A company’s culture is often defined as the “way we do things around here.” A more formal definition is that a company’s culture is “a blend of the values, beliefs, norms, taboos, symbols, rituals and myths that develop over time” and describes and governs the ways a company’s owners, leaders, and employees think, feel and act. Cultures grow and change over time and often, leadership send and employees get mixed messages about “the way we do things here.”
This week I’ve encountered two examples of where leaders were sending mixed messages about the “way we do things around here” and for those I worked with, they were left feeling confused, demotivated and dis-empowered. In one, the leadership had as a core value that it would engage in clear and direct communication with employees and yet, employees told stories of how leaders engaged in talking to other employees about another employee’s behavior, created communication triangles and made assumptions and then decisions about an employee’s performance without talking directly to the employee. In the other organization, a core company value was to be respectful of all employees yet a manager verbally reprimanded an employee at a team meeting. The gap between what the organization and its representative (leaders and manager) say they value and what they do is, what Brene Brown, in her book, Dare Greatly, calls a “value gap”, that is, the space between our perceived values (what we’re actually doing, thinking and feeling) and our aspirational values (what we want to do, think and feel). The impact of this gap in organizations can be significant especially when not brought to light, discussed and brought into alignment.
No organization is perfect so there often are aspects of an organization’s culture where a “value gap” exists but what is interesting is that employees see and experience them all the time and yet, managers are often blind to the discrepancies. It’s not the employee’s job to manage the culture; rather, it is the organization’s leaders who must own the responsibility for defining and managing a company’s culture.
Whether a leader, a manager, a supervisor, a sales person, or an employee, take some time this week to notice if there is a “value gap” between what you say and what you do. If there is, take the first step and acknowledge the gap and then identify what you need to do to minimize the gap … the pay-off is significant — greater credibility, stronger relationships and respect.
If you are a leader, invest in assessing your organization’s culture. Don’t let a “value gap” eat away at your credibility, employee engagement or morale. Take the first step and click here to request “10 Questions to Assess Your Company’s Culture.”
