Strange Legacy

Value Statements: Myth or Magic?

In today’s business world, value statements are the rage. Walk into shops, restaurants or other businesses, and you’ll often see a value statement hanging on the wall. These statements will describe the primacy of principles like customer service, honest business practices, or a clean environment. As business leaders meet with their employees, these statements will often be repeated as a sort of “pledge of allegiance.” Nevertheless, many organizations fail to measure up to the ideals they purport. Let’s talk about how your company can avoid some of the common mistakes others make in using value statements, and how you can use such a document to successfully promote your business.

It’s important to recognize what value statements are, and what they’re not. To begin, effective value statements are not a simple collection of noble-sounding ideals. I can crowd a statement with glorious principles such as honesty, integrity, hard work, etc.; however, such documents generally amount to nothing more than superficial fluff. When creating a value statement it is important to focus on the specific principles that have proven experientially vital to the success of your organization. If a focus on precision and quality are essential to your company’s brand image, then these are the values which should be featured on a statement. Recognize that not including other values, such as honesty and hard work, doesn’t mean that they can’t have a place in your company; rather, it means that you are channeling the bulk of your energy into the virtues that matter most to your success.

Another vital truth is that value statements do not affect behavior; systems affect behavior. Let’s suppose that I’m running a sales operation and I post a value statement that emphasizes honest sales practices; nevertheless, enforcement of this policy is lax and those who achieve success through dishonest behavior are rewarded with large commission checks. Moreover, I pressure honest sales agents who are handicapped by their ethics to reach performance levels comparable to those of dishonest agents. Does my value statement mean anything in this situation? Eventually, my honest sales agents will begin engaging in dishonest behavior – or quit and find a job with a more reputable company – because that is what the system encourages them to do.

This brings us to true purpose of a value statement; ultimately, it serves as a guide for the decisions of a company’s executive leadership. As leaders consider a particular policy or direction they should evaluate that policy under the lens of the values to which they subscribe. As leaders make decisions and build systems consistent with a given set of principles, those principles will filter their way through the organization. Systems which emphasize honesty, teamwork, and customer service will be far more successful in promoting these ideals than a document hanging on the wall.

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