Values statements, core beliefs, guiding principles: are they useful tools?

Most trade associations, professional societies and other non-profit organizations have stated values or guiding principles. Some values are for staff and/or the board. Some guiding principles are for the board (and are often used for policy direction). Regardless of the name used—values statements, core beliefs, guiding principles—are they being used effectively? How are organizations making their values and/or guiding principles meaningful? Are organizations truly measuring staff and board decision-making based on their values?

Employee Evaluations – When was the last time an employee was evaluated with the organizations’ values being used as a standard? I suspect not very often.

Board Meetings – When was the last time an organization actually referenced their values statements or guiding principles during a meeting? I believe boards would be well served to have these guiding documents front and center during meetings, just as some review their anti-trust statement at the beginning of each meeting. For example, if a core value is “embrace change with creative thinking...” it would be important for board members to remember this as they deliberate over changing or eliminate a particular program. (In this example I would venture to say that the same organization that deliberated over this value in a strategic planning session often remains stuck in a rut and avoids significant organizational change.)

Whether values or guiding principles are used for staff evaluation, policy direction or board decision-making, they need to be useful tools.

Are organization’s guiding principles or stated values useful tools? Or, are they pages found in employee manuals and annual reports, or posted as wall art in conference rooms?

A Teaching Moment and Poor Customer Service: Tales from one family’s summer vacation

There comes a time when parents have teaching moments with their children. Those moments are so obvious, even the most naïve parent will know.

On a recent trip to Eastern Oregon—a frequent vacation destination—we stopped at our usual place; McDonald’s on the east end of the town of Bend. Quick, easy, and of course the giant play structure that the kids enjoy. (It’s the burning off the extra energy for that nine hour car ride that the parents enjoy too.)

Forgetting that the girls’ socks were packed away deep inside the back of the truck, mom decide to walk over to the nearby Old Navy store and buy the girls some new sock. Why the socks? The rules. McDonald’s Playland requires kids to wear sock. It’s the rules. Simple enough. Not hard to follow. We’ve been here before and know the rules. And why not spend a few bucks in the locally depressed economy and buy the girls some new socks?

And this is where this story begins.

It’s all about the socks

My two girls (Rachel and Julia) and I patiently waited for the new socks to arrive, while we ate our lunch. Just then, two other girls—maybe ages 7 and 10—walked in and began playing, while mom and grandma finished up placing their lunch order. Just as the other girls began climbing through the maze of tunnels, in walks the McDonald’s assistant to the assistant manager (a.k.a. the Sock Nazi). She blurts out to the two girls, “You can’t play in here without socks!” The girls comply and put their flip flops back on and wait for mom and grandma. As soon as mom walks in and drops the Happy Meals on the table, she tells her daughters to go play. The girls responded, “We can’t. We don’t have any socks.” The mom replies in all her wisdom, “I don’t care what the rules are. Go barefoot or put on your flip flops.” Obediently, the girls begin playing; this time with wearing their flip flops.

A nearby man sitting quietly, while his daughter plays (in socks), says to the defiant mom: “Wearing socks are the rules. It’s the law.” Mom defiantly responds, “I don’t care what the rules are and we don’t have to wear socks at the Redmond McDonald’s.”

My girls take notice of what’s happening. The youngest, five-year old Julia, says, “They are not following the rules.” I felt proud. She noticed. We continue with lunch.

I sat back, eating my Big Mac, and took in the show that was before me. As my wife, Linda, arrived—with a bag full of new socks—I briefed her on the ongoing drama.

Once again, in walks the sock Nazi, noticing that they girls were back playing, this time wearing flip flops (a violation of the rules). As she aggressively approaches the girls’ mom, she emphatically states, “The girls CANNOT play in here barefoot or wearing shoes. It’s against the rules.” The mom seizes the opportunity to get into a verbal jousting match with the McDonald’s employee suggest that somehow the man tattled on her girls and that she wasn’t about to follow these ridiculous rules. The mom soon realizes that she’s not going to win this battle and proceeds to pack up lunch leave with her girls and grandma.

She must be so proud. Who needs to follow the rules? I’m sure as they drove away she told the girls how ridiculous it was that they had to wear socks. Fast forward and look into a crystal ball when these girls are 14 and 17. Any guesses about how these girls may or not be following the rules? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say.

Customer service

While the defiant mom clearly missed a teaching opportunity, the McDonald’s manager also missed a teaching opportunity with her employees and probably displayed the most atrocious customer service I’ve seen in quite some time. Was the McDonald’s manager right? Absolutely. Her delivery could have been a little more tactful, however.

Why weren’t cashiers notifying customers that socks were available (for only one dollar) for kids heading in to play? It was, after all, summer and most kids wear flip flops, Crocs or Keens this time of year.

Message to the manager: focus on your employees. Sell some socks. Customer service is as much about delivery as it is about the message.

Message to the mom: use these moments as teaching opportunities. Following a few simple rules may pay dividends when your daughters are teenagers.

Message to self: don’t forget the socks.

Leadership: The Most Overused Word in Business

Like many people, I’ve been around business long enough to hear the words leader and leadership far too many times. More often than not, leaders are leaders by position—or title—rather than possessing real leadership characteristics or displaying leadership traits. While it may be the most over-used term in business, real leadership is needed.

What I do know for certain, leadership means different things to different people. As for me? I’ll follow a leader that is unwavering with his or her core values. A strong set of values provides the foundation for good decision-making—good leadership. With a strong set of values, leaders can make the hard decision—the difficult and sometimes unpopular decision.

What about a natural born leader? Impossible. Character traits are learned. Values are learned. Leaders evolve. Leaders learn. Leaders grow.

I recently came across a quote from Henry Givray, CEO of SmithBucklin, the world’s largest association management and professional services company. Givray is quoted in the book On My Honor I Will: The Journey to Integrity-Driven Leadership, by Randy G. Pennington, as saying that “Leadership is not something that is bestowed upon you or granted to you by virtue of your title or position.” He continues “…leaders are shaped and defined by character.” I couldn’t agree more. (I’m looking forward to reading this book very soon.)

A leader with character traits that are centered on strong values is well on his or her way to having followers. And without followers, is one really a leader?

Vision. Who’s seeing your vision?

Perhaps it was a test. I was responding to a contract management proposal recently and balked at the request “…please include a vision statement for the organization.” Really? Now, it was either a test to see if those responding to the Request for Proposal (RFP) could articulate the big picture of the organization or it was a weak attempt at getting their vision written by some consultant-type. Either way, I wasn’t about to write a vision statement for a potential client organization.

Could I have written a cogent, well-crafted vision statement? Sure. But the exercise of crafting a vision statement should be part of a complete organizational planning process. For a nonprofit organization, the vision statement, mission statement, and organizational goals should be developed with an appropriate group of stakeholders and thought-leaders…not a hired gun so to speak. Only then can the vision be a shared vision; one that unites and adds clarity for the organization.

Burt Nanus and Stephen Dobbs argue, in Leaders Who Make a Difference, that the most effective leaders recognize “nothing else will unite and enthuse people in a nonprofit organization so much as a shared vision.” Such a shared vision provides people with “a sense of common ownership that enables them to cooperate with and support each other in pursuit of their common destiny,” they write. If leaders are charged with sharing the vision, then ideally they will be part of its crafting.

Does your vision add clarity? Does it unite? Are you sharing the vision?