The Value of Values 2023 – five essential insights
Demand pull
Employees, customers, partners, leaders, society – everyone wants the same thing
The demand pull for organisations to live and lead with values is coming from far beyond employees. Leaders themselves, customers, partners, suppliers, investors and society as a whole, all want to deal with values-led organisations that echo or complement their own values. Many organisations are missing a huge opportunity to fully embrace their values as a strategic tool to engage broader stakeholder groups, reap tangible rewards and gain a competitive edge.
Values led
A values-led organisation is not the same thing as an organisation with values
Leaders are often berated about the gap between aspiration and reality when it comes to living and leading with values, From many quarters, this is often followed up with banal requests to ‘champion’ values and ‘role model’ them. But such behests are not closing any gaps. It’s not that leaders aren’t listening, or don’t want to lead with values. But they need help. It’s time to help leaders be pragmatic about how to lead with values. Reflection, authenticity, vulnerability and pragmatism are fundamental to successfully leading with values. Leaders need support to achieve that. Coaching is a great place to start.
Values evolve
The day-to-day reality of an organisation’s culture, processes and systems can be close or distant to its values – understanding the gap is vital
An organisation might be closer to living some of its values than others. The answer is not a new poster or another campaign, but to have meaningful dialogue across the organisation about where it is on the spectrum, from on-the-wall values (i.e. aspirational statements of how things should be) to lived values (i.e. values that are reflected in behaviours and how the organisation operates).
It’s hard
Five challenges to living values show up in most organisations
Five factors make living values harder than it might seem on the surface. One challenge is existential, a result of changes in society and the world order. The others are much closer to home – devaluing values by turning them into a campaign; stretching values beyond their relevance and legitimacy; weaponising values in a blame culture; assuming values alone can look after your culture. Read the report to learn about all five challenges and what to do about them.
Visibility matters
The link between values, behaviours and performance needs to be clearer
The link between values, culture and organisational performance is not well understood. Values are too often pegged at the level of individual employee experience and engagement, without the wider benefits they offer to culture and organisational performance being clear or celebrated. It’s time to make the connection more obvious, more of the time.
Download the report for full details of this global research programme looking at how organisations use their values to thrive.
