Values is one of those topics that comes up regularly with my clients and we often discuss why they are important and the crucial role they play to fuel company success and a high performing team.

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But, acknowledging, implementing, and ultimately using your workplace values to support you as a leader can be easier said than done sometimes…

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Are any of these challenges coming up for you right now?

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➡️ Communication challenges; especially with remote teams

➡️ Lack of collaboration and working as a cohesive team

➡️ Misalignment and misunderstanding of what the workplace values mean

➡️ Team turnover and people not working out in the first 6 months

➡️ Team underperforming and not sure how to turn it around

➡️ Wasting time (and $$) on constantly recruiting and people not working out

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If any of these challenges are coming up for you that relates to communication, collaboration or even attracting and retaining talent; it could be time to look at your values and how you are living and breathing them in your workplace.

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How you share them in a meaningful way and ultimately explain why your business exists, can be supportive to leading your team effectively and getting the outcomes you need.

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To create values alignment and communicate them to fuel success, here are five supportive ways to get you started:

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1️⃣ Use Values as an attraction tool

There are people out there that want to join your business for more than just the pay. Yes, people want to feel fulfilled in their career and one way to feel fulfilled is alignment of values. If you share openly what your business values are, what they mean when working in your company, candidates will instantly align (or not align) and this helps you save time when recruiting; you will attract aligned candidates from the beginning.

{And bonus points as a candidate if you mention the business values in your application and what they mean to you}.

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2️⃣ Talk about your values at interview

Sharing your values throughout each stage of a recruitment process is key, especially during interviews.

Ask values based questions to see how candidates relate to your values. The answers the candidates provide about your values and how they relate to them, can support your selection (and indicate any misalignment before you hire).

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3️⃣ Dive deeper during onboarding and induction

When people join your business take this opportunity to dive even deeper about what the values mean in practice.

Have a values overview session and ongoing workshops and feedback sessions to demonstrate how important these values are to your business, and not just words on a wall.

Allow your team to share their own experience and reflections of the workplace values and what the values mean to them.

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4️⃣ Provide feedback on values alignment in performance reviews

When managing performance, include “the how” someone performs and represents the workplace values by being clear on how values are measured. This is just as important as “the what” someone does > How they go about tasks, versus What they do. Create clear expectations on the how and representing the values, by providing feedback during review time and performance discussions.

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5️⃣ Check-in and recognise alignment to values

When you have regular check-ins, feedback sessions and values workshops > you can take these opportunities to recognise how someone is aligning to your values.

The constant communication, discussion and recognition of how someone demonstrates the values in the day-to-day, can have your team start to recognise the values in themselves and in others.

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When a team understands the workplace values on a deeper level, your workplace will feel more connected, engaged, aligned and motivated and is the key ingredient to fuel success of a high performance team.

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The way to achieve this is by regularly communicating the workplace values, in different ways and especially what your values mean on a practical and everyday level, during all stages of the employee lifecycle.

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