What is your organization’s values operating system?

In today’s three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I describe how every organization has values, just as every human has values. Some organizations’ values are all about results, others embrace a “service to others” environment, and some have a combination.

We see a wide range of values demonstrated in organizations, large and small, around the globe. Values are the foundation of an organization’s culture – for better or worse.

The challenge is that most leaders do not pay attention to the health of their work culture, whether they’re leading a small business or team or department or region or company or multi-national. In most organizations, the sole metric that leaders are held accountable for is results. It is rare for leaders to be held accountable for the quality of their work environment or for happy, engaged employees.

Yet where employees are happy and engaged – treated with trust, respect, and dignity in every interaction – productivity grows.

You don’t “assume” that everyone in your organization knows their performance standards and delivers them without any discussions, right? Performance clarity and accountability requires formalized goals and targets, with metrics monitored closely, every day.

So, don’t “assume” that everyone in your organization knows how you want them to treat other people at work. Values clarity and accountability requires formalized values and behaviors, with interaction quality monitored closely, every day.

To ensure values are as important as results, you need a values operating system – an organizational constitution – that ensures everyone is treated with trust, respect, and dignity in every interaction.

My Culture Leadership Charge series features short (two-to-three-minute) videos that describe proven culture leadership and servant leadership practices that boost engagement, service, and results across your work teams, departments, regions, and even your entire company.

Each episode’s “charge” is a challenge for everyone in your organization – not just leaders – to refine their behaviors and ensure everyone is treated respectfully at all times.

You’ll find my Culture Leadership Charge episodes and more on my YouTube and Vimeo channels. If you like what you see, please subscribe!

This article was originally published on The Purposeful Culture Group.

Photo Credit: perzonseo Flickr via Compfight cc