Forge Unity, Don’t Force It
When leaders seek consensus around shared values, constituents are more positive. People who report that their senior managers engage in dialogue regarding common values feel a significantly stronger sense of personal effectiveness than individuals who feel that they’re wasting energy trying to figure out what they’re supposed to be doing.
Erika Long, HR manager for Procter & Gamble (P&G), started with the company as an intern and was immediately impressed with how leaders demonstrated their values and the core principles of the company in every decision they made. She says,
Leaders at P&G are constantly affirming these values. Anytime they are faced with a difficult decision, they will look to the PVP [the company’s Purpose, Values, and Principles] to guide their actions. I met with the director of sales for the Hong Kong and Taiwan regions. I asked him, how does he make sure he is always making the right business decisions? He said, simply, “I look to the PVP. It guides the way I do business. If I am put in a position that is in conflict with those guidelines, I simply don’t do it.”
Erika says that “people who work at P&G are proud to say so, and everyone feels they are part of something special. Their core values align with those of the organization.” When people are unsure or confused about how they should operate, they tend to drift, turn
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off, and depart. The energy that goes into coping with, and possibly fighting about, incompatible values takes its toll on both personal effectiveness and organizational productivity.
“What are our basic principles?” and “What do we believe in?” are far from simple questions. One study reported 185 different behavioral expectations about the value of integrity alone.12 Even with commonly identified values, there may be little agreement on the meaning of values statements. The lesson here is that leaders must engage their constituents in a dialogue about values. A common understanding of values emerges from a process, not a pronouncement.
This is precisely the experience of Charles Law, who at American Express was assigned to lead the launch of a marketing campaign with a team of six colleagues of different ethnicities and business functions. At first, progress was slow, as frequent conflicts drove down team morale. Each team member was focused on his or her own goals, without considering the interests of others. Differences between them led to mistrust, and worse yet, according to Charles, he had the least experience of anyone in the group, so team members were skeptical about his leadership competency.
Charles saw that the team needed to agree on a shared set of values in order to function well. He noted that it was not so impor- tant what the particular value was called or labeled but that everyone agreed on the importance and meaning of the values. One of his initial actions was to bring people together just for that purpose, so that they could arrive at shared understandings of what their key priorities and values were and what these meant in action. He sat down and listened to each team member individually, and reported about everyone’s opinions at their next group meet- ing. He encouraged open discussions and worked through any misunderstandings.
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G E The last thing Charles wanted them to feel was that his values
were being imposed on them. So each person talked about his or her own values and the reasoning behind them. In this manner, they were able to identify as a group the common values that were important. “With a set of shared values, created with everyone’s consent,” Charles explained, “everyone strived to work together as a team toward success. Shared values created a positive difference in work attitudes and performance. My action made my colleagues work harder, emphasized teamwork and respect of each other, and resulted in better understanding of each other’s capabilities to meet appropriately set mutual expectations.”
Charles understood that leaders can’t impose their values on organization members. Instead they must be proactive in involving people in the process of creating shared values. Imagine how much ownership of values there can be when leaders actively engage a wide range of people in their development. Shared values are the result of listening, appreciating, building consensus, and resolving conflicts. For people to understand the values and come to agree with them, they must participate in the process: unity is forged, not forced.
For values to be truly shared, they must be more than advertising slogans. They must be deeply supported and broadly endorsed beliefs about what’s important to the people who hold them. Constituents must be able to enumerate the values and have common interpreta- tions of how those values will be put into practice. They must know how their values influence the way they do their own jobs and how they directly contribute to organizational success.
Jade Lui described an incident early in her career in which the managing director, in Jade’s words, “taught us to model the com- pany’s values.” When someone discovered that an applicant had withheld critical information from a client, although it was not information that the client had requested, the question arose whether
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to share that information and possibly lose the deal. Although the situation occurred during a particularly difficult financial time for their company, the response from their leader about what to do didn’t come as a surprise to Jade because it embodied the “core values espoused by the company.” He told them that
first and foremost, we should be honest with our clients. If we concealed the truth from the client, we would tarnish our reputation of service excellence. Further, we are committed to long-term partnerships with our clients. Sacrificing revenue for the short term in exchange for the client’s appreciation of our integrity, excellence, and commitment would bring more business in the long run. He continued to reassure that everyone in the company would work together to survive the temporary business downturn.
Having everyone on the same page when it comes to operating principles (values) ensures consistency in words and deeds for every- one, boosting in turn not just individual credibility but organiza- tional reputation. Jade notes that not only is that client still one of their company’s most loyal partners, but “the lessons learned from my managing director’s decision are still firmly engraved in my mind.” She has subsequently “taught the next generation of staff the same shared values.”
A unified voice on values results from discovery and dialogue. Leaders must provide a chance for individuals to engage in a discus- sion of what the values mean and how their personal beliefs and behaviors are influenced by what the organization stands for. Leaders must also be prepared to discuss values and expectations in the recruitment, selection, and orientation of new members. Better to explore early the fit between individuals and their organization than
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disagreement over matters of principle.
