Engaged

A high performing culture

Ensure sustainable growth through a high-performance culture. Top tier performers live their values by demonstrating related behaviours consistently throughout the business

Why this is important

Studies conclude that businesses with a clearly articulated and understood purpose and a ‘healthy’ culture grow better and faster

How to Grow Better and Faster

Start with Purpose

  • Articulate in a compelling way your company’s purpose, why you exist (beyond a desire to make a surplus)
  • From purpose, spell out vision (what we want to achieve) and mission (what we do today)
  • Based on purpose, vision and mission, a small number (4-6) of values can be defined that highlight ‘what the business stands for’
  • “Ask yourself why you went into business in the first place. What are you there for? When you establish values as a business and your employees care about your mission, everyone works harder” Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia Founder

Translate Values to Expected Behaviours

  • Values, by themselves, are of limited value (and yet many companies think posters and mugs suffice)
  • For each value clearly articulate expected behaviours, both at the firm level and specifically for the sales and marketing team
  • For example, if Innovation is the value, a firm-wide expected behaviour could be to always ‘challenge the status quo’, for the sales team it might be ‘always seek new ways to generate leads’

Embed desired behaviours

  • Embed desired behaviours in numerous ways, starting with ‘walking the talk’, because leaders cast long shadows
  • Hire based on desired behaviours, performance manage against their achievement (including celebrating success), restructure the incentive programme to ensure the ‘how’ is represented alongside the outcome, invest in the team

Case Studies

Defining and embedding a telco provider's values

We facilitated defining a set of values through interviews and a firm-wide discussion forum.  From there, for each value, expected behaviours were articulated. These included expected behaviours of the sales and marketing teams to help ensure accelerated growth.

Find out more

Read our Perspective on whether company values generate growth and/or get in touch.