What Does Your IMPACT Really Look Like?

As with so many of companies “that more than 80% published an official set of corporate values on their website” having definitions posts - or even detailing a picture of what we want those values to mean - makes little impact if that’s not what we’re actually known for. Wearing a He-Man costume at Halloween didn’t turn me into the powerful defender of Eternia, and simply listing the values we want to be known for doesn’t necessarily equate to what we’re actually known for. 

In some cases, a disconnect between the two comes from an innocent misunderstanding about how our teams or the community we serve truly perceives our alignment with our stated core values. I’ve seen many scenarios where the folks in leadership roles are wonderful folks and those closest to them avoid having a candid conversation about a mismatch between the stated values and what they’re seeing to keep from hurting anyone’s feelings. At times, the disconnect comes from unmanaged expectations - be that within the organization or even with the clients we serve. Sometimes, though, the folks most willing to “discuss their company’s culture or core values — even when not specifically asked about it” are far more interested in talking a good talk than actually walking a good walk. As we looked how we can rally our teams about our core values, I shared examples of how executives spouting off about how they prioritize others while actively undermining the exact folks they claimed to serve can quickly lose the trust of the their team members as well as anyone watching from the outside.

If we’re genuinely interested in learning what we’re known for - what our impact actually looks like as opposed to just what we want it to look like - we’ll need to actively solicit input from folks we can trust to provide us with candid feedback. Make no mistake though, this isn’t as simple as sending out an anonymous survey and calling it done. We’ll need to schedule time with people who can and will offer their honest opinion, but we also need to be sure they have the right perspective on what we’re working to achieve and they have our best interests at heart. Remember what I shared about “Alliance Feedback” as we looked at removing the ambiguity as we defined our values?

Cindy and I have hosted large events and worked with small groups at their locations for more than a decade. Early on, I remember seeing folks who did similar work end their sessions by having participants complete a “Satisfaction Survey”. These “check yes or no” forms rarely provided any specific feedback regarding what added value or what could be improved, and there was really no context for what the participant expected coming into the session. Just like filling in a bubble on an evaluation form is of little help without being tied to actual behavior, someone checking a box saying the liked or disliked a session doesn’t provide anything we can build on. That being the case, I scrapped the widespread surveys early on and have been very intentional ever since to nail down time with specific participants so I can ask them direct questions. In each case, those participants have been folks with perspectives I could learn from AND I trusted them to be open about how they really felt. All too often, folks look for feedback from people they know will back their opinion or stroke their ego; that’s not “Alliance Feedback” and it definitely won’t help us learn what our impact really looks like.

At this stage in my career, I have at least a dozen people I can reach out to for this kind of candid, specific, and measurable feedback. Whether their input encourages me or it stings, I trust their motives, I know they have my best interests at heart, and I’m completely certain that they understand the impact I want to be known for. I never take this for granted, with regards to our business or any other aspect of my life - not even when my friend told me I was fat!

Receiving this kind of feedback on what we’re really known for is crucial, but then we’ve got to use it in answering Henderson’s third question. That take guts! Before we work through that though, I’ll challenge you to make a list of the folks you can count on to provide you with a clear and honest evaluation of what your impact really looks like so you have something solid to compare with what you want that impact to look like…