This week, two Michigan based companies have been receiving headlines for the same issue: adherence to core values.
For one, General Motors, the news has been bad. For the other, Zingerman’s, the news has been exceptionally positive.
In the General Motors case, their CEO Mary Barra, was quoted at congressional hearings as saying:
“GM’s crisis has emerged not from the errors of a few errant bureaucrats, but from a company wide failure of character…We had more of a cost culture, now changing to a customer culture that focuses on safety and quality.”
With the pressure on GM to survive economically, their core values had shifted to cost-saving, rather than putting customer safety first.
For Zingerman’s their culture has always been about customer service. Their philosophy is that in order to treat the customer right, you have to treat your employees right. This past week, President Obama visited Zingerman’s because one of its founders, Paul Saginaw, has been an outspoken proponent of raising the minimum wage. Zingerman’s has always paid their employees above minimum wage. Because Zingerman’s leadership is so focused on taking care of their employees, the employees are focused taking care of the customers.
In both examples it is clear that corporate values and culture is not just a “nice to have”, but is essential to the success or failure of any company or organization.
Here are my tips on developing and maintaining positive corporate values:
- It’s not enough to define core values. You must also communicate clearly what the values are, and enforce them consistently.
- When hiring or promoting, adherence to core values must be the foremost consideration. It’s not enough for someone to be a high producer, if they do not adhere to core values in their actions.
- The leaders of the organization must be held to the same standards as everyone else. Nothing can foment cynicism more than a different set of standards for the leadership of an organization.
- There must be a mechanism for people to “tell the truth”. If people are afraid to speak up about violations of core values, bad practices will slip through the cracks and will become the norm.
Maybe now is a good time to review how clear your leaders and employees are about the core values of your organization.
What do you do to ensure the culture and values of your company are upheld? Please share them with me, and others, in the comments section below!