Core Values Part 1 - Why do you need them? #019 - Culture/Leadership

I grew up in an oil and gas town in Canada. Hard work, tough people, and a lot of cursing.

When I became employed in the glass industry in that town, I would often perform service calls at the offices at the offices of these oil and gas companies. I would fix their automatic entrance doors, replace broken windows, or repair overhead doors in the shop.

These companies often have big, fancy, attractive entrances and offices. After all, they make big money. Usually, the companies would have a poster of the company's Core Values.

One example stands out above the others.

I was asked to repair a steel entrance door at a big oil and gas company's office. As I walked in the front door to check in at reception, I noticed the giant wall mural that took up the entire wall opposite the entrance doors. It proudly displayed the 10 company core values on an attractive background image.

Unfortunately, the core values didn't match up to reality.

I was greeted by shop employees who were total jerks. One made fun of my age (I was 25 then). Another was completely annoyed that I had shown up "without him knowing about it."

I didn't even know who these people were - I was just given a work order and a schedule that told me to go to this place and fix this thing.

I remember thinking this exact thought:

"These core values are just stupid, corporate marketing gimmicks."

I mean, when the first two people you deal with don't exemplify any of the values that are on the entrance wall, it's hard to feel otherwise.

Over the years, I have come to learn that the issue is not with the core values themselves - it is with companies that create them but do not have a culture that shows them.

Why do you need Core Values?

In a perfect world, we would have great employee manuals covering every necessary detail about a person's position and what to do in certain work situations.

It would be regularly updated to capture ever-changing situations in the world and in the law.

It would tell every employee, "Here is exactly what to do in this situation."

However, even the best companies can't keep up with that document being 100% updated. And even if you did, by the time you put every policy, process, and potential situation your employees might face - no one would read it. It would be too big.

For example, if one of your employees gets into a passionate disagreement with a customer about the latest political event - do you really want to update the company manual to say, "No arguing with customers about political events"?

However, you probably wouldn't mind an employee having a passionate disagreement with a customer if that customer just insulted one of your staff... so you can't exactly write a policy that says, "No disagreements with customers, ever."

Rules and policies have a place. However, in order to save the business a lot of wasted time drafting rules for every situation, your company needs a framework for how your employees should operate in the business.

The easiest way I can explain this is what we have taught our company - core values are the "filter" for your employees to make decisions when you're not there or there is no policy for the situation.

For example: We have a straightforward policy that basically says, "Your schedule is posted in the company schedule software. Follow the schedule, always. If you have questions or conflicts, speak with your supervisor."

That means if you're scheduled until 5pm - you work until 5pm. You don't get to leave at pm because you feel like it.

But what if they are on the job, its 4:30pm, but they still have an hour of work left to complete a project?

By policy: The employee should begin packing up at 4:30pm so they can be back at the shop and clock out at 5pm, just like the schedule says.

My question: Would you be happy if 60 minutes of work were left on a job site?

Of course not. There is a lot of wasted time and costs to remobilize only for 60 minutes of actual work. That could cost the company hundreds of dollars.

The extra 60 minutes might cost the company $50 of overtime - and a fresh day tomorrow to tackle a brand-new project - which would make the company a lot more money.

Core Values are the tools that an employee would use in that situation to make a tough decision.

For example, one of our core values is "Always follow the process." However, right beside it is the core value of "Ownership."

An employee should be able to realize the situation at 4:30, rally his crew, and say, "Hey guys, let's own this project, give it the extra 60 minutes, and get this project off the books."

Employees start to buy in when your company is centered around core values - starting with ownership and management displaying them, talking about them, and inspiring belief in them. They become more than "words on a poster." They become the essence of your company's beliefs, values, and thought process.

So, how do you begin choosing your core values?

Next, I'll drop part 2: "Core Values - How you choose them."