values and principles
and how you live
When we start working with a new client, it can be hard to understand the culture that we’re walking into. As a coach, I want to understand the driving forces behind the decisions that are made daily. I typically find that the mindset of the organisation is presented in one of three ways:
1. We have no values or principles, and our culture isn’t managed
I think I’ve seen this more than the next two. Most people, let alone most organisations, haven’t considered their values, so they are in no position to convey these to others. What typically happens in organisations that haven’t curated their values is that every new manager who comes into the organisation behaves in whichever managerial style has been most successful to them previously, and so each subset of the hierarchy has its own culture.
When working at Morgan Stanley, the Executive Director I was coaching was very proud of the level of autonomy he gave to the people below him. However, my assessment of his management style was that of a micromanager. He knew what everyone was working on and clarified how he thought the work should be done.
Compared to his colleagues at his level, though, he was a progressive and forward-thinking individual. Other Executive Directors I watched work would actively manipulate their direct reports, pitting them against each other. When teaching facilitation techniques, I was frequently asked about the facilitator's hidden agenda.
2. We state our values and principles, but we forget about them most of the year
Most organisations that have their values on the wall of the canteen and at the bottom of posters in the lift come under this banner. In my opinion, these are probably the most dangerous of all. They manage to attract the brightest and the best young minds based on being a values-based culture and indoctrinate them into the way of their world before they’re old enough (and perhaps cynical enough) to think better.
McKensey comes to mind above all others. They promote themselves as a values-based organisation that allows consultants to refuse to work with clients if they have ethical qualms about working with them. However, being so large with so many people, they can always find another consultant who will work in any given sector. Despite their values, they work with clients who directly violate them. They work with both sides of the political spectrum, oil and gas, even though they campaign for climate change action, and they even work for regulators and those being regulated simultaneously.
3. We know our values and principles and live by them
This is a rare gem of an organisation. Thanks to the B Corporation standard, it is getting easier to find genuinely value-driven organisations, but thanks to conglomerates, it’s easy to find B-certified organisations under the umbrella of organisations such as Coca-Cola (Innocent) and Unilever (Graze).
I’ve worked with small companies that embody the owners' values. One client has given unlimited time off with full pay to an employee going through mental illness. This person is allowed to come and go as they please, working when they can for the amount of time they can, without the added mental load of worrying about how they will pay their mortgage at the end of the month. Both the company and the employee believe that this arrangement is allowing the employee to work more days than they otherwise would. The owner sees this benefit not only to the employee but to the wider society as it keeps them away from the need for state support.
When engaging with a new client, I like to spend a significant amount of time helping them to understand what their values and principles are so we can build a shared, transparent and authentic mindset that we can use to anchor us when making difficult decisions. In fact, by being explicit on the mindset they want to embody, difficult decisions become much easier because they know the criteria they want to use to select from the possible outcomes.