Values that have no value

Standing in the middle of an HR office, asking people what the company values were.

Nobody could tell me.

And they were hanging from the ceiling above their heads.

That moment has stayed with me for twenty-five years. Not because the people were disengaged. But because the values had never been given a reason to matter.

They existed on a banner, on a slide in the induction and in a line manager briefing.

But that organisation is far from alone.

Company values have become one of the great leadership cop outs. Four or five words, usually interchangeable with the values of any other organisation in the same sector, that exist to make leadership feel like it has answered a question it hasn't actually asked yet.

Integrity. Excellence. Innovation. Collaboration. Respect.

Sound familiar? Half the FTSE 100 has some version of that list.

Now I don't have an issue with those words as values if they are reflective of the personal values of the people who constitute the organisation.

And if they pass the real test. Would your leaders use your values to hire someone? To reward someone? To discipline someone? To let someone go? Do they creep into everyday decisions at every level, unconsciously, instinctively?

But without that, they just aren't meaningful.

The problem isn't having values. It's having values written for a brochure rather than a business.

The real damage is to the leaders' reputations. When values exist, and leaders don't live them, people notice. They always notice. The gap between what is said and what is done is where the real culture lives. That gap is corrosive.

If your values disappeared tomorrow, would anyone notice?

If the honest answer is no, you don't have a values problem. You have a leadership problem.