WILL OTHERS FOLLOW YOU?

 

It stands to reason: there can be no leadership without followership. Otherwise, you’re on your own. Your values—your goals, priorities, and what you stand for—make all the difference to the team members who report to you, to the colleagues and peers who collaborate with you, and to the senior leaders who observe and engage with you.

Values are not just bullet points on a corporate website or motivational phrases on a poster in the lunchroom. Values define what you stand for and must be lived 24/7. Without values, an organization lacks cohesion and purpose.

Values are homegrown. They must come from within the organization itself and be embraced by every single person—universally and consistently. Organizations can’t just hire an outside consultant to put together a snazzy campaign meant to engage people. If values appear to be nothing more than fluff or an attempt to generate good PR (or, worse yet, completely false compared to what really goes on in the company), the organization loses all credibility.

The challenge, however, is that values can be one of those overused words. For example, when I was a young manager, it had become very popular for companies to talk about mission statements and corporate values. One of the things I found interesting is that the statements were often either overly intellectual or totally watered down. Furthermore, as I compared the mission and values statements of different companies, many of them said virtually the same thing. How could the core values of an organization—the principles that (supposedly) governed the actions and behaviors of every single person from the CEO to the summer intern—be so generic? No wonder people became jaded.

When I was a mid-level manager, an acquaintance said to me one day, “Harry, I have to be honest with you. There are many organizations that do not have values. I can deal with that. What I cannot deal with is a company that says it has values and clearly doesn’t. It’s an insult to my intelligence.” His attitude precisely reflects the reaction within companies that give little more than lip service to values. It would be better not to bother at all.

When Leadership Has No Values

What happens when a boss does not have any discernible values? The first casualty is relatability. How can you possibly relate to someone if you don’t know what they stand for or what matters to them?

When the boss becomes unrelatable, the relationship with the team is based solely on the fact that this is the person in charge. When the boss asks the team members to do something, they do it simply because this is a directive coming from the person to whom they report. To the extent that the boss is reasonable and treats others well, the team will perform their roles and do their jobs, but that’s as far as it goes. Because the boss has never made the team feel valuable beyond the assignments they’ve been given, team members do not see the relationship between what they do and the priorities and progress of the entire organization. They do their jobs, one task at a time, without any ownership of the process or outcome.

Moreover, when the team members talk in their cubicles about problems on the horizon that might affect the team, the department, or the entire company, their number one concern is how the boss will react. Will the boss become agitated and engage in the blame game? If so, then rather than brainstorming to come up with suggestions to pass on to the boss, the team members keep their heads down and try to stay out of the way.

In contrast, working for a values-based leader motivates the team members not only to do their jobs but also to take ownership of their tasks and responsibilities. Knowing that the boss wants their feedback, they speak up, and not just when they’re asked for input. They are proud to be part of the team, knowing that no matter what the circumstance or situation, their boss is committed to doing the right thing—and so are they.

If values-based leadership can make that much of an impact on a small team, imagine what would happen within a department, a division, or the entire company. As I have seen throughout my career, values infuse the culture in a way that is not only life changing but game changing for the organization. Values-based leadership does not mean there won’t be crises from time to time; there will be. By relying on values, however, leaders are able to discern which path to take, and communicate that plan to others.