27 Posts Found

The strategy, purpose, and values discussions—what Kevin Sharer, the former CEO of Amgen, calls a company’s “social architecture”—have often felt like separate exercises, but they now need to work in concert. “If you don’t have a social architecture that’s solid, well-accepted, and can be operationalized against the most important decisions you make, that’s leadership’s fault,” said Sharer.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Adam Bryant, Kevin Sharer | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Decision Making, Goals, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy, Values

If purpose is the broader intent of why you are there, values are how you make purpose come alive.

Content: Quotation | Author: Paul Polman | Source: Management and Business Review (MBR) | Subjects: Management, Mission, Values

Founders, here’s a good litmus test for your company values: If you took 6 months off, and left no directions other than “Follow our values to a T,” would you be happy with the outcome?

Content: Quotation | Author: Laura Del Beccaro | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Culture, Management, Organizational Behavior, Values

If “vision” embodies the head of your organization, and “mission” personifies the heart, then “values” symbolize the soul.

Content: Quotation | Authors: breAnne O. Reeves, Robert Spector | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Management, Mission, Values, Vision

If the practices and processes inside a company don’t drive the execution of values, then people don’t get it. The question is, do you create a culture of behavior and action that really demonstrates those values and a reward system for those who adhere to them?

Content: Quotation | Author: Louis V. Gerstner | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Values

All around us there is a breakdown of values […] It is not just the […] overpowering greed that pervades our business life. It is the fact that we are not willing to sacrifice for the ethics and values we profess. For an ethic is not an ethic, and a value not a value without some sacrifice to it. Something given up, something not taken, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Ethics, Integrity, Leadership, Values

When loyalty conflicts with honesty, when fairness conflicts with pragmatism, or when social responsibility conflicts with obligation to shareholders, people become conflicted. And when their actions are inconsistent with their values, they either experience guilt, anger and embarrassment. People try to minimize such cognitive dissonance by rationalizing or even denying their behavior, discounting the consequences of it or simply blaming others.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Gerard H. Seijts, Jeffrey Gandz, Mary Crossan | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior, Values

People think that being values-based is about being nice. It’s really about being principled. You have to be firm, consistent, and even ruthless about your principles, and very few companies are.

Content: Quotation | Author: Dov Seidman | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Culture, Organizational Behavior, Values

More and more I have come to the conclusion that a principle isn’t a principle until it costs you money.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Values

The capabilities of business units reside in their processes and their values, and by their very nature, processes and values are inflexible and meant not to change.

Content: Quotation | Author: Clayton M. Christensen | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior, Process, Values

Any organization, in order to survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs on which it premises all its policies and actions… Beliefs must always come before policies, practices, and goals. The latter must always be altered if they are seen to violate fundamental beliefs.

Content: Quotation | Author: Thomas J. Watson Jr. | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Values

The gap between what a company says it stands for and what actually drives daily decisions creates a significant source of lost potential for any organization. All organizations pursue a purpose. Yet, lofty mission statements are often subverted by the decisions made for short-term crisis management. Value statements are often discredited by how people are treated day to day. Strategies are often abandoned as unexpected … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D. | Subjects: Management, Values

If you are not prepared to resign or be fired for what you believe in, then you are not a worker, let alone a professional. You are a slave.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Values

If you aren’t fighting for something bigger than yourself, you’ll be nothing more than just one more ambitious, opportunistic asshole who’s trying to claw his way to the top. Personal ambition may motivate you, but it’s not going to motivate anyone to follow you. Being a warrior and a leader is not about achieving personal success. Success usually does come to leaders, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior | Subjects: Leadership, Values

Without mission, there’s no purpose. Without vision, there’s no destination. Without values, there are no guiding principles.

Content: Quotation | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Mission, Values

You need a performance/values matrix. Jeff Immelt says it very well: Performance, performance, and values. Without performance – I mean, that’s what the game is about. But it’s got to be values helping you to perform. Self-absorbed learning is different from taking my learning and feeling a sense of responsibility to bring it to you.

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Values

All of business is about values, all of the time. Notwithstanding the ostentatious use of stopwatches, Taylor’s pig iron case was not a description of some aspect of physical reality–how many tons can a worker lift? It was a prescription–how many tons should a worker lift? The real issue at stake in Mayo’s telephone factory was not factual–how can we best establish a sense of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Management, Values

The clash between principles and pragmatism is one of the hardest tests of a leader’s character. Of course we want our leaders to be both principled and pragmatic. Principles alone qualify men and women to be preachers or saints. Pure pragmatists can open their tool kits and get down to work, but their amorality makes them dangerous. As many leaders know, sometimes the worst conflict … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Ethics, Values

Confronting doubt involves coming to terms with differences in values. How does one choose between two valued objectives: safety versus liberty, scientific discovery versus the sanctity of human life, individuals versus groups? Sometimes we overcome doubt with faith, sometimes we privilege one set of values over another. And sometimes we just live with the burden of making choices when there are no easy answers.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Decision Making, Values

Values, by definition, are virtuous, noble benchmarks for behavior. You would be hard pressed to find two groups that disagreed with each other’s value statements. True cultural integration, however, requires a focus on both organizations’ actual behaviors-not on rhetoric surrounding their conceptual values.

Content: Quotation | Source: PwC | Subjects: Mergers & Acquisitions, Values