The Importance of the ‘HOW’ with the ‘WHAT’

Jack Welch mentioned in his book ‘Winning’ that the wrong behavior needs to be dealt with in the same manner as under-performance.

James M. Kilts mentioned in his book ‘Doing What Matters’ not to hire self-centered jerks.

Ms Chua Sock Koong, CEO of SingTel mentioned in her interview in the Singapore Straits Times on the 25 July 2010 ‘We have business KPI (key performance indicators) and people KPI. We’ve made it very clear that managers who deliver only business KPI but fail in their people KPI do not have a place in SingTel.’

All these indicate the importance of the right behaviors within a company. Employees getting results but ‘pissing off’ (sorry for the choice of words) everybody else are not the ones desired by high-flying companies.

This reinforces one more time the importance of company values, as the values highlight the right behaviors, i.e. ‘How’ we go about achieving our success.

In order to have a good values system in place, it is important to go further than just defining the values. Additional discussions are needed to elaborate the meaning of values, like what is the definition of a particular value and what are supportive behaviors to these values.

My favored approach is always to develop this together with your staff. Sit together and discuss the values your company should adopt. Figure out the definition of values and discuss supportive behaviors.

I have done this exercise recently with 2 companies and summarized it below. First of all I will bet with you, if you do this exercise with your own team the results will be at least 70% the same. So, use the following as a guideline and kidnap or adopt whatever you like.

But again, develop this with your team first. They will take more ownership that way.

Value - Respect

Definition – Respect is recognition for a person’s good reputation, character, behavior and achievements. Submission to company’s (supervisor’s) direction with room for reasonable negotiation. Value everybody as another individual with their own rights and feelings without prejudice.

Supportive Behaviors

- Listen carefully
- Be co-operative
- Be responsible
- Be tactful and polite e.g. more asking vs. demanding, argue different opinions based on facts, don’t get personal, choose the right time for critical discussions
- Be honest and truthful
- With good intentions in mind, be truthful even if it ‘hurts’
- Own behavior must be worthy of respect
- Speak a common language understood by everybody, e.g. English
- No discrimination in thoughts, words, or action
- Respect people’s privacy

Value - Teamwork

Definition – Teamwork means working actively together towards a common goal, i.e. the success of our team and company.

Supportive Behaviors

- Accept team goal
- Discuss and plan about common projects
- Share relevant knowledge, information and ideas
- Bring up and solve challenges together
- Be action-orientated, get things done
- Fulfill your own task in a responsible and competent manner
- Look forward to be consulted, however, accept management / team decision even if against personal opinion
- Help when needed

Value - Customer Orientation

Definition – Customer Orientation means to understand customer needs and fulfill to the best of our ability, though having own company interest in mind. Provide services in a polite, helpful, competent, efficient and convenient manner.

Supportive Behaviors

- Listen and make a point to understand customer needs
- Ensure good product knowledge
- No empty promises, provide alternative solutions if customer requirements cannot be met
- Be fast and reliable in following up any commitment
- Make it convenient for customers to deal with us
- Make best effort to ‘invent’ customer solutions (solution selling)
- Pick up phone calls fast and start with ‘Company Name, personal name, plus greeting’.
- Ask for name, if not known, and address customer by name
- Use polite words like ‘please’, ‘may I know’, ‘thank you’, ‘greetings’ and a welcoming tone

Value – Taking Ownership

Definition – Taking Ownership means to accept responsibilities given and complete tasks also in view of adversities. Recognize challenges appearing unexpectedly which need to be addressed in order to secure business success, and take the initiative to address them independently.

Supportive Behaviors

- Ensure any assignments is clearly understood I terms of measurable results, time line, and resources available
- Complete any assignments given diligently, even if not fully agreeable to the task
- Take the initiative to follow up with people who are involved in the completion of the assignment
- Recognize that many tasks experience unexpected obstacles. Make a point to address these obstacles in order to achieve the task
- Be only satisfied when the task is completed according to the expected measurable result, time line and given resources
- Don’t push around responsibility
- No ‘cherry picking’ by taking up the pleasant tasks and leaving the unpleasant ones to others

Value – Sense of Urgency

Definition – Sense of Urgency means to clearly understand the implication of speed to the success in business and make an active contribution towards this.

Supportive Behaviors

- Understand the time line for each assignment
- Understand the relevance of finishing on time or not finishing on time to the business success
- Make every effort to finish task on time, which often includes vigorous follow up with others
- Prioritize work considering the time line of each
- Be willing to work overtime