The 80% Core Values Test

This time on Traction for Your Workplace Goals, Certified EOS Implmenter Michele Mollard challenges business leaders to measure whether their core values show up in at least 80% of their team, then push toward the harder goal of real alignment. 

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EOS-Traction for Your Workplace Goals is a Livemic Communications production.

Transcript

Welcome And The 80% Question

Richard Piet 0:02

I'm Richard Piet. Welcome back to EOS Traction for Your Workplace Goals. Certified EOS implementer Michele Mollard gets our wheels turning here thinking about the things that can help make your business run better. And what we really mean to say is reach the goals you want to reach. Welcome back, Michele. Thank you. It's great to be back. Today we're talking about whether or not your core values are represented by 80% of your staff. I'm saying that slowly and deliberately because it kind of strikes you when you hear it, people start evaluating right away when they hear that. Why is this important?

MIchele Mollard 0:49

I would say at least 80%. And so as you're listening to this and like, yeah, I got it 80%, don't tune off because I'm going to celebrate 80%, but we're going to strive for 100. Like we are really going to go there, right? And so I want to share with you some things about how I describe uh core

Core Values As A Code

MIchele Mollard 1:07

values and what they mean in a deeper level. And so, core values, what I say is a code of conduct. So I'm going to say that again. It's a code of conduct. So the Army has a code, right? You have these things that are rigid, very, very rigid. So one of our core values as an implementer is grow or die. I am loving the fact that that is rigid. Meaning, Michele, if you aren't growing, you're dying. Growing as a human, as my brain, as a facilitator, teacher, coach, how am I growing with my clients? How am I growing my practice? How am I growing what I know? How am I bringing value to the world? That's what we mean by it. And anybody that does not fit that, we ask them not to come into our community. So I want to stop there, right? It's that rigid, Richard, and I love your face about this, right? It's that rigid. And so I'm going to let you feed into that. But you already have core values. And I think people think, oh, I've got to, you know, go off for a four-day strategic session. You don't. I can give you a little tool. It's obviously just listing who are the greatest employees in your in your business right now, maybe including you, maybe including your leadership team, but I'd rather it be the workers. Listing all the characters that they bring and then start closing it in. Because 80% is probably there, 50% is already there. Who are you as the leader of those organizations? Who are you as the owner? Right. And so these small companies that are like five and six employees, those core values are your core values.

Richard Piet 2:36

Yeah, because I think sometimes we linger on the description core values and we're coming up with uh things like honesty and integrity and you know, solving customers' problem solutions, et cetera. But what you're saying is they're characteristics of our best employees.

MIchele Mollard 2:54

Correct. Right. And integrity absolutely is a characteristic of a best employee, right, Kendi, right? It's my it's my personal soapbox, so I'll I'll stand up on it, right? I'll get up, you know, you have kind of I'm sitting down, but I get up on my soapbox. It's just not deep enough. It's just not raw enough. So we have one that ties to integrity and it says do the right thing. And then the underlying bullet is when mama's not looking, right? And so, like, do the right thing at all costs. And the the description, this is what I want you guys to understand. It's not just what the words are and don't make it lengthy, make it do the right thing, and then one or two bullets to help support that. But it's also do the right thing. And what we say to each other is no amount of money can replace the right decision, the right thing to do, right? And so if another implementer and I are um having a battle or a feud or a disagreement or whatever, what's the right thing? Right? What's the right thing for the client? If the client says, Michele, um, I we're just not uh syncing up with you personally, is there another implementer that you can ref, you know, give to us? And I said,

Make Values Specific And Real

MIchele Mollard 4:06

absolutely. Let's do the right thing. No amount of money will cost me a relationship with my client or another implementer, right? I can say integrity, but that story goes deeper than integrity. Integrity for me is a pay-to-play. Like, how would you interview somebody to say, right? Do you have integrity? Yes. Okay, well then done. You fit. Right. And I'm being a little facetious. If it's your first time, sorry, buckle up because here's the sassy. But it really is. And so it's important. It's really important. Your people in most organizations is your biggest cost center. And so why not have the best of the best and the greatest of the greatest that fit your core values? Core values should literally repel somebody. So if I'm talking to a potential another implementer and they aren't humbly confident, meaning that they're very arrogant, I am literally having a conversation saying, I don't think you belong. I don't think you're gonna make it.

Richard Piet 5:05

So this is exactly where my mind was going. Okay. What are we supposed to get out of this? It sounds like we're gonna get a litmus test, a way to judge, evaluate whether we have a team that aligns with our own values.

MIchele Mollard 5:25

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, as I said, you know, if you're five employees, it is definitely the owner's values. If you're 500, those have evolved over time, but they're not that far off. And it's an alignment. You when you said that, uh, Richard, it is absolutely in alignment with everybody is there because people that do have the same code of conduct do flock together. Period, full stop. If you look at your circle of friends, might be absolutely diversified in every capacity you can possibly think of. But in your core values, your core, you know who those are.

Richard Piet 6:00

Oh, you do. And I presume that this process will then bring a realization for some people that some folks with whom they're engaged in an employment relationship don't have the same core values. And now you've got to evaluate that and decide what to do.

