Feb 27, 2018
Today, we build on the two previous posts, on creating Mission and Vision Statements by discussing Core Values and creating your organization’s Value Statement, which completes the triad.
When organizations desire to perform at the highest level, they leverage three (3) commitments—three commitments that set the stage for overall efficiency, growth, and prosperity.
Core Values focus on how you run your organization and interact with customers and suppliers. Not everyone possesses the same core values, so it’s important for an organization to stress what theirs are to employees, vendors, and customers at the onset of hiring, doing business, or providing a service.
Take this example: Facebook started out in a dorm room and, in just ten years, grew to having 1.23 billion monthly users, about one-sixth of the entire world’s population. To celebrate that accomplishment, Mark Zuckerberg expressed how a Core Value guided them along the way:
“…We just cared more about connecting the world than anyone else. And we still do today.”
With its expressed Value of caring, Facebook is guided toward their vision and mission of accomplishing bigger and more important goals. It is yet to be seen whether Facebook will be foiled by one of the 5 very common mistakes we are about to explore here.
Mistake # 1: Being too vague
Your Core Values should be both meaningful and easy to understand. So, if caring is a core value, what does “caring” really mean? Your Value statement should flesh this out in a simple and powerful way. Zuckerberg outlined his 5 Core Values as “The Hacker Way.”
Mistake # 2: Lack of accountability
Your Core Values must be built into your performance management process or the oversight to ensure success will be sorely absent.
Mistake # 3: Creating too many Values
By limiting this list to reflect only your highest priorities, your core Values will be focused and accountability will increase.
It’s tempting to make a long list of Values that you think are important; however, when you keep the number to about three or four key items, you make enacting them easier and more likely.
Mistake # 4: Failing to share core Values with prospective employees
Potential employees should know how things work and what it’s like at your organization from the start. When someone does not subscribe to your Values, don’t hire them.
Mistake # 5: Not including a core Values preface statement
Some core Values can end up seeming disingenuous or hypocritical once mistakes are made. The best way to inoculate your organization from this is to disclose that possibility up front.
Include a preface statement like this:
“Although we strive for perfection, we sometimes miss the mark. When we do, we apologize and work to improve as we move forward. The following is a list of the values we strive to maintain.”
Your students, instructors, vendors, customers, and employees will appreciate your honesty and be more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt, should problems arise.
Core Value Statements are crucial to the culture of your organization and shouldn’t be taken lightly. The best way to ensure that your trio of Mission, Vision, and Value Statements will succeed is to ensure they are integrated into all you do from an HR perspective.
By avoiding the common mistakes and using top-notch methods, you’ll ensure that employees can achieve your Mission and Vision by adhering to the core Values most important to your organization. A high-performing organization is one that can last and even thrive in tough economic times. It must by guided carefully using processes that ensure consistency and stability through the Values you hold most dear.
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In His Name HR helps organizations build high performance Human Resources programs. Visit them at In HIS Name HR or e-mail them here.
Mark A. Griffin is the founder and chief consultant of In His Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Mark A. Griffin | Christian Higher Ed HR
Jan 17, 2018
Today, we’ll look at the 3 biggest mistakes commonly made by organizations during the creation of their Vision Statement.
As discussed in the last post, Organizations wanting to perform at the highest level do so by working to leverage 3 commitments. These commitments set the stage for overall efficiency, growth, and prosperity.
Mission Statement
Vision Statement
Core Values
Great leaders vision-cast for their organization.
They have an idea of where they want their organization to be down the road. They chart their desired course ahead of time. The best leaders will map out their Vision, put this Vision on paper, and share their Vision with the entire crew. However, too many leaders fail to be precise—they don’t follow a top-notch process to ensure their Vision truly comes to fruition.
Mistakes You Want to Avoid
Mistake #1: Developing a Vision Statement that isn’t achievable in the near future—within an employee’s working lifetime.
This is a bad idea. Instead of a far-off Vision as the organizational aim, your employees need to envision achieving the goal far sooner, so they can potentially experience the achievement as part of the team.
No employee wants to think that they are expected to work hard to achieve an organization’s Vision without still being around to celebrate it happening. If the goal lies too far into the future, employees don’t feel invested in the outcome. They don’t feel committed to it. Instead, it gets shelved and ignored. With an achievable goal, hope, motivation, and perseverance are ignited. They can see your destination on the horizon. Your excitement will become theirs.
When creating a Vision statement, make it achievable. Once it’s achieved, make sure you revisit it and make any adjustments and corrections to it as you move forward.
Mistake #2: The Vision statement is not included in the hiring and recruitment processes.
As you build your team, make sure that your potential employees know the direction your organization is headed; starting the moment they first step through the door. Let them know where they’re going when they first get onboard. It’s not enough to expect them to figure it out by osmosis. Don’t leave your Vision to chance. Tell them up front what it is and the role they will play in achieving it.
Your Vision statement must be seamlessly incorporated into your hiring practices and documents. If it is not obvious from the start, you risk spending a lot of time, energy, and money acquiring people who don’t know where you’re going and don’t care. Your organization will be rudderless.
Your Vision Statement is an invaluable motivator for your employees. Would you want to board a ship or a plane without knowing the destination ahead of time? Your employees won’t want to either.
