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by Angus M Robinson, Past President, Rotary eClub One Arguably one of
the most important tasks a good leader must perform is to develop
and maintain an agreed values-based culture within the organisation.
For political
leaders, the headlines of the values system might relate to social
welfare or environmental aspirations; for business, it might mean a
commitment to customer service or community engagement or even just
as pointed at enhancing shareholder value; for Rotary leaders, it is
of course a commitment to ‘service above self’ and the ‘Four Way
Test’. Once a ‘values system’ is communicated to stakeholders, the
challenge for effective leaders is to always be seen to ‘walk the
talk’.
But woe is the
leader who professes the organisation’s values system and fails to
become a devoted disciple. Stakeholders and joint owners of the
values system characteristically watch and observe everything that a
leader does or says.
In a business
setting, absolute adherence to the tenets of the values system is
essential so as to maintain the loyalty and the commitment of the
workforce to follow whatever course is laid out by the leader in
attaining the corporate vision and achieving the agreed corporate
goals. Time and time again, we see high profile chief executives
failing their organisations by displaying behaviour which is
inconsistent with the agreed corporate values system. And yet one of
the reasons that leaders are paid high salaries should be to
compensate them for being exemplar adherents of their corporate
values systems.
Before my
retirement from working full-time as an employee of a ‘not for
profit’ organisation in the capacity of Chief Executive, I had the
opportunity to work with my team members to develop firstly a shared
values system (exemplified by ‘10 Tenets’), and then to lead that
organisation, being judged on a daily basis by the team as to how l
personally embraced these beliefs through my executive actions and
behaviour.
This process
served up plenty of challenges, but in the end, I think that the
team and I always kept faith with what was agreed in the first
place, without any amendments over the entire period to any of the
agreed tenets, even though there were inevitable staff changes
taking place. The 10 tenets of our values system are now shared with
some brief rationale for their adoption.
1. Service to
members is the number one priority. As a
membership-based organisation, this tenet was key to maintaining the
financial viability and growth of the business. Members defined our
daily priority. Thus an absolute commitment to customer service is
and has always been, in my mind, a fundamental truth for ensuring
successful business outcomes, which in our case included more than
doubling the membership over the eight years, and based on annual
benchmarking surveys across the industry association sector, being
measured as performing well above average in membership service
delivery.
2. People are
our most important resource. So often voiced
by many businesses as a core belief, but more often than not backed
up by real evidence delivery of superior employment benefits, a
commitment from executive management and directors to retain staff
during difficult times, and investment in staff training.
3. No
compromise in quality. Our organisation
worked very hard to achieve excellence through quality assurance in
the delivery of all our work outcomes including our communications,
our written reports and submissions to government. For project
managers where the dynamics of scope, timing and resources could be
varied, it was always taken as a given that there was to be no
lessening in the quality of the delivered outcomes.
4. To err is
human. Or simply put,
‘only chocolate is perfect’! Empowering
employees to make decisions on their own account or for ‘front-line’
team members to solve customer problems immediately without recourse
to a supervisor invariably lead to mistakes being made. But
employees need to know that management will always support their
mistakes and use the opportunity to point out how situations can be
handled differently – in this environment, people can learn from
their mistakes without fear of retribution.
5.
We achieve our goals through teamwork.
No man is an island! Collective problem solving
and ‘all hands to the pump’ are effective means of dealing with
daily work priorities, particularly when addressing the needs of
valued customers.
6. We value
diversity. In other words,
our recruitment practices are not constrained by a desire to bring
into the work place people just like us! We recognise that all
individuals are different, have different motivational requirements,
have different personalities, can come from different social
backgrounds and often don’t have English as their first language. If
they are capable of doing their job and share the same workplace
values system, they will be accepted as valued team members.
7. We embrace
change. Change in our
fast moving world is a given and all is around us, and appears in
many manifestations. We also embrace and welcome change in our work
place as an evitable consequence of the changing needs of our
customers.
8. We value
individual effort.
Whilst we enjoy
working as part of a team, we understand and recognise that those
who work hardest in the team deserve rewarding and those that just
prefer to ‘drift along’ can not be surprised if they get rewarded
less than those who strive. Our
organisation’s remuneration scheme was based on three levels. The
first level provided salary differentiation based on seniority and
skills level. At the second level, employees were eligible for an
incentive payment based on the achievement of agreed team and
individual key performance indicators. At the third level, employees
were eligible to receive a bonus, at the discretion of the
organisation’s Board, if the organisation has performed well and
‘better than budget’ throughout the operating year.
9. It’s
results that count! In our
organisation, management never measured inputs but only outcomes. We
were not concerned where or how a team member achieved the desired
outcome, nor did we waste resources or time micro-managing
individual inputs. We encouraged teleworking and flexible work
hours, so long as each team member kept faith with then organisation
in at least working the contract hours per week. The end result of
this approach demonstrated that motivated people always end up
putting in the extra hours to make sure that the job is done!
10. We value a
happy, healthy and safe work place. Adherence to OH&S
‘best practices’ was embraced and over-sighted regularly by the
organisation’s Board. Hazard identification was encouraged and
adjustments made continuously to improve work practices and to make
the workplace a safer place. Team members all shared the view that a
safer and happier work place led to higher levels of output and
productivity. The
organisation’s leader is the guardian and the ‘trustee in chief’ of
an organisation’s values system. When we think
about Rotary’s core values system of ‘service above self’
supplemented by the ‘Four Way Test’, we can understand that as
assigned leaders of our vocational calling, we recognise that
membership in Rotary is based on a member’s vocation, with each club
striving to create a microcosm of its community’s business and
professional world. Through
vocational service, Rotarians are expected to exhibit leadership in
their communities by a number of key tenets, principally by adhering
to and promoting high ethical standards in all their business
dealings, recognising the worthiness of all useful occupations, and
by contributing their professional expertise and skills to
addressing societal problems and needs. Rotary is indeed
a fine exemplar of values-driven leadership!
About the
author: Angus is the Managing Partner of Leisure Solutions® which
offers a range of strategic services which includes new product
development in the area of ecotourism and geotourism.
In recent
years, Angus has undertaken a range of senior management roles
including as Chief Executive of AEEMA Ltd, a peak national industry
association, as inaugural General Manager of the Australian
Technology Park in Sydney, and as the General Manager of The Warren
Centre for Advanced Engineering. Angus is a Fellow of the Australian
Institute of Management and a Fellow and Chartered Professional
(Management) of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
A committed Rotarian since joining initially the Rotary Club of
Sydney in 1994, Angus is proud to be a Paul Harris Fellow.
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