Values-driven organizations are the most successful organizations on the planet. Period. This sounds like a bold claim, right? It is a bold claim, and it is true and… we can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Values-driven organizations are led by executives and managers who engage in values-based leadership.

The undisputed fact that values-driven organizations are the most successful organizations on the planet is not just some new aged theory. Tom Peters noted the importance of company values in his 1988 best-selling business book of all time — In search of Excellence:

Every excellent company we studied is clear on what it stands for, and takes the process of value shaping seriously. In fact, we wonder whether it is possible to be an excellent company without clarity on values and without having the right sorts of values.

Mr. Peters is not the only researcher to consider company values to be at the heart of successful organizational decision-making. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor at Harvard Business School and the Chair and Director of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, explains why company values play such an important part in an organization’s performance:

In the face of turbulence and change, culture and values become the major source of continuity and coherence, of renewal and sustainability. Leaders must be institution-builders who imbue the organization with meaning that inspires today and endures tomorrow. They must find the common purpose and universal values that unite highly diverse people while still permitting individual identities to be expressed and enhanced.

Becoming a successful values-based leader — someone who is able to build a long-lasting, high performing team, organization, or community — is not all about what you do, although what you do is certainly important. While what you do certainly impacts your success or failure as a leader, how you do what you do will have an even greater impact on your ability to successfully lead people.  Thus, to become a successful leader, it is critically important that you lead based upon a set of deeply held company values and personal values – values that are in alignment with producing the best results for all of your organization’s stakeholders.

Who you are as a leader—the values that you embrace, and the beliefs you hold — through your words and conversations, your behaviors and your actions are automatically transmitted to and impressed upon the group you are responsible for leading.

This is precisely why the transformation of an organization’s culture from underperforming to high performance begins with the personal transformation of the organization’s leaders. If the leaders don’t change, the culture won’t change and if the culture doesn’t change, the organization’s ability to perform at a high level won’t change.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE VALUES-DRIVEN?

In order to understand why company values are so important and why values-driven organizations are so successful, we must first answer the question: what does being “values-driven” mean? To answer that question, it helps to know what values are, where values come from and how values-based decision making is different from other forms of decision making.

WHAT ARE VALUES?

Sociologists define “values” as: “The ideals and customs of a group toward which the people have effective regard.” We prefer to define values in a more pragmatic way, like this:

“Values are the energetic drivers of our aspirations and intentions.”

In other words, values are a shorthand method of describing what is important to us individually or collectively (as a team, organization, community or nation). They are “shorthand” because the concepts that values represent can usually be captured in either a single word or a short phrase. For example, the words and phrases honesty, openness, compassion, long-term perspective, and human rights can all be considered as values. One of the most interesting things about values is that they are universal. Indeed, values are so universal that they transcend contexts.

On the other hand, behaviors, which are the outward manifestation of our values, are context dependent. Here’s an example… depending on the type of organisation you are a member of or the country or community that you live in, the behaviors associated with the word “respect” could be: (a) always address people by their title; (b) shake hands firmly; (c) stand with feet together and bow down; or (d) never interrupt when people are talking or express a contrary view. In these examples, the situation and the context in which the word respect is used will impact the behavior associated with showing respect.

VALUES CAN BE EITHER POSITIVE OR POTENTIALLY LIMITING

To add greater context to our discussion, it is also important to know that values can be either positive or potentially limiting. Positive values such as friendship, trust, and creativity, help us to connect with others in deep ways and make a positive contribution to society.

Potentially limiting values, on the other hand, such as blame, bureaucracy, and status-seeking, do just the opposite. While in the short-term, they may enable us to meet our immediate needs, in the long-term they are counterproductive, often divisive, and frequently result in a breakdown of connection and a lack of trust. Thus, potentially limiting values can carry with them the possibility of negatively affecting our relationships and undermining any positive contributions we may have been able to make.

The frequent and repetitive utilization of potentially limiting values as a basis for conscious or subconscious leadership decision-making nearly always leads to isolation, separation, and failure. Potentially limiting values are sourced from the fears of the ego and support little more than the ego’s self-interest.

OUR SUBCONSCIOUS FEARS CAN BE BLIND SPOTS AND THE SOURCE OF POTENTIALLY LIMITING VALUES

We all have subconscious fears that are triggered from time to time. These fears impact our relationships, both at home and at work. Learning how to identify, manage and then release these fears can be a lifelong process. The best way to improve your personal mastery skills which in turn pave the road for you becoming a successful values-driven leader is to receive regular feedback from the person or people you report to, your peers, and your subordinates.

WE CAN HELP YOU BECOME A VALUES-DRIVEN LEADER

Contrary to myth, leaders are trained and not born. With this in mind, our partner the Barrett Values Centre created the Leadership Values Assessment (LVA) and the Leadership Development Report  (LDR). The Leadership Values Assessment and the Leadership Development Report are 360-degree feedback instruments designed to uncover your blind spots and provide feedback on your strengths and what you need to do to grow and develop as a leader. These instruments also provide a quantifiable measure of your personal entropy and a comprehensive framework for personal evolution and the development of the skills you need to become a Full Spectrum Values-Driven Leader.

If your organization is operating with less-than-optimal leadership practices, we can help.

Rick Petry coaches and trains some of the world’s most effective business leaders and managers and provides them with the world’s most widely used leadership development programs and services that deliver real ROI on your training dollars.

BRING YOUR LEADERS, TEAMS, AND ORGANIZATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL OF GREATNESS WITH OUR WORLD CLASS LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS.