Values - A Key Driver of Passion at Work
We can look at values in three ways: Personal Values, Corporate Values and most importantly, how the two connect to create and sustain passion at work.
Personal Values and Work
Values are key to ensuring people can create and sustain high meaning at work. If we know our personal values, (defined as what is most important to us), then we can organise our lives so that we are aligned to what we care about the most.
EXAMPLE: If fairness and justice are core values, then we must ensure we operate in ways that are congruent with this value. We cannot for example, ‘play favourites’ at work or stand by when a colleague is unjustly accused. If we do, our contradictory actions, even at a subconscious level, will inhibit our ability to sustain high meaning in our work. We are eroding our foundation for PassionFlow!™ if we do not take actions which align our core values.
When we know our core values, and our actions are in sync, then we have a strong foundation for sustaining high meaning, which is essential to passion at work. What are your core values?
Corporate Values
Most organisations have created documents which contain their corporate values. For example, it is not uncommon to see the following list of values posted on corporate walls: respect, integrity, innovation, transparency, teamwork. Once created, the company must operate in ways that are completely congruent. If they don’t, employees become cynical and corporate value statements become a joke!
EXAMPLE: Many companies have a version of the following statement on their walls: ‘Our People First.’
- What behaviours support such a statement and build a bond between the company and its employees?
- What behaviours create cynicism and disengagement?
The Recession: Many companies who claim employees come first have chosen to downsize their workforce as an obvious and relatively easy way to remain profitable or viable. Other companies, with the same mantra, have worked hard to give people options such as temporarily reduced salaries, time off without pay, early retirement without penalty, 4-day working weeks, etc.
Aligning Personal and Corporate Values
The last element is how to align an individual’s personal values with corporate values. What if a person’s personal values are different than the stated corporate values?
EXAMPLE: What if ‘achievement’ is a corporate value and ‘balanced’ is an individual value? Or, what if a person’s core values are ‘change and variety’ and the dominant corporate value is ’stability’?
In our experience, having different values is not an issue, as long as the employee can respect the corporate values and agree to support them. Employees need to understand that when they sign an employment contract they are also agreeing to support the corporate values and demonstrate behaviours congruent with those values.
How to align: Define and create behavioural measures for each corporate core value.
1. Employees need to learn the definition of each value.
2. Employees need to learn what behaviours demonstrate support of the value to others in the organisation.
EXAMPLE: If achievement is a corporate value, it may be defined as follows: ‘Something accomplished successfully, especially by means of exertion, skill, practic or perseverance.’ The behavioural measures may include such things as: meeting all goals and objectives according to the pre-defined measures of success; thinking creatively to accomplish tasks regardless of challenges; etc.
Sometimes organisations have not taken the time to properly describe what it means to uphold corporate values. In this case, employees will struggle more. Creating alignment is a shared responsibility; organisations need to provide the necessary information, means and support for people to self-manage. Employees need to understand the importance of upholding corporate values and undertake to adapt their routines and preferences to accommodate and even embrace the value set.
When people share values, in theory as well as in practice, a powerful energy emerges. This collective energy creates an environment in which people are not only able to produce meaningful products but are also able to work together in meaningful ways.
Learn more about creating and sustaining passion in your workplace with our Employee Engagement programme.
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