When you stop to think about it, most people spend an inordinate amount of time trying to manage behaviors and too little time shaping them.

Surveys, write-ups, policies, signs, warnings, tickets, reprimands, disciplinary sessions, etc. are all attempts at managing behaviors. Unfortunately, most of these efforts are doomed to be repeated multiple times over with little impact on the behaviors themselves.

Great Leaders begin with the end in mind and define guiding principles to attract the right people and repel the wrong ones. A team aligned around clear guiding principles largely self-manages behaviors together with an occasional dose of accountability.

Guiding principles are essentially the same as values. Values declare what is important to the organization and how the people associated with the organization are to behave.

It’s important to define these values or guiding principles early in the life of the organization so that they can be used to help select the kinds of people that are the best fit for the organization and to help shape behaviors each day.

When defining them it’s important that they not just be words and that the exercise is not just to check a box. Rather, these word’s need to be top of mind for everyone in the organization to guide their behaviors moment by moment.

There tend to be three types of values:

• Permission To Play Values…like honesty and integrity. These are values we expect every member to embrace without having to say so. Hence, they do not need to be spelled out in the guiding principles.
• Aspirational Values. These are values we would like to see inherent in the organization at some point, but admittedly they are not prevalent in the organization at the current time. These are values we are promoting and working towards.
• Core Values. These are values that are evident to all who know the organization. They tend to be values inherent in the founders and deemed important to the reputation and functioning of the organization as it grows. Healthy organizations do not compromise their core values without threatening the very existence of the organization.

Guiding principles should be a combination of core values and aspirational values. They are defined and clearly communicated continuously by the leaders. Prospective team members who do not align with them are not invited to join the organization and existing team members are held accountable to them. They are woven into the fabric of the organization at every opportunity and decisions are filtered through them.

To provide perspective of what a culture statement looks like, which includes a list of guiding principles along with brief descriptors, I’m including mine here:

Organizations which consistently operate in line with their values tend to build remarkable brands.

Herb Mast is a Leadership Coach and Employee Engagement Specialist. Learn how he can assist you in implementing the principles and concepts presented here.