A Reputation for Serving, Based on Our Values

Make no mistake, there’s a huge difference between touting how amazing we are and in explaining how or why our actions tie back to our values. We’ve all been around folks who have a title that carries some level of authority, and seen them pound their chest about how important they are or why everyo...

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Modeling Our Values, and Explaining Why

Even when we’ve done everything in our power to model the core values our business is built on, we can’t just assume that everyone who cares about those values will automatically connect our behaviors to the reputation we’re working to establish (or maintain). It’s up to us to explain why we’ve chos...

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A Reputation That Drives Results

I’ll ask you once more: Who ultimately cares about your values? Our immediate team members most certainly do. And so do the clients we serve directly as well as the community we’re a part of. But everyone else who hears about us will too, and all of that will impact the results we achieve in one way...

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Sustaining the Harder Right Requires Reflection

I opened Leading With A Clear Purpose with a story detailing the conversation I had with a lifelong friend who shared how one of his businesses no longer provided him with fulfillment while his other, albeit much more physically demanding, kept his heart full all the time. The business that was fill...

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Rallying Your Community Around Your Values

As I mentioned before, a lot of people being familiar with your company’s name and building a great reach that makes a positive impact on everyone around you are two very different things. Whether you prefer God’s chicken sandwich or two all beef patties (although I’m not so sure about that part any...

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Taking the “West Point” Approach

While we may be able to throw enough marketing dollars around to ensure our brand has an extended reach, the consequences of not consistently modeling our core organizational values - for our team and everyone we hope to reach - won’t stop at dealing with broken milkshake machines. Leaders failing t...

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Not Just Broken Milkshake Machines…

While I was intentional about not mentioning either organization’s name before, I have no doubt that you had a very clear picture of the one with broken milkshake machines and the one serving God’s chicken sandwich. And you certainly weren’t alone! In cxtoday.com article called “McDonald’s Is Failin...

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Can You Build a Great Reach Without Values?

Having referenced my last experience attempting to find some type of sustenance from the building beside those large golden arches, I’ll challenge you to think back a few decades for what you could expect. When I was a kid, it was such a treat! For years, there was only one location in our area - an...

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Strong Values Earn Passionate Support

Someone at any level of an organization can deteriorate our relationships with long term clients as well the community around them through behavior that isn’t congruent with their core values. And regardless of their primary focus being on the people involved or the task at hand, those clients and c...

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Great Teams Are Built On Great Values

For the casual observer, it could appear as though the results each of the businesses Craig and Kim have acquired are the primary reasons so many solid candidates have applied to join their team. After all, who doesn’t want to be part of a winning team? Where I’d challenge that casual observer, thou...

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Earning Our Team’s Trust

 Since I had no direct authority over the team of behavior-based safety observers supporting me, earning and maintaining their trust was a crucial part of why they chose to remain engaged in the process when it would have been easier for each of them to focus solely on their actual job requirements....

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Behavioral Examples That Define Our Values

We’ve looked at how things can go really wrong without strong organizational values in place and how easy it can be to fall short of providing a picture of those values for everyone on our teams. We’ve also dug into how, even with specific values listed in various places throughout our office, we ca...

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