What sets businesses apart is not what they do, but how they do it. What would happen if a company started with a guide that defined their company culture and how their employees would act and how they would treat their stakeholders? What would happen if even before the policy book was written, the company wrote a culture book that defined their mission, vision, and values and then tried to align employee’s behavior to match those elements? What if the company culture book included:
Commitment to Excellence
We will display a mindset of excellence that delivers superior performance in all that we do. We have decided to be the best and we commit to do what it takes to be the best.
Commitment to Self
We strive to be hard-working people who are results driven.
We strive to be ambitious people who will enthusiastically go that extra mile to achieve the company goals.
We strive to be humble people who prove their value through hard work rather than lip service.
We strive to be cooperative people who roll up their sleeves and help colleagues.
We strive to be self-managed people who work to improve themselves.
We strive to be problem-solving people who focus on the solutions not the problems.
We choose to be proactive people who take the initiative to solve challenges before they become problems.
We strive to be creative people who will think outside the box.
We strive to be confident people who take appropriate risks to improve processes or products.
We strive to be honest and transparent people who are authentic and have a reputation of integrity.
Commitment to Colleagues
We commit to be good-natured colleagues who have a sense of humor and know how to have fun.
We commit to be flexible colleagues who play the role on the team that gives the team the best chance of succeeding (not necessarily the one we want to play).
We commit to be responsible colleagues who honor the commitments we make.
We commit to be supportive colleagues who give extra assistance to inexperienced team members.
We commit to be compassionate colleagues who understand how to deliver both compliments and criticism.
We commit to be collaborative colleagues who communicate constructively and share lessons learned.
We commit to be inclusive colleagues who make everyone feel like they are a valuable member of the team.
We commit to be grateful colleagues who thank members for their contribution to the team.
We commit to developing everyone on the team.
We commit to be confident colleagues who are proud of the successes of our teammates.
Commitment to Clients
We commit to being trusted advisors.
We commit to putting your best interest ahead of our own.
We commit to being interested in your success and the success of your business.
We commit to doing what we say we are going to do, when we say we are going to do it, and if we find we cannot, we will let you know.
We commit to working hard to understand the symptoms and the underlying challenges you struggle with. Furthermore, we commit to using every available resource at our disposal to help resolve those issues.
We commit to connecting emotionally. We genuinely want to know who you are, where you are going, and we want to help you get there.
We commit to being as passionate and enthusiastic about your business as we are about our own.
We commit to being authentic and walking our talk.
We commit to finding the answer to any questions you have that we do not know.
We commit to representing you to the best of our ability.
Commitment to Enterprise
We strive to work as safely as possible, adhering to safety policy.
We strive to follow company policy at all times.
We strive to be reliable people who follow instructions, doing what they are asked to do when they are asked to do it.
We strive to be punctual people who are where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be there.
We strive to be people who can be trusted with the freedom to schedule their work and complete projects on or before their due date.
We strive to be marketable people who represent the company well and make good impressions with all the company’s stakeholders.
We strive to focus on the bottom line, cutting cost where we can.
We strive to be good stewards of company resources, wasting nothing.
We strive to put the company’s interest ahead of our own.
We strive to give one hundred percent all day, every day.
Successful business engagements begin with establishing such a foundation then developing metrics to make sure the organization stays on course. Too often businesses become focused on production and the bottom line and they lose sight of the company culture. Leading Edge Institute has a system to help you establish measures to make sure your team is meeting their (1) commitment to their self (2) commitment to their colleagues (3) commitment to their clients and (4) commitment to the enterprise.
Other articles in our “Wanted:” series:
Wanted: One Hard-Working Employee
Wanted: One Good-Natured Colleague
Wanted: One Good-Hearted Manager