"If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you." —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of a little outfit named Apple.
Jobs was nothing if not passionate about Apple and the products it produced. He was instrumental in starting the company back in the 1970s. He stopped at nothing to make it successful. He lived Apple's core values:
- Make great products
- Focus on the simple, not the complex
- Own and control the technology behind the products Apple makes
- Make significant contributions
- Focus on a few things that are truly important
- Collaborate and cross-pollinate
- Refuse to settle for anything less than excellence
As anyone who saw Jobs – the biographical film based on his life – understands, Steve Jobs breathed Apple's corporate values until his death in 2011.
And it paid off. Today, Apple Inc. is worth an estimated $145 billion and listed as the most valuable tech brand in the world.
Imagine what your company could do if its executives lived out your corporate values. It might not turn into an Apple-esque success story, but you just might be able to make your company a little better than it currently is.
So why not try to inspire your executives to live your corporate values? Here's how:
Take the values off the wall
Too often companies develop their mission statements and list of core values, print them on poster-size paper... and then hang them on the walls of their break rooms.
That's a convenient way to communicate your core values, but it's a terrible way to encourage executives to live the corporate values.
If you have posters printed with your corporate values, it is time to take them off the walls and start living them yourself. Incorporate your values into everything your company does, from the hiring process to the on-boarding process to the executive sales training program.
Values are a lot more valuable to your company and its executives when they can see them in action.
Practice them until they are perfect
Practice makes perfect. It's an old axiom that rings true in nearly every industry. And if you want your executives to live your corporate values in the real world, you have to give them opportunities to practice doing so in a safe environment.
Create opportunities for your executive team to discuss, study, and practice living your core corporate values. Build practice time into your executive sales training program. Use it as part of your annual strategic planning.
The more opportunities your team has to practice – whether at an executive sales training or during team building retreats – the more likely they will be to live the values in the real world.
Celebrate and reward it
Recognizing leaders who consistently live your company's corporate values is considered the gold standard for making values livable.
Develop formal recognition programs tied to value – and then reward the action with something tangible. Take time during your executive training to teach your executives to recognize (and reward) other employees who are living the values. These are both great ways to make sure your executive team is always thinking about – and modeling and living – your values.
There are many reasons to insist that executives live your corporate values. But perhaps the most compelling is that your company is more likely to succeed if your executives are willing to be pulled by your values – just like Steve Jobs.