As a leader, you are the captain. Your crew—your employees—and your passengers—your customers—must be informed as to the destination of your journey and be enthusiastic about it.
This is how high performance gets started!
Mistake # 3: Failing to integrate your commitment to your organization’s Core Values and Mission Statement into your Vision Statement—not making it a complete, holistic package.
A Vision statement should articulate two crucial items in addition to your Vision: your Mission statement and the core Values guiding your organization.
These three components are interdependent and must work together as a team. Just like a top coach wouldn’t play merely one-third of his football squad in the Super Bowl, it is not possible to create a high-performing organization from the ground up if it lacks any of these three key components.
The success of your Vision is important to your future—much too important to omit any of the key supporting pieces and risk it failing.
If creating these three documents sounds like a lot to bite off, don’t be discouraged! Human Resources experts exist to help you, and resources exist to make it easier. The best ones guide you through the whole process, just like the one I created with my team. We’ve done the foundational work for you to make it all happen smoothly and simply. Our HR Mastery Toolkit teaches and guides you to implement the best practices used by some of the top, most successful organizations in the world.
We begin with this essential first task: establishing your organization’s Mission, Vision, and Values.
By using a top-notch process to create your Vision Statement, you’ll set the stage for your employees to achieve it.
In the next post, we will continue examining this critical trio. I’ll give you some of the expertise I’ve gleaned from more than twenty years in the field of human resources. Come back to read: Mistakes Organizations Make When Determining Their Core Values.
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Join us at the 2018 Annual ABACC Conference at the Wyndham Orlando Florida Resort (International Drive). We will be exhibiting at this informative conference February 13 through February 16, 2018. Learn more here.
We will also be speaking (Grace and Wisdom When Right-Sizing Your Staff) and exhibiting for the ABHE Annual Meeting February 21-23, 2018 at the Rosen Plaza Hotel, Orlando Florida Learn more here.
Contact us directly to set up a personal meeting in advance of the annual meeting. Looking forward to creating new friends and fostering deeper relationships with contacts we know.
In His Name HR helps organizations build high performance Human Resources programs. Visit them at In HIS Name HR or e-mail them here.
Mark A. Griffin is the founder and chief consultant of In His Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Mark A. Griffin | Christian Higher Ed HR
Oct 3, 2017
The third ingredient of MVVs is values, specifically core values. A core value, from a human resources perspective, reflects the heart of an organization. It pumps the blood throughout; it makes an organization tick. It defines the organization and its culture and what it takes pride in doing. It is how vendors and customers view an organization’s behavior toward them. It is what employees tell their neighbors and friends when asked what it is like to work where they do. It is why your students choose your college. It is the behaviors your staff and instructors exhibit as they
In the secular world an organization focused on quality might state its core value as: We do not compromise on quality. Quality is job one. An organization valuing individual responsibility would want to say: We believe in holding ourselves accountable. We deliver on our promises and we always endeavor to use good judgment. Efficiency, honesty, customer service, ownership—these and many more reflect the kinds of core values that high-performing organizations embody.
In order to enjoy growth and prosperity and achieve high performance, an organization must first look inward and thoughtfully address these three critical aspects of running an organization. Those that invest in a well-developed and bought-in mission, vision, and values will reap dividends far beyond those that do not.
As leaders at Christian colleges and Universities, we take a Biblical/Kingdom approach to our Mission, Vision and Values creation. Often times it is best to cite a bible verse to stir commitment and affirmation as to why the value is important.
In doing research we discovered Ozark Christian College’s Values Statement. Enjoy reviewing and reflecting how your Values statement might be updated or recast to create excitement on your campus.
CORE VALUES
THE WORD OF CHRIST TAUGHT IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST (COLOSSIANS 1:28)
We believe the Bible is the true and authoritative Word of God and our final rule of faith and practice. We want to teach God’s Word faithfully, in harmony with God’s Spirit.
NOT TO BE SERVED BUT TO SERVE (MARK 10:45)
We are a servant of the church, training vocational and volunteer servant leaders for the worldwide work of ministry. It is the commitment of teachers, staff and students that we will love and serve others.
SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE (EPHESIANS 4:15)
We want to honor God by fulfilling our personal responsibility to be honest and caring with one another.
TRUSTING IN THE POWER OF GOD AND SEEKING THE GLORY OF GOD (1 CORINTHIANS 4:20 & ISAIAH 42:8)
We are absolutely and utterly dependent upon God. The work is too great for human resources. We pursue excellence, knowing all glory is God’s and any accomplishment is of him.
ATMOSPHERE OF GRACE, TRUST AND FREEDOM (ROMANS 15:7 & 1 PETER 4:10)
We accept one another as imperfect people saved by the grace of God. Mutual trust, based on our commitment to the Lord, guides our relationships. We desire each person to have freedom to develop God-given gifts.
RESTORING BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY (JOHN 17:21)
We are committed to teaching and practicing biblical Christianity, believing it is central to unity among believers and evangelization of the world.
WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH (JOHN 4:23-24)
We foster spiritual health through genuine worship, both personal and public. Worship is for the glory of God, exhortation from his Word, and edification of the community of faith.
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In His Name HR helps organizations build high performance Human Resources programs. Visit them at In HIS Name HR or e-mail them here.
Mark A. Griffin is the founder and chief consultant of In His Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Mark A. Griffin | Christian Higher Ed HR
