In This Issue:

• Are Your Values for Real..or are They a Joke? by Dave Anderson
• Archived Articles

Next For Management

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• Two self funding and self motivating programs to maximize the sales behavior and results we all want!
• How to see "trouble coming" where a sales rep is moving into a complacent mode and how to move them immediately back to a high performance one!
• How to handle the veteran sales rep who has an install base (better known as an annuity...) where they make their numbers easily and work exactly that way...
• How to maximize the rookie sales rep's performance where they may suffer from the disease "Monkey See, Monkey Do"...
• Implement an Excel spreadsheet which can immediately highlight complacent rep symptoms before they explode into a full blown problem!
• More . . .

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"Manager's Minute" Tip

(Article Archive)

Are Your Values for Real..or are They a Joke?
by Dave Anderson

Leaders like to talk about their company's core values, also known as behavioral expectations. Oftentimes they are framed and hanging on the walls of their workplace or given to new hires to memorize as they assimilate themselves into the corporate culture. Without a doubt, behavioral and performance standards are equally important and employees should be held equally accountable for measuring up to both sets of expectations. However, just as with performance metrics that are not enforced more often than they are; core values can turn into an unspoken joke in your organization if they are not promoted as non-negotiable and when people are not held accountable for living them. How do you know if your core values are for real? Following are a few signs:

1. As a leader, you communicate them often and not only with words but with your deeds. For instance, if one of your values is "integrity" you mock this standard when you tell your receptionist, "If so and so calls, tell them I'm not in and take a message."
2. You talk about them in public settings. At meetings you publicly point out employees who exemplified one of your values as they dealt with a customer, situation or with another employee. You can also discuss a particular value at a meeting and talk about what it looks like in action and solicit ideas from attendees on how they can apply this particular value each day in the workplace.
3. You discuss them in one-on-one meetings with your employees. You discuss not only performance issues but behavioral issues as well and you make sure the employee understands that they are equally important. They cannot be allowed to live the values and miss the numbers any more than you can permit them to attain the numbers and abuse the values.
4. You measure employees against the values at review times. This means that in addition to informally discussing the values at one-on-ones, that you formally discuss and document an employee's adherence to them at performance reviews.
5. You fire those who don't live the values. And you have the courage to let people know why. Rather than say they "left for personal reasons" you make clear that they were not a good fit for the company values and will probably have more success in a different environment.
6. Go over your core values during interviews. Tell potential applicants that they should take a good look at the behavioral expectations you'll require because if they don't feel they can live up to them that your business will not be a good fit for their services.

When it comes to making your values real and using them to influence the behaviors of your people there is much at stake: the strength of your corporate culture; the unique DNA of your company and your own personal credibility. This is why you must clearly define the behaviors you expect and do more than post them on a wall. You must walk them; talk them; breathe them and live them. And you must do so not only when it is easy, cheap, popular or convenient but regardless of the cost. If you have never established a set of core values for your employees that identify the behaviors you're unwilling to compromise on then I'm not really sure what you've been thinking or what patch of sand your head has been buried in. This is one of your chief responsibilities as a leader and defining behavioral clarity is essential to holding employees accountable for the values you expect them to live and apply each day. After all, how can you tell an employee they're behaving in an unacceptable manner if you've never defined the manner you expect in the first place?

© Copyright 1999 - 2007 The Dave Anderson Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

About The Author:
Peak performance author, columnist, trainer, speaker and radio show host for sales, management and leadership, Dave Anderson walks the talk as a leader. He has led some of the most successful retail automotive dealership in the country—the most recent dealer group he led had over $300,000,000 in annual sales—and now gives 150 presentations, workshops and speeches annually on sales and leadership development around the globe.

Dave is author of over 50 training programs on sales, management and leadership including the books, Selling Above The Crowd: 365 Strategies For Sales Excellence and No Nonsense Leadership: Real World Strategies To Maximize Personal & Corporate Potential. Dave authors a monthly leadership column for Dealer magazine, publishes a monthly leadership newsletter and hosts the weekly radio talk show, Dave Anderson’s Learn To Lead Hour. His books, cassettes, videos, newsletter, column, web articles and live presentations pull no punches and provide real world strategies for peak performance in business and in life.

Dave is a member of the National Speaker's Association and is a featured speaker at conventions worldwide.

Dave is president of the Dave Anderson's Learn To Lead and LearnToLead.com, a cutting edge web site providing hundreds of free training resources to thousands of subscribers in over 30 countries.

Contact Information:
The Dave Anderson Corporation
P.O. Box 1119
Los Altos CA 94024
Phone: 800-519-8224
www.learntolead.com
dave@learntolead.com

 

 

(Article Archive)

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