- Remember the quote I shared earlier from Kim Scott,
the author of Radical Candor..
When you're the boss, it's kind of like being arrested.
Everything you say and do can be used against you.
A wonderful reminder that the second step
in making sure your values really mean something at work is
to make sure as a culture leader,
you are relentlessly modeling your values.
Not modeling that way, modeling your values as in
living them out loud,
as in demonstrating what you mean by the values
so the people around you can see,
and this is so important, especially during difficult times,
challenging times, stressful times,
when all eyes are on you to see
how you're going to react in this situation,
that's when you really have to make sure
you are modeling your values.
You are on all the time as a culture leader.
It's a wonderful story about a sheriff in Wisconsin,
who got back to his office and wrote himself,
an illegal lane change ticket.
Now, I don't know about you,
I'm pretty good at talking myself out of those situations.
I think I would've talked myself out of it
but he wrote himself a ticket.
Why? Because he wanted to model that value, that law.
He was sending a message
that if I don't hold myself accountable,
how can I hold you accountable?
My team or the citizens of this city accountable,
if I don't model the values, the behaviors
we expect in others?
SAS, the software analytical company,
known as one of the best places to work very often
in the United States.
Their CEO sends a message to all the senior leaders
that it is absolutely critical that you go home
at the end of the work day
when your day is supposed to be done.
So, if you were done at 4:30, leave at 4:30.
If your day finishes at 5,
I want you outta here at 5 o'clock
because your employees are watching your lead.
They are watching your behaviors
and one of their most important values at SAS is
work-life balance and health -
mental health and physical health of their employees,
they put a huge premium on that.
So, if employees see that their leaders are staying late
and working longer than they should be,
guess what the employees will start doing.
So the CEO sends the message,
"Leave when you're supposed to leave
to send the appropriate message to our employees
about the importance we place
on health and wellness at SAS."
A lot of CEOs and presidents have shared with me
how they love going down into the factory floor,
rolling up their sleeves and helping out with a problem,
with an issue,
whether it's unloading something from a truck
or helping get their hands dirty
fixing a piece of equipment that is broken
or going out into the parking lot and picking up garbage
because they know that sends a powerful message
around their values,
that it sends a message on so many different levels.
And so they look for those opportunities
to actually model values like that
by being highly visible, by going out onto the floor
by walking around their office
so that they have opportunities
to live their value out loud.
So what can you do to live your values out loud?
In an ideal world, new employees that come and work for you,
after a few months, without ever seeing
what your official list of values are,
should be able to tell you what they think your values are,
based on what they've seen,
based on what they've experienced.
So, my challenge to you is -
would you you be able to live up to that?
And my other challenge to you is
what is one simple but important change,
behavior change that your leadership team could undertake
that would help send a powerful message
about one of your values that would help you model
one of your values in an out outrageously loud way?