When you can show employees that they can align their personal and professional values, you attract, and retain, the right people to your organization.
Companies that create a place where employees can practice their values and beliefs retain their best talent.
Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The Importance of Values
Values are like magnets. When people seek work, they want to fit in where they can align their personal values and beliefs with a company. Similarly, companies want to attract employees who will promote their corporate culture best. A win-win scenario.
Since this is where they will spend a good percentage of their life, employees want alignment. It only makes sense when they see their personal values match the company values posted on your website.
Of course, this implies that your company is living its values.
What’s Your Culture?
I entered an all-volunteer Army, where everyone who entered understood the culture prior to joining.
During my initial training, a classmate made comments that caused me to wonder whether I was in the right place. Fortunately for me, members in the unit at my first assignment reinforced my personal beliefs. When I was faced with a critical, fork-in-the-road decision, their actions confirmed for me that the Army’s values aligned with my personal and professional values.
I share the details of this story in my May 2016 book, Unleash Your Values: How to Lead and Succeed in Business Today… A Helicopter Pilot’s Spin on Developing the Leader in You, available by the end of this month.
The point: Three different career professionals confirmed the Army values defined our culture. They weren’t just words; everyone was expected to live these values.
Your organization decides its values; the membership creates the culture
Knowing the Army values aligned with my own made my difficult decision a little easier. From day one, the people communicated the Army values to everyone, values defined by the acronym L-D-R-S-H-I-P:
3 Steps to Recruit and Retain the Best People
- Identify and post your company values
- During the onboarding process, reinforce company values by communicating why they are important to your company
- Most important, ensure that your leadership team sets the example and lives your values, so that you retain the talent you worked so hard to recruit
Unleash Your Values
In my book, I share valuable lessons learned from personal experience, stories that parallel many of the leadership challenges you have, or will have. My purpose is to get you thinking about what matters most: aligning your personal and professional values. By offering critical leadership challenges to consider before you reach any forks in the road, my hope is that you’ll be better prepared when moments of decision arise.
If you are just beginning your career as a manager and have questions about leadership, this book is for you. If you have been a leader and are moving into middle management, this book is for you. And, if you are the owner of a company or a senior leader looking to inspire your leadership team, this book is for you.
Once you’ve walked through these pages with me, you will understand what it means to:
- Define & Align
- Lead & Succeed
- Instill & Fulfill
- Relate & Communicate and
- Discover Your Inner Gyroscope
keeping you at operating speed so that you are balanced, stable, and continue to head in the right direction.
