I recently attended my neighbor's daughter's graduation. She was graduating from a military combat program that was conducted at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. Besides being happy for my neighbors, proud of the young lady that used to babysit my children, and humbled by the commitment that the brave men and women of the armed services make for our country every day, I was fascinated at how the army had integrated its vision, mission, and core values into every aspect of the operation, including its reward criteria.
Everywhere you looked on the base the motto "Victory begins here" was posted. The "soldier’s creed" and the "seven core values" of a soldier was integrated into all of the speeches that were made. Every award that was presented, at the ceremony, was aligned and directly associated with the values of the organization. After the ceremony, I spent time talking to many of the soldiers. I was struck at how every one of them was able to rattle off the "seven core values" of a soldier. The individuals that I spoke with could not only recite the "soldier's creed" but explain what it meant in relationship to their jobs and to their behavior. Theses brave men and women exhibited a sense of pride at being associated with something greater than just them as individuals. I got the sense that each of them was willing to go beyond the call of duty to get the job done. The only thought that I could muster was "Wow, these guys have got it right."
How many of us can rattle off the mission and vision of the organizations that we work for? What are the core values of your company? How was your last promotion or raise tied to those values? What are you expected to do every day to support the mission and vision of your company? How often do the executives at your company speak to you about mission, values and vision? If these items aren't driving the strategy and operation of you organization, what is?
My experience has been that most companies ensure that they at least have a corporate mission and vision. These artifacts are typically found in the corporate marketing brochures and in the annual report. Organization also frequently ensure that they have published values. But, if you walk around these same companies and ask the individuals that are on the "front line" of the operation to tell you what those things are, you will be met with blank stares. In short, corporations don't do a good job of ensuring that the corporate culture is driven by and aligned with the values, vision and mission of the company.
When corporate values, vision and mission are integrated into every facet of the company's DNA leadership can be confident that the decisions and behavior of its employees will be aligned with the corporate values, vision and mission. If this alignment is absent, employees will come up with their own criteria for behavior and decision making. There is no guarantee that this criteria will align with what the company says that it values.
When those soldiers, that graduated, are deployed to the front line of their military engagement, I'm confident that they will go above and beyond the call of duty. How confident are you that the individuals on the front line of your operation are going above and beyond? If the answer is no, is it because you don't have good employees or is it because leadership has failed to integrate values, mission and vision into the corporate DNA?
