubborn, perhaps even not a team player.
 
On the other hand, if you are being pushed to, "get the job out the door" and are knocking out the work, you may be seen by the organization as a productive employee, but you'll most likely feel dissatisfied and frustrated you’re not provided time to do the job properly.
 
Conversely, if your and the organization's core values and culture are in sync then not only will you be seen as that team player, but you will most likely have a high level of job satisfaction.
 
In all three scenarios, there is the potential for organizational dysfunction. Only when the collective individual core values are aligned with the organization’s stated core values, and those values are in sync with the values, "on the ground", will you have a culture driving success. In 2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul writes, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” From a secular perspective, what is being expressed is, don’t expect to get a lot of work done if you try harnessing an ox and a donkey to the same yoke. If everyone isn’t working in the same fashion, with the same values, the same set of beliefs, there will be challenges.
 
Recently I read an article in the Federal Managers Association Spring 2016 newsletter that indicated a full 56% of employees felt the organization had either denied, discounted, or rationalized bullying in the workplace. FIFTY-SIX PERCENT! Scarier than that! Five percent of the respondents indicated bullying was encouraged. (Read the article here Page 6) Yet how many of those organizations have teamwork, respect, or safety as a stated organizational core value?
 
Organizational core values have to be something more than words on your website or poster on the wall.
 
To create values that drive successful behavior in an organization, start by thinking about how these values will influence the culture, the decisions made daily, and in daily operations. How do the policies, written and unwritten, support your organization's value system? Are they conducive? Or counter-intuitive? Does everyone from the C-suite, or senior executive(s), to the frontline hourly employee conduct themselves, communicate and exemplify the organization's core values?
 
Don’t expect a cohesive workforce when the stated values are an empty set of cute words or phrases that aren’t lived up to by the senior leadership, much less middle management, and frontline employees.
 
While coaching an agency director for a federal agency, whose organizational core values are, “We value teamwork and cooperation”, I sat and watched her instruct her branch chiefs, “Be prepared to fight for their projects if they want them funded.”

“We empower our employees”, says the manager who directs supervisors to, “check-in”, with her before making any decisions.
 
“Safety is one of our core values”, says the supervisor who leads through intimidation. Not a very emotionally safe environment in this workplace.
 
A lot of great leaders are quoted as saying something along the lines of, “Hire for attitude and train for the skills you need.” I say, “If you want extraordinary success in your organization, hire people who share the values of the organization.” With that said, don’t confuse values with morals and ethics, but that’s for another article.

On the home front. This holds to be true at home and with the family as well. I read a book once titled, “Lies We Tell at the Alter” I recommend any couple contemplating a serious relationship and perhaps marriage to read it. It’s not so much about what we say as much as it is about what we don’t say or talk about. What are your values with regards to money, intimacy, religion, work, family? By asking the right questions we start to have a better understanding of each other’s values and in some cases perhaps, for the first time, our own.
 
How aligned are your values with your organization's core values? Download an exercise here to see. Use the same exercise to facilitate a values conversation with your team. Need some guidance? Email me and I’ll walk you through it. Or let us know what you think on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/successtraining
 
Extraordinary Leaders have extraordinary character; with an extraordinary character, they are not afraid.
 
Be Extraordinary!  

A printable version of this VBL can be found HERE.

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Find all of LDi's success rules, as written by Anthony Tormey, here: Your Personal Handbook for Success; Fifty Rules for Your Success 
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Previous VBL Newsletters:

Live By a Set of Rules

The Value of Values-Based Leadership

​Who's the Boss?

Building A Values-Based Culture

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Meet Anthony Tormey

International speaker, trainer, and executive coach. Anthony has conducted seminars and given motivational speeches across the nation and internationally on subjects of Leadership, Management, Strategic Planning, Continuous Improvement Processes, Project Management, Experiential Teambuilding, and Effective Communication. Anthony has coached senior executives, leaders, and supervisors in both government and private sectors. His powerful and highly charged motivational presence does not come from standing behind a lectern, but by taking you on a journey of discovery through thought-provoking dialog. 
Learn more of Anthony's passion, education, and experience.

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