Values & Behaviours
What are values and why do they matter?
It’s a question we get asked often, particularly when quizzing a new client around their company values. Company values are our starting point for finding out more about a workplace culture, and too often we find organisations do not have any company values, or they have company values, but nobody is clear on the meanings of these values and how they are displayed in the organisation.
What do we mean by values?
Values are at the heart of everything we do and how we treat each other. As these are essential to your team, it’s important that they are involved in their co-creation and development.
They provide essential guiding principles about the way that you work and set the tone for your culture, identifying what you as a team, care about. They will help guide the team to make important decisions to choose between right and wrong ways of working. Your values will also help define how you are viewed by your clients and those in the community.
What do we mean by behaviours?
Behaviours are how your team demonstrate their approach and attitude to work, and how they demonstrate your values - how we do things, how we treat each other, what we say, and how we expect to be treated.
It’s important that your team lives and breathes your workplace values and that these have meanings. They are not just some words on your website, rather your culture, and the way people behave speaks to these. As famously quoted “Values can’t just be words on a page. To be effective, they must shape action” – Jeffrey R. Immelt.
As a business we are very clear on our company values, these change from time to time as we evolve, and we regularly review them alongside our strategy. At our recent strategy day, we spent some time further defining our values, and exploring our behaviours linked to these. What does it look like when we make a difference, how do we behave when we are innovative at work, what does it look like when we lead balanced lives, how are we genuine in our interactions and the way we do things, what do we encompass whanaungatanga in our actions as a team and with our clients.
We often facilitate workshops with our clients and their team to co-create or redefine their company values, and to wrap some meaning and behaviours around these. If you are a 1-man band or a start up, we recommend you start with your own personal values to help to build your workplace values. Check out this awesome free survey to assist you to start defining your values – click here.
If you are interested in conducting a team Values + Behaviours workshop, contact our team to discuss, you may even be eligible for Regional Business Partner co-funding to support this.
Paige Hellier
People Partner