Ethical Values are Good For Business (Part 1)

By Linda Fisher Thornton

Even if a company has clear values, applying them is not as easy as leaders might think. According to Gallup (2016), just 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work every day, and only 27% strongly agree that they “believe in” their organization’s values.  In 2022 Gallup reported that “Without strong, lived and embedded values, it is difficult for employees to find meaning in their job.”

Only When They’re Clear and Consistently Applied

Leaders might think that the company’s values are self-explanatory, and will automatically guide day-to-day business but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s in the nitty-gritty application of values that people have deep questions. Here are two examples: 

A manager has been told to hire according to the company’s values and to meet or exceed all goals. The candidate that is most likely to improve the department’s chances of meeting goals is not always respectful to others. Which is more important?

An employee sees a disconnect between the company’s stated values and the actions of a new senior leader. Should she follow the stated values or the leader’s direction? 

Situations like these examples are common, and, to reap the benefits of the organization’s values, leaders need to “fill in the blanks.” The answer to the first challenge should be “We never sacrifice respect for dollars” and the answer to the second situation should be “It’s never okay to abandon the company’s values, even if you see someone else doing it.”

Leaders must start the conversation and keep it open, model the application of stated values, clear up areas of confusion and use the company’s values to guide daily work. Then and only then will values be “powered up” to drive business success. 

The power of values is not in stating them on the website and glossy brochures – it’s in the much more difficult process of living them in our everyday choices.  

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