Values can make or break your team, business or organisation.

January 8th, 2016

How aligned are the values in your team/business or organisation?

Often when we are managing teams, work groups, businesses or organisations we notice that things are not happening as we want them to.  The first thing that we should do is check that our expectations are realistic, sometimes the bar can be set so high that it is unattainable.  The second thing people do is to ensure that their instructions or guidance is clear and understood.  Where people get stuck is when the expectations are realistic AND the instructions and guidance are clear/understood.  What else could be causing the issues?  Aside from individual performance issues that I have covered within a separate blog there is one area that people often overlook.  That area is people’s values.

What have peoples values got to do with it you ask?  Simply put, our values are at the core of our behaviour and if the values of your people are out of line with yours, then dysfunctional performance can arise.  This can take the form of:

• Performance spikes and troughs.
• Surprise results and feedback.
• Disagreement between colleagues.
• Paralysis of the team or business
• Poor sickness records
• Dissatisfied customers or clients.
• Under performance.

What can be done?

First of all, it is necessary to identify if there are any differences in business/team/corporate values between you and your people.  The Corporate Values Audit can help you with this.

The instructions are simple:

1. Ask yourself what is important to you about the team, business or company?  This will give you your values.  If you have written more than five, just pick the top five that you feel are the most important to you.
2. Ask one or two others within the team, business or company that same question and write down their top five.
3. Compare and contrast.

When you see where the differences are, it is then necessary to investigate how these differences have arisen.  Alternatively, get in touch with us and we can deliver a Team/Business/Organisational Values Alignment Program.  This will identify not only how the differences have arisen but working with individuals we will help match their values to yours.  As well as this we will also make recommendations on how to ensure the values do not diverge in future.

When we have worked with you, you can rest assured that dysfunctional performance as a result of misaligned values will be a thing of the past.

Contact us today to ensure success for your team, business or organisation!

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