MIchele Mollard 6:22

Yeah,

Reinforce Daily Or Culture Drifts

MIchele Mollard 6:23

for sure. I will share a little inside scoop. Oftentimes we do uh if we hold rigid to our core values, we define them very clearly, we speak about them often, we praise people for them and we talk about how they're not, right? They're examples like, hey, yesterday, you didn't show up so humbly confident, right? You didn't show up as help first. If we're having that, or hey, yeah, you showed up as this, if we're always, every day in our organization talking about our core values, those people that don't fit will leave. I've seen it time and time again. I've been doing this for a long time, and they just feel like they don't fit in.

Richard Piet 7:06

It is possible to believe someone has your core values and find out later they don't. You don't want it to happen this way, but it could.

MIchele Mollard 7:20

It could. I mean, some people not some people, uh, people are very much coached, uh, and I believe in it. I believe in coaches, clearly I'm one, but I believe in, you know, if you're uh working on finding a job and you hire somebody to help you with your resume or hire you with interviewing skills, like heck yeah. And so they can be completely coached to answer those questions well, then don't worry about it. Don't cry over spilt milk, as my mom used to say, but just don't keep them there. Right? This that spilt milk gets sticky stinky, right? Like in a few days.

Richard Piet 7:50

True. So that could be part of the situation. So let's presume someone has been uh plugging along such as they are, however that is, without EOS. Now they have EOS. Now the the milk is stinkier, right? In some cases. And it it's harder to make that change at this point. But what you're saying is it's gotta be done.

MIchele Mollard 8:17

Think about it this way in your mindset. It is our um duty, it is our job to potentially say to people, look, you're just not a fit here. You're an amazing human. And some most people are amazing humans. You're j are you feeling the same? They won't admit it initially, but I've had a lot of people come back and be like, I didn't fit there. Uh it's our job to say, you have one life to live. Go live it somewhere else. Go live it in a company that is your core values. There's plenty. There's hundreds and hundreds and thousands of millions, I don't even know, companies out there in the world. Go find a place that you love to be at. We work hard and we spend a lot more hours than we do at home, with friends, or with family. So why not do it, right?

Richard Piet 9:04

All right. So we're we're working on being more rigid, being uh deeper in the core values and developing this code of conduct. And all we have to do is say, here are the here are the uh traits of our best employees, and there they are. Is that it?

MIchele Mollard 9:28

Yeah, it's a little harder than that, but um I think it's a good start to get there in saying, here are the traits, but it is the the harder part of that is the shouting it from the mountaintop weekly, the praise, right? So how do we hire, review, reward, recognize, ultimately repel and terminate from, right? There's a way to do that culturally group company wide. And then more importantly, how do we do that one-to-one? How do we do that on the individual coaching side? How do we, you know, talk to somebody, hey, you just didn't show up that great today? You still have the core value. I've seen it in you. That just wasn't it. Or, you know, the way you handled that customer, the way you did this, the way you did that. So it's always about

When High Performers Break Values

MIchele Mollard 10:09

reminder, reminder, reinforcement, reinforcement.

Richard Piet 10:12

And generally speaking, where is this in the EOS process? And I would think it comes somewhat quickly.

MIchele Mollard 10:20

It does. It actually comes uh in the second day if you're gonna go down the journey uh with this. It comes into the second day into what's called the vision traction organizer, and we do that first question is what are your core values? It'll make or break your company. Most of us spend a lot of time with the people that are not right people, not right seats. We spend a lot of time with them, and your high per your high um performers are watching you, and they're like, Well, that you know, that guy gets they're gonna still perform, right? But that guy gets a lot of attention. And so the one last thing I'll leave it with is put a good person in a bad system, your core values, and the system will win. So put a high performer in a culturally messed up organization, and the messed up culture wins because the high performer leaves. Right? And so I I say messed up culture, that's a little harsh, I get it. Um but but you're building this code of conduct, you're building this culture.

Richard Piet 11:18

Well, you could even say misaligned culture, and and it is a misalignment, isn't it? Because uh that person doesn't fit. So it could repel the good people if you don't have them. Uh if you don't have the right code of conduct, core values, rigid.

MIchele Mollard 11:40

Yeah. Right. And sometimes it's hard. Like the hardest part of this is the uh person that's already in the organization that does not fit your core values, but is a high performer. I am supposed to fire that person? Are you nuts, Michele? I'm a little bit nuts. And so, yes, because they're kicking out the wall, there's other people watching, they're tainting the well when it comes to your culture. But people put up with it because of their high production, but I'll I'll stake a lot on it. As soon as you get rid of that high performer, your customers and your employees will come out of the woodwork to say, yeah, they were they were a bit of a jerk. They were a bit of a bully, they were a bit of not our core values.

Invitation To Reach Out

Richard Piet 12:25

So Michele says she's a little sassy. There you got it in this one. And maybe she made your head spin a little bit. Call her out on it. Reach out now and talk about it with her directly. Her contact info is right in the show notes for this episode of Traction for Your Workplace Goals. Reach out and say, Core values, help me understand.

MIchele Mollard 12:53

And she will or you were sassy and I don't get it, and challenge every single minute of what I said. I'm good with it. I'd just love to have the conversation.

Richard Piet 13:02

And there's the invitation. Follow us. Traction for your workplace goals is a series. You can follow us, YouTube. Maybe you're listening to the audio version. You can subscribe there too. We'll be back with more. Michele, until then.

MIchele Mollard 13:17

Until then.