LIVING YOUR VALUES IN THE WORKPLACE
The word ‘values’ gets used a lot and is deemed to be important – both personal values and organisational values. Indeed, a number of organisational processes place importance on this on the basis that if there is alignment between personal and professional values; people will be a better cultural fit, be more engaged, perform better and want to remain with the organisation. Equally, employees increasingly want to ensure that there is alignment. It is often tested as part of the selection process, performance review process and in assessing organisational talent for future promotions.
What are values and why are they important? They are principles or standards of behaviour which are judged to be important in determining how one lives their life. Feelings are elicited when we think and behave consistently or inconsistently with these principles – and equally, when we perceive other people to be behaving consistently or inconsistently with our values. Inconsistencies tend to lead to negative emotions such as anger, shame, disappointment and guilt and our behaviour will follow this thought and emotional pattern. We will either opt out (change the situation or our thinking) or find that by continuing to operate inconsistently it may lead to ill health, stress, poor interactions with our colleagues and family/friends, risk taking behaviour, absenteeism (or presenteeism) and so on.
Living personal and organisational values in the workplace however is not as straightforward as it seems. For example, most people would consider ‘work ethic’ to be a value they have – but what does this look like in practice amongst different people? Is it working 6 hours or 18 hours per day? Is it starting work at 8.30am every day and never taking lunch breaks or is it working Sundays instead of Fridays? How does it interact with another value most people have – ‘work / life balance’ and their desire for flexible working arrangements? How does it align with another common value of ‘trust’? Especially if your version of ‘work ethic’ is being physically present in the office from 8am – 6pm and answering emails after hours but your boss’ version of ‘work ethic’ is that work can be done anywhere and anytime but typically not more than 40 hours per week as long as you meet your targets, and that work includes things like networking with external parties during or after office hours, prioritising health by attending a yoga class at lunchtime and other behaviours very different to your own? How will this make you feel? Will you feel resentful, judge them to be a bad or lazy manager, feel unrecognised for your hard work and commitment and thus become disengaged? Or will you learn to adapt your interpretation of ‘work ethic’ and respect their way of working as long as it doesn’t have negative consequences for you or others – or even appreciate and enjoy the sense of trust in you that your boss is exhibiting and adapt your own way of working to be closer to theirs?
Thus, even when people (and organisations) have the same values, the way in which they apply it and assess alignment is very diverse. Unfortunately, people often judge their interpretation of how to live a value to be better than others’ if they live them in a different way. Assumptions and expectations arise for our colleagues and family members / friends and how they should act based on our values and how we choose to interpret them.
As a manager, it can be helpful to understand each of your team members’ values – and how they choose to express them – in order to help facilitate creating a better individual employee experience and collectively enables the creation of a well functioning team that respects diverse viewpoints.
Further complexity arises when process are applied with judgement particularly in performance and remuneration reviews, along with organisational politics and decision making by the executive team. This can be especially apparent when the organisation is not performing well or it is a difficult economic climate. These circumstances can often lead to making compromises to how we live our values when we have fear around job security. We may choose to turn a blind eye to unethical behaviour by our boss or colleagues as they try to meet performance targets, how the organisation has chosen to enact a workforce restructuring program that doesn’t treat the impacted employees appropriately, leaders allowing a bully to remain in the business because they bring in $1m in sales per year or not being honest in internal communications about the economic challenges the business is facing and telling ourselves it is the right thing to do to prevent fear and disengagement.
Having said that, when there is a level of alignment between individual’s values and the organisation’s and team’s values – and how they are expressed or at least respect for living them in different ways that don’t compromise others’ – this can lead to a highly engaged, innovative and motivated workforce that customers and future employees want to work with – all of which ultimately positively impacts the bottom line for continued success.
