Reflection:

Are your values clear, genuine, and lodged into the employee lifecycle? If not can you truly say they are your values?

Some say you don’t really know yourself as a leader, or your values, until faced with pressure. We have been living in a world of immense pressure over the last few years, all feeling the impact of challenges in some way. So now is a great time to reflect on how well your values have stood up.

• You may have some in place already but are they working for you?
• Are they evident in the way your employees think and act every day?
• Do they help you to find the right approach when you need to make tough decisions?

Advice:

When developing or updating your values, you might:

• Use them to turnaround behaviour
• Define what actions provide good product or service to your customers
• Set out what you need to achieve your long-term goals

There is no right or wrong way to define your values you can be successful anywhere on the creative to straightforward spectrum. The keys things to ensure are:

• They are verbs, actionable words rather than abstract nouns, that apply to all employees or better still widely across your company stakeholders
• The language is clear, and they are easy for everyone to recall
• They are realistic but also a stretch to aspire to

Once you have defined your values, what can you do to avoid them being just words on a wall? 

They need to be clearly launched and carefully lodged in. This can be done simply with a few steps or if you are keen to build a strong employer of choice brand you can really get this right by touching all elements of the employee lifecycle.

Your People 1st can help define or redefine your company values,

taking you one significant step closer to a winning culture.