Four Way You Can: Rewards Living the Vision and Values
Recognizes and rewards associates whose actions support the organization’s vision and values.
To help the vision and values become their guiding principles, associates need cues to tell them when their behaviors are appropriate and when they aren’t. An effective way to do this is to recognize and reward associates who live the vision and values and to address inconsistent behavior of people who don’t.
1. Give positive feedback.
Giving positive feedback when associates’ actions support the vision and values sends a clear signal that their efforts are noticed and appreciated. Follow these guidelines:
* Give feedback as soon as possible after the positive behavior occurs. Waiting too long implies that the actions are unappreciated and that the values are not a priority.
* Give specific feedback about what the person said or did to support the vision and values. This helps ensure that the correct behavior will be repeated.
* Be sincere. Don’t say a person said or did something well if you don’t believe it.
Creating a Vision and Mission
For any business to succeed, it must know what it is about. It must be able to clearly describe why it is there, and what it is there to achieve. Developing a vision and mission statement is a way of articulating these ideas to yourself, your customers, your employees, and to the world at large.
A Business Vision that Inspires!
If you don’t know where you are heading, then you can make any choice and go in any direction (including backwards). The value in knowing your final destination (your vision) is that you can choose to take the specific paths that lead you there. Your action is intentional and keeps you pointed in the right direction.
Vision statements can take many forms. They answer the question: “What will success look like?” Their main purpose is to articulate the “dream” state of the business. If your business could be everything you dreamed, how would it be? To help you to craft your vision statement, try writing your answers to the following questions:
· Why did I start this business?
· When I move on from this business, what do I want to leave behind?