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Your leadership team has developed thoughtful, solid value statements that have a clear connection to your business. These value statements are outlined in writing in the official documentation of your company culture. Your hiring process involves sharing this documentation with recruits and issuing verbal reminders of its importance to current employees.  

These are all necessary and positive steps in the right direction for establishing and maintaining a positive workplace culture. However, if leadership does not exemplify the values by acting on them, all the previous effort and investments made will be for naught.  

Effective implementation of organizational values depends heavily on putting them into action. Period. There is no way around it. Now, for the good news: When you do act on your organizational values, you stand to reap considerable rewards in areas like employee productivity, engagement, and performance.  

Certain indicators can signal that leadership is not living out the company’s organizational values. They may include: 

  • High employee turnover 
  • Plummeting employee engagement levels 
  • Frequent sick days taken by employees 
  • Faltering employee performance levels 
  • Costly errors made by employees 
  • Decreased productivity levels 
  • A spike in unsatisfied customers 

Some of these signs might not be noticeable at first glance, so it is crucial to thoroughly audit your workforce for them. Once you have determined there is an issue, you can start working on converting your stated values into actions. 

DIFFERENTIATE STATED VALUES FROM INITIATED BEHAVIORS 

Leadership may have the best of intentions when it comes to acting on established values, but they find themselves getting tripped up by the wording of these values. Meaning, it is easy – even common – to phrase these ideals as nouns instead of verbs.  

For example, you may state that “teamwork” is one of your values. Although it is certainly a worthy ideal, the word itself refers to a noun, not a verb. You can amplify the impact of the value statement by rephrasing it as an actionable statement, such as: 

  • Work as a unified team 
  • Work together to formulate solutions and improve results 

The term “respect” provides another excellent example. You can revise it as an action with language such as: 

  • Demonstrate mutual respect to colleagues 
  • Respect the individuality, worth, and contributions of colleagues 

With just a few tweaks, a static noun becomes an actionable statement that can inspire employees to follow its lead.  

TELL LEADERSHIP TO TAKE OFF THEIR BLINDERS 

This is not an outright criticism of leadership; it is, rather, a reminder that losing touch with your workforce is all too easy when you sit at the top of the hierarchy. And when you lose touch, you may fall prey to inaccurate assumptions.  

For example, leadership might assume that once organizational values are inscribed in official documentation, employees will automatically act on them. And, although some employees may certainly heed the call, others will not necessarily do so, because leadership has not made them fully aware of the call. 

Meaning, it is your responsibility to provide workers with guidance on how they can live the values that are the foundation of your company culture. You can do so through different channels, including: 

  • Hosting offsite workshops that walk employees through the actions related to each value, including role-playing 
  • Instructing managers to have quarterly check-ins focused on how their reports are carrying out the values 
  • Encouraging employees to speak up if they feel that leadership or their peers are not living the values, and to ask leadership any questions they might have about how to act on them 

People appreciate transparency and guidance. These two traits alone will bolster your workplace culture. When you implement practices to keep everyone accountable to organizational values, you pave the way for their successful execution. 

HOW TO TRANSFORM WORDS INTO ACTIONS 

Executing your organizational values is more simple than you might assume. It will take some time and effort, but the benefits make the investment worthwhile. To make it easier for your leadership team to envision the process, below are some commonly touted values and ideas on how to act on them. 

Foster an Inclusive Workplace 

Make it a point to hire people who not only have diverse backgrounds and come from different cultures, but also have varied life experiences. Facilitate open conversations with current employees about why inclusivity is a critical behavior to exhibit and invite workers to share their experiences, both positive and negative, with it. Offer employees the opportunity to anonymously provide their input about whether leadership makes a concerted effort to include everyone.  

Hold Teammates Accountable 

There are employees at some companies who have earned a reputation for shirking their accountability, which can entail everything from passing work onto others on their team to assigning false blame when they are actually at fault.  

This is a prime example of failure to hold teammates accountable. It cheats not only the victims of the perpetrators but also the organization as a whole. For this reason, managers must demonstrate that every single person on the team will be held accountable for both their wins and losses. If an employee tries to assign blame wrongly, for example, the repercussions for their actions must be swift and consistent. In other words, the same negative actions should receive the same repercussions.  

Of course, the same is true of wins and employees who uplift coworkers. Their positive behaviors should be acknowledged and praised. 

Give Back to the Community 

Stewardship and acts of kindness are both favored by employees in younger generations, such as Millennials and Gen Z. These individuals are going to comprise the majority of your workforce for many years to come, so their buy-in matters greatly. Millennials are next in line to dominate C-suite roles, placing them at the helm of many organizations. 

Establish and build a program that encourages employees to give back to their community in various ways. Appoint a mini team to lead this program, with responsibilities that include scouting the community to uncover its most pressing needs. Offer your workers the opportunity to volunteer for this mini team, rather than choosing the members yourself. This will give employees a sense of ownership over the program.  

Apart from the team leading it, do not cap the number of employees who can participate in the community program. Set a goal to complete a certain number of charitable acts each year (whatever is realistic for your organization) and celebrate the completion of each one. You can do so in a variety of ways, including posting about it on your company’s social media channels and blog, as well as holding ceremonies such as a ribbon-cutting, presentation, or unveiling. 

BUILD A BRIDGE TO IMPACTFUL WORKPLACE CULTURE 

As you can see, acting on your organizational values sets the stage for employees to make meaningful contributions to your company culture. Doing so will help them feel like they have a voice and like their expertise, skill set, and ideas matter to leadership. They will feel like they are playing an active role in shaping the workplace culture positively. Happy, engaged, and invested employees tend to perform better and stay with their employer for many years.   

In this way, taking even the simplest actions builds a bridge from stated organizational values to the positive impact they can have on your company culture. 

 

Need help with your next company culture-focused corporate meeting or event? Discover how Gavel International’s meeting planning can help your business. 

Jim Bozzelli
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