Tell me what's important to you ...

Do you really know your values?

We find that most don’t.

It is not unusual for us to walk into a new client’s offices and ask them what their values are and get a reply like— “Oh, they’re something about excellence, integrity and, I think, teamwork. I don’t remember exactly, but I know I have a copy of them somewhere. I’ll send them to you.”

Even if they know them, they don’t seem to invoke much meaning.

Just in case you haven’t defined your values statements yet, you can always borrow Enron’s—Integrity, Respect, Communication, Excellence.

Now, ask people in an organization…”What seems to be really important around here?’’ You get real replies like—”Make your numbers at any cost” or “No surprises for the boss” or “Grow, grow, grow” or “Never let down a customer” or “Collaborate to innovate.”

So what are the real values of an enterprise?

Just to be clear…it’s okay to have character values like integrity or respect, but they have to be real, they have to be lived and they have to be a part of the dominant discourse in your organization or you are better off dropping them from your official employee handbook. People hate insincerity and hypocrisy.

The thing we find most important is to discover the true core values and make sure they are the ones that will drive your company's success over the long haul. If you find “Make your numbers at any cost” or “No surprises for the boss” are not the most important operating values you want instilled in organization, then you need to do some deeper work. You need to ensure that the four or five operating values that will make or break your long-term success are lived by everyone in your organization.

So, what’s important to you?

—Dan Beam