Friends George and Sam own an extraordinarily successful tool and equipment rental company. They rent equipment for large construction projects, often for long-term.
They look upon their whole company as one team.
Years back, they were driven to develop an effective team culture. To do this they asked themselves three important questions:
- What does “success” look like for our team (what do we value)?
- What actions can we take to live up to our values?
- What do we really care about in performing our jobs well as a team?
To answer these questions, they Looked at what team members were already doing well. They focused on three staff members that were exceptional and worked in a way that they wanted all team members to perform.
George and Sam then completed an exercise that:
- tracked how each of these staff interacted with customers, staff, vendors, community, and themselves as owners
- circled the common traits among the three staff which crossed over the company’s five of stakeholder categories
- simplified these traits into what became the company’s (or the team’s) values.
The values agreed upon included:
- Establish Relationships
- Do What It Takes
- Be of Service
- Be Honest, Consistent & Fair, Always
- Honor the Importance of Family
Each of these values could be tracked back to specific behaviors already identified for any team member when they collaborated with their different stakeholders.
This exercise allowed George and Sam to be most clear about the purpose of their company:
- to provide our customers with access to tools and equipment to complete their projects more productively.
The exercise answered all three questions.
- They had values that the whole team could relate to
- They were clear about what successful behaviors look like
- It allowed them to be precise about the company’s purpose, in other words, the results they wanted for their customers (completed projects), and what the impact would be (productivity).
Question
What questions do you need to ask yourself to set up clear values and a clear purpose to ensure success for your company team?
Chuck Scharenberg is the Founder of More Profit More Freedom, a consultancy that supports the execution of large-scale growth for small businesses. His practice has successfully grown businesses with processes that identify potential roadblocks and mitigation schemes to accelerate realistic execution..
Solving the Right problems by asking the Right questions!