Businesses communicate a lot of things. Many love to boast
when their revenues soar, or publicise the strategic restructuring of their
organisational response committees (whatever that means). But often missing
from a firm's communications is something absolutely fundamental to its
operations: its values.
If a company doesn't take the time and effort to communicate
its values in a meaningful way, then it's like the old
tree-falling-in-the-forest cliché: It makes a big splash, but no one is around
to appreciate its impact.
Recent high-profile scandals and crises have made it clear
that many businesses do not properly or openly communicate their values. That
has direct and indirect effects on the economy, which is made all the worse by
rising fears of a double-dip recession and angst over the state of global
markets.
Just look at how The News of the World phone-hacking scandal
has exposed News Corp. to accusations over the company's values and the
efficacy of its leadership. Had the company more openly communicated what it
stands for and the moral compass its employees follow, it likely would not have
been vilified so thoroughly in the press. Despite numerous protestations from
Rupert Murdoch and his top lieutenants that the company's values align
perfectly with the public's best interests, the damage has been done. The
public is left questioning what, if anything, does this company stand for?
Even NewsCorp. purports to have values, but like many other
companies it fails to effectively communicate them to the outside world. Having strong corporate values is
admirable, but values without proactive employee communication of their
importance might as well not exist. A firm might host a company-wide
meeting to reaffirm the employee-engagement programme or to deliver the annual
report, but how often have you seen that effort start with a bang and quickly
fizzle out as people move on with their day-to-day tasks? Employee
communications has never been a more important component of a CEO's management
toolbox, and we must educate our employees on how to effectively communicate
values and make them resonate.
What else can
businesses do to better communicate their values? A few key ideas to keep in
mind:
Ask employees what is
important to them. Seek their input on how well the company's work, and in
turn, its employees, reflect their value system. Remember that generalised
concepts — even oft-used words found in mission statements like
"integrity" and "commitment" — have different meanings to
people from different cultures and backgrounds.
Establish core values
across the company, not just within management. If management sets values,
who would own them? You need buy-in from employees; they have to feel a certain
ownership over value creation.
Develop a values
communications plan. Employee communications has to be at the forefront of
your value-setting agenda; too often, executives fail to proactively seek
employee input and buy-in before values are put in place. This leads to
antipathy and resentment among those employees who don't feel a company's
values align with their personal and professional aspirations.
Live your values. Embrace
the corporate values and be mindful of them in every decision you make — both
in good and bad times. Never forget that actions speak louder than words.
Few companies get
every component of "the business of values" just right. Value setting
is a tough business, often fraught with multiple challenges and divergent
agendas. But once those values are set, right or wrong, every CEO would be wise
to communicate them and live them as though his business depends on it. Because
it just might.
Now is the time to
take the whole business of values, and the values of our businesses, a lot more
seriously.
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