Hollow Core Values: How Can We Avoid Them?

When you’re defining an organization’s core values, it’s critical to avoid making them sound hollow. For example, your own personal values cannot be substituted for those of the organization, or making the exercise too cute. In his ground breaking new leadership book titled Leading at Light Speed, author Eric Douglas synthesizes the best business practices into 10 Quantum Leaps that build trust, spark innovation, and create a high-performing organization; Chapter One is all about Aligning the Core Values.

To begin with, let us look for example at a set of “core values” that one management team came up with:

We work as a team
We act with integrity and honesty
We champion and celebrate diversity
We expect and support exceptional service
We celebrate our successes
We encourage creativity and innovation
We care about our community

This list is incomplete. Some are legitimate core values, such as acting with integrity and some are key values, such as celebrating successes; but some of our obvious core values are missing and it was not well-organized either. It should then come as no surprise that this particular set of values had little impact on the organization.

Some of the Symptoms of “Hollow” Core Values, that we saw a few examples of above, would be values such as:

People “go it alone”— working at odds with one another.
People aren’t held accountable.
People are confused about the how their work ties into the big picture of the organization.
People take actions against the interest of the organization.
People do not like asking difficult questions or clarifying what their priorities are.

And most of these problems are caused why? Because of poor core value systems; there was evidently:

Failure to identify the organization’s core values and communicate them.
Failure to communicate and clarify the core values throughout the organization.
Failure to articulate performance measures tied to core values.
Lack of feedback and performance measurement tied to the core values.
Lack of training tied to the core values.

Another example of what I consider to be hollow values would be those of “Jamba Juice”, a health-oriented seller of fruit-based shakes and other products. Its values spell out the word “fiber.”

Fun – Have fun. Smile and create a spirit of celebration for your customers.
Integrity – Do what you say. Demonstrate good character and encourage an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect.
Balance – Live a balanced life. Consider the needs of customers, team members, and shareholders alike.
Empowerment – Believe in yourself. Be responsive and innovative. Do whatever it takes to make your customer happy.
Respect – Be respectful. Help each team member succeed. Contribute to a vibrant and diverse community.

Behind these values is a heartfelt sentiment, but they are poor reflections of what is crucial to the business success of Jamba Juice as an organization, or any company that wants to see a markable change in work ethic. It’s a cute marketing gimmick, not a reflection of what’s truly important. The chart on page 23 will show the symptoms of hollow values, and if you sense any of that, or inherit a listless organization, resolve to do something about it right away. If you want to move at light speed, nothing is more crucial.

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Tagged with: core values • core values example • hollow core values • hollow values

Filed under: Business Process Improvement

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