Support your core value – empower your people
I hope you’re following along on this theme. First I wrote about the importance of establishing your business core value (your “why”). Following that, I wrote about differentiating the what, how, and why of your business. Entrepreneurs and other business leaders often confuse these aspects of their businesses. They create taglines and marketing messages about what or how they do what they do instead of conveying their why.
Now, let’s look at the two things you must do to support your purpose, mission. . . your why. One: put it in all your messages – tagline; marketing and sales collateral; website; newsletter; employee communications; business plan. If you don’t have a copywriter and graphic designer on staff, contract with professionals.
Two: Empower Your People. That’s the topic of this article.
How do you ensure that your employees know, honor, and enforce your core value? If your employees don’t think you’re steadfastly serious about the importance of your vision, they won’t be serious about protecting and acting on it. Tell them.
Empowerment starts with the hiring and on-boarding processes. During the resumé review and initial phone conversation, you confirm he or she has the aptitude and experience relative to the job you’re filling. That’s fairly easy. You also need to find out what kind of person you’re considering bringing into your “family.” Beyond the job skills, you need to vet their attitude, communication skills, ability to handle difficulties, and their cultural fit.
I suggest a two-interview process. In the first, listen carefully to the way questions are answered, the tone (positive, negative, or neutral). Talk about hobbies, life situations; find out where they grew up. Ask what they like (and don’t like) about places, hobbies, and even previous colleagues. Have they done their homework on your industry or company? What type of questions do they ask?
Your challenge is to find out if he or she will fit into your organization’s values and culture. How are their communication skills and style? Not just their vocabulary, but their listening skills as well. In the first interview, there’s no need to get into a lot of detail about how you empower people, but it’s good to touch on your core value to get a sense of how he or she responds to it.
The first interview will determine if you invite the person to a second meeting. If so, the return meeting should include an in-depth discussion of your core value and culture. You’ll cover how your employees are empowered, make decisions, support one another, and profoundly embrace and protect all company values. You’re looking for a positive response in their body language, some excitement, even vocalized approvals of your message. As Simon Sinek points out in his book, Start With Why, the goal is not to hire people who simply have a skill set you need; the goal is to hire people who believe what you believe.
That’s the starting point of building a team that embraces and supports your core value. . . hire people who believe what you believe!
If you’ve done that, you’ll have confidence the new hire not only understands, but “looks like” current team players who are carrying out the passion around why your company exists. In a new hire’s first few days, you want them to see employee empowerment first-hand. A good practice is to have the person sit with or follow someone he or she will be working beside or regularly interacting with. They should experience or witness some or all of the following “rules.” You can call them standards, culture, codes, precepts; whatever suits your situation:
Decision-making authority. Employees are trusted and empowered to solve customer problems and never undermined or questioned, regardless of outcome.
Clearly defined processes. There are formal (usually written) processes for phone protocol, intra-company correspondence, communication standards, etc.
Creative challenge. They should see employees looking for ways to improve existing processes. They may even experience how the process to challenge and suggest changes works.
Transparency. They will observe how open communication with customers and fellow employees is encouraged and witness it in action.
The rules will, of course, vary according to the values you’ve defined in your specific business. The one constant, no matter what your core value, is empowerment through decision-making authority. Employees absolutely have to know what decisions they can make, and that they will always be supported in those decisions. Yes, a decision can have undesirable consequences. In those cases, focus on the consequence first, the decision process second. Never attack the person or the decision itself.
Let’s be clear about giving this kind of power to employees. I’m not talking about turning your whole workforce loose to make whatever decisions they want. Remember, this empowerment is about your core value. Whatever the core value or values: honesty, transparency, golden-rule, work ethic, quality of product; they involve both internal and external interactions. Empowerment must “connect the dots” between your uncompromisable core value and how your team act and treat their fellow employees, clients, prospects, and trade partners.