“You are what you do, not what you say you are.” Simple truth from Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s wonderful book “Let my people go surfing”
I’ve known many CEOs launch on an exercise to define their company values. And sadly for most of them, those values rarely make it out of a Word doc (other brands are available!).
Or they languish on posters on the walls of now empty offices.
Or they sit on an “About us” page that no one believes.
Shame. Because research shows that companies which articulate values and then don’t do anything with them end up performing worse than companies that don’t bother articulating values at all.
Values-talking CEOs, be warned!
There are ways to embed values within your company. It starts with your leadership. But it then has to go across your processes and stakeholders. And that it needs intentional effort and design.
All of which leads back to Yvon Chouinard’s quote at the top. Your team will believe what you do, not what you say you are.
Will 2022 be another year of a strategy at best vaguely met? Of being a CEO unable to step back from the day-to-day to do the things your company needs to meet it's ambitions? Of having a purpose and values that don't directly connect to everything you do? We're looking for an intimate beta group of CEOs (10 to 40 employees) to join us on this upcoming webinar to talk through our Build on Purpose framework for making strategy, purpose and values happen.