Did you know that, depending on where you are standing in the United States, the difference between true north and magnetic north can be up to 20 degrees apart? If you walk 10 miles without programming that difference (angle of declination) into your route, you will miss your target by almost 4 miles.
Like the telescope for VISION, we like to use the compass as our New Toolbox symbol to talk about VALUES/CULTURE.
We were working with a large GC that was dealing with explosive growth. The founder said, “I don’t want to get any bigger if it means we lose our CULTURE.” We spent almost a year working on refining and sharpening the language they were using for their VALUES.
After sharing an early draft of their new values with an extended leadership team, the Preconstruction Director stopped me on a break. “Ross, what do I do if the most productive estimator on our team doesn’t live up to these values?” Great question, and we could substitute that position for the best salesperson, top engineer, or high-performing production manager.
XM Truth: If you give top performers a pass on the values and behaviors required to drive team culture, then performance is your real value. And all the hype and banners about values will digress to the silliness level of Enron talking about Integrity.
We SAY what we believe.
We DO what we value.
Building a powerful, value-based culture, has created more breakthroughs for our clients than any other work we have done. The most intangible of leadership levers is quite simply the most powerful Xcelerator for team performance.
To build a strong culture, everyone’s compass must be dialed in on true north. If we aren’t willing to hire and fire based on value alignment, our team’s performance will never reach the Xtra Mile potential.
You are probably closer to your next breakthrough than you imagine.
Take a moment to reflect on your core company values by downloading our Culture Self-Assessment guide. Who lines up, and who falls short? Then schedule a brief meeting below to have one of our consultants guide you through the process.