First off, it is never too late to fix something. Secondly, if you take time before the challenges present themselves then you have a better chance at fixing this right the first time.
Our model of Promise Culture is a framework to assist organizations and individuals to align what is best to contribute to their best outcome. In being a framework, it allows by design to incorporate your specific elements which give you your greatest chance at success. It does take real effort, energy and focus to set it up so that it is not just another exercise but a means by which either you as an individual operate or your business operates, day in and day out.
If you think about a framework like a fence which does one of a couple things – it either keeps things in like a pen or it holds stuff out or creates a barrier to the infiltration of items not desired in a particular location. Thus, your culture or the environment which makes your business grow and be successful needs a framework to keep the good in and the not so good out.
Businesses go about this process of setting in motion things like vision, mission, and goals. They get the mind trust of people together, brainstorm some ideas and then someone crafts a nice set of words everyone thinks is good. This is where things start to unravel.
All that has taken place is putting words on paper and not the expectations of how those words and verbs are to actually be lived every day. Sometimes the mind trust does not define expectations because they don’t really want to be accountable for the behaviors needs to live the framework. To build a quality culture and supporting environment it does take Core Purpose and Core Values to get the initial expectations captured but equally important is to tie them into each and every decision and contribution effort in the organization.
When everyone is on the same page and pulling in the same direction, the workload becomes more productive. Challenges when they arise are dealt with constructively. Results are tangible and everyone gets a positive boost from being part of the success of the team. When this culture is present, your talent doesn’t feel out of place. They feel wanted, needed, desired and contributing. They feel a little like family and want to be part of that experience.
Your consideration of focus this week is to look at your personal Purpose and Core Values and are you holding yourself accountable to those standards? Then look at your organization and how it either is authentically committed to its purpose, core values, vision, mission etc. or it no longer uses them to guide the future best results for its staff, its customers, its vendors, the community etc.
Recently an interaction with a business owner was solid evidence of how the exercise of crafting Core values may have been good some time ago but they were never fully integrated into the fabric of the organization. I asked the owner to list the Core Values of his business and rank them by importance. After a few minutes he admitted he knew a few but maybe not in a particular order of importance. This scenario happens far more frequently than business owners want to admit. They pride themselves on keeping it all in their head but if they can even write them down then they are not likely part of the daily decision making of the organization. Not by the owner and if not by him then more than likely not by anyone else in the organization. To make it even worse, some owners will use the Core Values against their leadership team as having not applied them to decisions but in the background, they did not implement them at the beginning.
If 2024 will be your year to grow your business not only in financial terms but in retention of talent and best in class customer services, then now is the time to fix your culture. Start by calling a Promise Guide at JKL Associates in MI (313) 527-7945 or FL (407) 984-7246. It just might be the best time investment you make this week.
Journey On!
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QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS – EMAIL US AT PARTNERS@JKLASSOCIATES.COM OR CALL OUR OFFICES – MI AT (313) 527-7945 FL AT (407) 984-7246
Celebrating 30 years of Delivering on “Promises”
