How To Make Your Organisation's Values Mean Something By Dolly Waddell with James Rutter

Integrity. Community. Respect. Excellence. 

These seem like the values of a strong, successful organisation. 

But would it shock you to know that the company which had these values broadly displayed on its walls filed for bankruptcy in the largest bankruptcy scandal in American corporate history?

Enron was one of the world's major utility companies, but in 2001, a shocking truth came to light. They had been moving liabilities off the balance sheet, hiding the fact that Enron was falsely inflating profits to drive up the share price.

This tells us one thing: a lot of organisational values are generic and meaningless. 

So, how can leaders make theirs different? How can you make your company values actually mean something?

Clearly articulate your values

On the most recent episode of extra-Ordinary Leaders, I was lucky enough to interview James Rutter, Chief Creative Officer at COOK. James is an advocate for leading teams with connection and building relationships at work.

According to him, the first step to ensuring that your organisational values are meaningful – rather than a generic, bland mantra – is figuring out how to articulate them.

James: “I think that if we hadn’t articulated our values, COOK would not be where we are today. In the very early days, we were still just about small enough that you knew everybody. This meant that the values in terms of behaviours and beliefs could (in a way) flow out via osmosis, and you could be confident that everybody would be touched by it due to the close, interpersonal relationships. 

However, when you grow to a certain size, you face a different kind of challenge. How do you reach everyone and ensure that they know what the expectations are in terms of behaviour and values? 

So, we spent about 18 months figuring out how to articulate them and getting input from everyone. Having our values and essential ingredients clearly articulated was definitely the springboard to what proved to be the next phases of growth for the business.”

Organisational values – those essential ingredients – serve as a glue of identity for team members. Technically, all businesses are sociological gatherings. So, when people have a common language, it becomes significantly easier for them to show up.

Applying your values to the leadership framework

It is one thing to articulate your organisational values. It’s another to interpret those values in the day-to-day leadership context and reflect them in your leadership.

James: “We had to start thinking more intentionally about how we wanted people to lead and then putting it explicitly through that same values framework. So we had our essential ingredients or our five values.  

We then had to think: what do those mean when we're talking about leadership? How do we interpret those values when we're thinking about our leadership and what we do? How do they show up for us in a leadership context, as well as just in the day-to-day context of doing our work?” 

It’s critical to ensure consistency across the board – making sure that the way you lead is aligned with the way team members are required to show up at work.

I have observed that in many leadership spaces, there are often well meaning conversations around good leadership values and making profits. However, a significant percentage of leaders often treat these concepts as being widely different, whereas in reality, they should be connected.  

The big question is: what are good leadership values? And how is this concept connected to making profits? 

Good leadership values

James: “Human flourishing is all about connection and relationship, being together and belonging. That's what makes us who we are. It's those connections – the basic human need to nurture relationships with other people. 

This comes from the Harvard Grant study, which surveyed two distinct groups of American men over the last 80 years. The study consisted of questions about their physical and mental health, career or retirement enjoyment, and so on.  

The conclusion from those surveys was that it’s all about relationships. Your sense of fulfilment and happiness across a lifetime primarily depends on your relationships with others.

So, if that's the case for us as people, then surely that's the case for us in an organisation or a business. Because at the end of the day, an organisation is just a bunch of people getting together to do something.”

So, if fulfilment stems from interpersonal relationships, this means that human connection – a core leadership value – is intertwined with profitability. If leaders and team members can show up to work each day with this value, then that increases their chances of success.

Ultimately, this leads to thriving people, thriving teams and an overall successful business. 

How to measure outcomes

Many companies view the health of their team relationships by the number of employees who DON’T complain rather than taking a step back and seeing the holistic picture.

James has a suggestion for accurately measuring the right outcomes.

James: “We have people-related measures such as employee surveys, turnover and longevity, etc. We also have business measures, where we track our performance against certain laid-out metrics such as numbers, business performance, environmental and social impact, as well as people and culture. And at the end of the year, hopefully, we'd have gotten more greens on there than red numbers. 

That suggests that we're succeeding with our conventional business measures. Still, we're also progressing and succeeding in terms of how we seek to move people forward and create a positive impact on society and the planet.”

By clearly defining your values, ensuring leadership embodies them, and measuring their impact, you can cultivate a thriving work environment that fosters success for both your people and your business.

Remember, when purpose drives profits, everyone wins.

For more insights on value-led leadership, listen to my full conversation with James on the extra-Ordinary Leaders podcast.

You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel or explore the free resources I have on my website for more insights on how to dial up the extra-Ordinary in your leadership.