Putting together your values statement
Drawing up a list of beliefs and principles is one thing; putting those beliefs to the test is another. Tough choices are bound to come along, and they force you to examine your beliefs closely. If you run a one-person company, you already know something about what you stand for. In a bigger company, certain beliefs and values are inherent in the ways the company does business. The best way to get to the heart of your company’s beliefs and principles is to imagine how you’d respond to tough dilemmas.
Your company’s values statement represents more than a quick to-do list. The description of your values reaches beyond quarterly goals or even yearly targets. Your values should guide you through tough decisions as you build a sustainable business that lasts and grows over years and decades.
Maybe your company has some sort of values credo already in place but tucked away into a file that hasn’t been accessed in ages. If so, at least you’re a step ahead of the game. (You lose points, however, if you have to glance at a dusty bronzed plaque on the office wall to remember it — even more if you don’t remember where the plaque hangs.)
You may not have the luxury of spending weeks or months developing a values statement, so we show you a quick way to create one that sets your company on the right track. If your company is small, you can follow the steps yourself or with one or two of your colleagues — no need for long meetings and careful review. If you’re part of a larger company, however, you may have to wade through a bit more debate to get a consensus.
1 Gather your company’s chief decision-makers to talk about the general company values that should (and do) guide employee behavior.Come prepared with an agenda and your own observations and take careful notes. Use good meeting management protocols to ensure all voices are heard and hierarchical or seniority battles don’t arise (for example, ensure the meeting facilitator never dismisses a suggestion out of hand no matter whom it’s from). One useful trick is to bring in a relatively new employee and ask that person the single most important thing that attracted them to the firm.
2 Prepare a first-draft list of all the values discussed in the meeting and circulate copies for review.
3 Schedule one or two follow-up meetings with senior managers to clarify and confirm a final set of values.
4 Create a values statement that captures the agreed-upon values clearly and concisely, and get it approved by the board or other such advisory body if that’s necessary.
5 Meet with managers at all levels to make sure that they understand the importance of, and the reasoning behind, the company values statement.Another useful exercise is to select one value from the statement and start off your next management meeting with some discussion around it; solicit examples, positive and negative, about its deployment, and try to come up with some suggestions for better communicating the value if it appears there’s a problem. Rotate the value under discussion at the next meeting until all have been covered.
6 See that every employee gets a copy of the statement.If you’re in business for yourself, place a hard copy of the values statement near your workspace or at your home office if that’s what you use. Don’t let it gather dust. For a bigger company, print the values statement on wallet-size cards and don’t forget to include it in the annual report. Post it on the company website and make sure it reaches all the stakeholders.
Following through with your values
A values statement can sometimes turn out to be a bit too simplistic, with words that sound good on paper but that are difficult to put to practical use. Worse, some firms simply outsource the creation exercise to an external wordsmith and then smugly declare they are woke. We recently came across a research report by Booz Allen Hamilton, a large consulting firm, and the Aspen Institute that found that a majority of the vision statements they examined used five similar terms: Integrity, Teamwork, Authenticity, Sense of fun, Customer orientation. They urged that these be expunged from any such statement, as they smacked of simple follow-the-leader regimentation rather than any sincere effort to unearth and institutionalize the firm’s real values.
To make your values statement really useful, you need to take the next step and link your values to basic, sensible rules that employees at all levels in your company can follow. You may want to create an anonymous “online hotline” where employees can express to senior management their own ideas about values and about how your company is fulfilling its stated values, without fear of retribution. You may even get some unanticipated great new insights this way.
Creating Your Company’s Vision Statement
A vision statement not only points the way to the future, but also makes you want to get up and go there. It represents your company’s best hopes and brightest dreams. An insightful corporate vision is much more likely to develop out of a diverse team of hard-working women and men than to spring mysteriously from an inspired moment in the life of a leader.
1 Select a small group of dedicated employees from various levels across your company.If your company is small, get the whole gang together. If you’re the chief cook and bottle washer all in one, you can represent yourself, perhaps recruiting your significant other (or maybe even Mom … OK, not). The more people you involve, the broader the perspective you receive and the better the chances of creating a vision statement that truly reflects your company’s future.
2 Have the group re-read your company’s values statement and review the list of stakeholders, both internal and external, who have an interest in your company.
3 Begin a verbal free-for-all.Allow everybody to volunteer personal opinions and ideas about the company’s future, form, and direction. Start taking down a list and forming it into a cohesive statement.
4 When the vision team feels comfortable with the results, add the finishing touches to get your vision ready for prime time.
Although it may be only a couple of sentences or even just a phrase, the vision statement is the compass that provides your company’s direction into the future. Spend enough time with your statement to make sure that the north on your company compass truly is north — that it does indeed point in the direction in which you want to go.