As Published in Business 2 Business, March 2004

Managing Values, Valuing Results
Avoiding a disconnect between the cultures of worker and company

When people are hired, they come with personalities – individual preferences to think and behave in certain ways. And yet many managers still downplay the impact that personalities has on performance (or the lack of it) and continue to rely on experience, education and “gut feeling” as the primary rights of passage for hiring the “right” people.

The influence that personality has on the performance of an employee has no greater truth than in the search for employees with the “right” values.

In trying to understand each other and their employees, business owners, managers, and boards of directors often (and mistakenly) assign moral intent to behaviors and motives, even though their own preferences and prejudices affect their ability to judge situations objectively. When people are motivated differently, we may call them “bad” or “mean” because we fail to understand them.

It is human nature tend to look at characteristics and then pass judgment on one another's character . When they form a negative impression of someone else, it is often because they think, “I would never do that!” or “How can they think like that!” or “How rude (or crude) – how can anyone act that way in public?”.

Just for a moment, consider the blue suit, button-down shirt CFO who on the weekends dons his leather jacket and pants, inserts his earring, exposed his tattoos, pulls on his helmet and rides off with his Harley buddies. How many of us would change our opinion about his business and personal values if we saw him in his biker gear at a client meeting? Would this be the person you would trust to handle your financials? Would you value his behavior knowing he wasn't the typical geeky accountant or would you find his weekend behavior is child-like and unprofessional?

Our personal views of behaviors and motivational values become the norm, and anything different we label abnormal or substandard.

In considering both motivators and behaviors, we “like” the styles we are “most like” and we “don't like” the ones we are “least like”. We don't approve or appreciate what we don't understand. We especially disapprove, devalue, and misunderstand the motivators and behaviors that are the opposite of our own.

Why do I bring this up? If I had to pick a single characteristic that I am called to assess in employees and candidates, it would be “values”. As one manager put it, “ we need people who share our values.” But when asked to describe what those “values” are, I get a stream of responses like “you know – honesty, trust, integrity, dependability, showing up on time” and often times “a good Christian.”

Now this column fortunately is not the venue to argue pro and con about the validity and practicality of selecting the right people by values alone. Instead I'd like to shed some light on how managers might better understand what “good values” really mean and how a better understanding will lead to finding more employees who “share their values”.

Belief it or not!

To behave morally, people must first decide what course of action is morally right and then they must choose the morally right path over others. But ethical conduct is influenced by both situational pushes and pulls and the characteristics of the individual that we'll call individual preferences.

Values are described in the book Developing Leadership and Character as an enduring belief that is more socially or individually preferable than another. But not all beliefs are of equal importance to you and everyone else.

While all values are based on beliefs, not all beliefs become values. A belief is the mental acceptance of some idea or perception as being true. Beliefs sound good – “Mother and Apple Pie”. “Patriotism”. “Employees are our most important assets”. “Customers come first”. But does everyone value employees and customers and patriotism the same? How many mission and core values statements include these words and phrases but employees don't believe them?

Values are chosen. Coerced or forced behaviors might modify an outcome but emotionally an individual is not connected or committed to it. It is a contradiction to say you value something and not act on it. A value is cherished. Forced actions are not values-based and will not endure over time.

True values on the other hand drive behaviors. That is why it is important that managers understand how to assess values.

Let me take one more shot at explaining the differences between assessing behaviors and values. Behaviors are like the car you see on the road. You can see the difference between a Jaguar, Lexus and Ford Focus. From what we observe, we will value (or judge) these three cars differently.

But what we can't easily observe is how reliable each vehicle is or will be at helping us get to our destination on time, every time. What if the Focus had a full tank of quality gas while the Jag was near empty and what remained is “dirty” gas. Values are the fuel that engines burn. Values propel each and every employee to achieve his or her goals – or not.

(To complete the analogy, personality is the engine of the automobile and it determines how efficiently and effectively your values will burn. The right engine with the wrong fuel ruins the engine or makes it run inefficiently at the very least. The wrong engine with the right fuel just forces the engine to work extra hard. In either case, the engine eventually “burns out” and/or underperforms. For the very same reasons, we always recommend the use of three different assessments in selecting and developing key employees – one for behavior (DISC), one for values (Business Values and Motivators and one for personality and abilities (TotalView). Without the complete picture, you don't see the whole person.)

Testing for Values  

How can an organization ensure that all people are valued equally and judged fairly? I recommend managers and employees alike begin to understand the Business Values and Motivation Model. It's a simple model really – not psychological or academic, but easy to understand and use.

In this model, values are described as the mental filters or personal viewpoints by which each of us experiences objects, people and events. Motivators are the internal “hot buttons” that are turned on or off when individuals look through these different filters. We learn to value the good experiences and judge the negative ones. And we tend to be “motivated” when our values are “valued” and “de-motivated” when our values are “judged”.

These values are also neutral; they are judgment-free. People however have the tendency to use them for "good" outcomes or "bad," just as a hammer can be used to build or destroy, although a hammer itself has no "morality" on its own. The real question is, which of these motivators do individuals value most. It is important to think of "value" as a verb, not a noun! The question should be, "What and how do you value?", not "What are your values?"

I often describe these filters as the prescription lenses through which we view the world. Some of us are far sighted, while others are near-sighted. That doesn't make us good or bad. We just have unique viewpoints. If I borrow prescription lenses from my wife, a friend or co-worker, I'll see the world less clearly, because we focus differently. The world might look different even if the image in front of us is the same. What used to be quite clear now might be quite blurred when we see the world through another's viewpoint.

Another analogy I use is my “bucket” theory of motivation. One of the great benefits of understanding employee's motivation is that we can know their "hot buckets," what "turns them on" and makes them run.

When explaining values and motivation to clients and workshop participants, I found this "bucket analogy" the most helpful. Some managers make the mistake of trying to motivate employees by attempting to fill the wrong “buckets”.

Each morning, you subconsciously pick up two, or perhaps three, buckets. Each bucket represents a motivating value. During the day, your goal is to fill up those buckets. If you don't fill them, at the end of the day, you may go home dissatisfied, or unsatisfied. If this happens day after day, you might even burn out and become disenchanted with your job- or even with your spouse. There are times when other people don't fill your bucket at all-in fact, they take out what's in it! During your life, which buckets you carry and want to fill are determined by your beliefs and shaped by your experiences. You value some buckets positively and judge others negatively. Some you want to fill and others you'd just as soon pour out and leave behind. And there are times you have no clue why others value what they carry in their buckets.

Which leads me to this final point. To find people who share your interests and viewpoints and values, you must first understand the six values (Conceptual, Economic, Aesthetic, Social, Power & Authority, and Doctrine) identified in the Business Values and Motivation Model and then recognize which personal values of employees will fit into your organization's culture.

The key to managing an organization by values is to create an environment that matches the values of the people to that environment. The right attitude cannot be taught. But by understanding others' attitudes and values you can then attract and retain employees, customers, and even suppliers who view the world in the same way that you do.

Ira S. Wolfe is the founder of Success Performance Solutions, and author of two new books Understanding Business Values and Motivators and The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Will Not Go Away. For more information about selecting people with the “right” values or to order his new books, contact Ira at 717.656.4632 or iwolfe@super-solutions.com or visit www.super-solutions.com.