Your healthy ‘workplace wins’ checklist to ensure your healthy business future…
It pays to take your business values seriously, so that you can build, maintain and nurture a healthy workplace culture.
Your commitment to your business values and behavioural standards will have a positive impact on everyone’s attitude, drive up the level of enthusiasm in your team and tap into their discretionary effort and untapped potential.
Get it wrong, as BrewDog and VW did, and it’s costly. Get it right, like Leon in the UK and Southwest Airlines in the US, and everyone will know that you take the health of your business seriously.
When you invest time and effort in building a clear set of behavioural values, you make your intentions clear to everyone involved in your business. This clarity builds trust with people, team members, customers and other stakeholders.
When you establish, agree and live by your values, they become embedded in the culture of your business. You will then earn the right to the positive financial rewards associated with a healthy workplace culture.
Here are 4 helping hands to get you started:
1. Take organisational health seriously
2. Work with your team to identify a handful of behavioural standards or values. When you have worked out 3, 4 or 5 together, you can start putting them to work. Make your core values verb-focused, for example: Be present; Care wholeheartedly; Embrace change; Seek understanding; Set high standards; Support each other. Your team will then know what’s expected of them.
3. Use your weekly team meetings to bring your values to life. Every week, have your team share stories that reflect your behavioural values. A small 5-person team we know share their values in every team meeting. This has been happening now for several years and they are going from strength to strength.
4. Embed your values in all aspects of your business (walk your talk). Your values should show up in appraisals, interviews, on your website, in policy documents and in all meetings, including those with customers.
Click here to discover the advantages of including your whole team in the discussion about your workplace values. Use the right questions and the right standards to assess your values and then commit to this set of core beliefs to ensure an engaged team and business success.