The Glass Slipper: Values That Fit
CEO of Enstoa
Magic can spark when leadership publishes values congruent with the informal company culture. Like when Prince Charming, in his pursuit of true love, tries the glass slipper on Cinderella, and it’s a perfect fit. Although this is a fairy tale with magic, Cinderella and Charming instill the values of goodness and kindness as they lived “happily ever after.”
In this useful analogy, the foot is the true company culture or organic values and the glass slipper the proclaimed or published company values. I’ve previously written about what happens when an organization wears a slipper that doesn’t fit, “When Values Clash, Individuals Suffer.” That was followed up with a blog, “Hey Company, Know Thyself,” on how to understand an organizations true self—the foot in our Cinderella analogy.
Culture Matters Most
According to James L. Heskett, culture “can account for 20-30% of the differential in corporate performance when compared with ‘culturally unremarkable’ competitors.” Research proves that top-ranked companies recognize that culture is critical to talent retention. When asked which elements of workplace commitment most benefit daily operations, culture comes in at 80% and recruitment/retention at 70%. Competitiveness, customer loyalty, innovation, and productivity—while still critical—fall much further behind, each under 20%.
Be Authentic
In today’s competitive, global talent marketplace, top performers seek out companies with values aligned with their own. Companies need to be totally authentic and clear about who they are and what they represent.
My hope is that with clearly defined and articulated values, candidates are able to determine if their values fit with those of Enstoa. After an awesome journey of eight years, it is time for Enstoa to engrave our values on the wall.
- Know thyself
- Diversity makes us wise
- Get things done, done
- Think creatively and embrace change
- Communicate with precision
- Have impact
Letting the Values Guide the Way
So I keep thinking to myself, how do you get people to share core values? The answer, you don’t. You cannot install core values into people. Instead, you find people who already have a predisposition to sharing the values of the organization, the glass slipper. Leaders sometimes need to get out of the way and let the values guide the way. The law of self-selection means people will seek out an organization with strong values alignment and opt-out of those that don’t.
Lighten Management and Create Space for Leadership
With the right people in the right positions, many of the management problems that plague companies and consume valuable resources will inherently disappear. Ideally, I strive to build an organization in which each individual is empowered to function like an entrepreneur. Each employee has a commitment to and an investment in the quality of their work as well as the success of the company.
Ultimately, the right people don’t need to be tightly managed. The right people are self-disciplined, self-motivated, self-managed, self-learners and self-obsessively driven to achieve great results. Guide them, yes. Teach them, yes. Tightly manage and try to control them, no.
Live Happily Ever After
This environment allows leaders to emerge, flourish and have real impact. Can the employees and company then live happily ever after like Cinderella and Charming? That verdict is in the hands of progeny, but it is absolutely certain that building the right glass slipper today is so critical to the successful execution of an organization’s strategy.
Magic can spark when leadership publishes values congruent with the informal company culture. Like when Prince Charming, in his pursuit of true love, tries the glass slipper on Cinderella, and it’s a perfect fit. Although this is a fairy tale with magic, Cinderella and Charming instill the values of goodness and kindness as they lived “happily ever after.”
In this useful analogy, the foot is the true company culture or organic values and the glass slipper the proclaimed or published company values. I’ve previously written about what happens when an organization wears a slipper that doesn’t fit, “When Values Clash, Individuals Suffer.” That was followed up with a blog, “Hey Company, Know Thyself,” on how to understand an organizations true self—the foot in our Cinderella analogy.
Culture Matters Most
According to James L. Heskett, culture “can account for 20-30% of the differential in corporate performance when compared with ‘culturally unremarkable’ competitors.” Research proves that top-ranked companies recognize that culture is critical to talent retention. When asked which elements of workplace commitment most benefit daily operations, culture comes in at 80% and recruitment/retention at 70%. Competitiveness, customer loyalty, innovation, and productivity—while still critical—fall much further behind, each under 20%.
Be Authentic
In today’s competitive, global talent marketplace, top performers seek out companies with values aligned with their own. Companies need to be totally authentic and clear about who they are and what they represent.
My hope is that with clearly defined and articulated values, candidates are able to determine if their values fit with those of Enstoa. After an awesome journey of eight years, it is time for Enstoa to engrave our values on the wall.
- Know thyself
- Diversity makes us wise
- Get things done, done
- Think creatively and embrace change
- Communicate with precision
- Have impact
Letting the Values Guide the Way
So I keep thinking to myself, how do you get people to share core values? The answer, you don’t. You cannot install core values into people. Instead, you find people who already have a predisposition to sharing the values of the organization, the glass slipper. Leaders sometimes need to get out of the way and let the values guide the way. The law of self-selection means people will seek out an organization with strong values alignment and opt-out of those that don’t.
Lighten Management and Create Space for Leadership
With the right people in the right positions, many of the management problems that plague companies and consume valuable resources will inherently disappear. Ideally, I strive to build an organization in which each individual is empowered to function like an entrepreneur. Each employee has a commitment to and an investment in the quality of their work as well as the success of the company.
Ultimately, the right people don’t need to be tightly managed. The right people are self-disciplined, self-motivated, self-managed, self-learners and self-obsessively driven to achieve great results. Guide them, yes. Teach them, yes. Tightly manage and try to control them, no.
Live Happily Ever After
This environment allows leaders to emerge, flourish and have real impact. Can the employees and company then live happily ever after like Cinderella and Charming? That verdict is in the hands of progeny, but it is absolutely certain that building the right glass slipper today is so critical to the successful execution of an organization’s strategy.
