“Tough times do not last. Tough teams do.” – Robert Schuller

A culture of excellence does not exist without fundamental values. Every team has values, whether expressed or implied, and just as not all values are good, not all teams have good values. This is why it is very important to take time on this step and identify what values you would like each team member to uphold. 

As I worked to turnaround my supply chain team, I identified the following values key to our culture:

• Integrity: we tell the truth and are transparent in our words and actions
• Quality: our work product is a reflection of ourselves and team
• Teamwork: we are successful together; we fail together

I did not post these around the workplace, but each team meeting we communicated and discussed our work around these important values. 

Integrity: I told the team that I do not want only the good news. I want the bad news and I want it early. We celebrated exposing issues, even when there are no solutions. As a boss once told me, “Bad news is not like fine wine; it doesn’t get better with time.” Only a team of integrity pushed forward with the cold, hard truth.

Quality: Our work product is no good to our customers if it is on time with poor quality. Do not sacrifice quality for time. Rushing through our orders, pushing a supplier to deliver when they are not ready, and hastily reporting our progress are not behaviors we demonstrate, even when we are being pressured to do so.

Teamwork: When someone on the team attempted to disown or separate himself from an issue, giving credit to his own success, I reminded him and the team until the whole team succeeds at our goals, we each our responsible (myself included). 

As the leader, with each of these values, it was most important that I demonstrated them personally. I could give the best motivational speeches to the team and ask for their commitment, but if I failed as a leader to show the team integrity, quality and teamwork, we will not have created a culture of these values, but of the opposite.

Dude Perfect

A few months ago, my children lured me into going to a Dude Perfect show in Orlando. If you do not know them, they are YouTube legends, known for their athletic escapades, comedy, and off-script tirades. They are actually really funny, and on occasion I have found myself getting pausing to watch with the children. So when they heard Dude Perfect was coming to town, they had to go see them.

Seeing the show in person was an experience. They brought to life the YouTube antics and had the crowd on the edge of their seat. We even got a surprise visit from one of the funny guys, Ty, when he happened to come to our area of the stadium to perform a stunt. But the coolest part of the show was the end.

After they closed the show and thanked the crowd for the support. They did something different, off the record. Those who stayed in the stands listened to their story. The five cool guys met on the college campus of Texas A&M and just started making videos. Sixteen years later, not only are they still around, they are a household name, together! They talked about how partnerships generally fail and how they defied the odds and gave credit to one place. Their God. Dude Perfect has the shared value of faith. 

From the beginning this team stood on the same foundation, and their faith drove the types of content they created. There is only a small margin of disagreement for “creative differences” when team values are the same. Because of their faith and the desire to uplift fans and viewers, they never ventured out into producing content that did not align with that. In fact, Dude Perfect’s shared value of faith drives every part of what they do. It created their culture, one so attractive that it attracts 61 million subscribers and filled the Amway Arena that night. 

Culture is Built on Shared Values

As a leader, it is important that you identify the values your team needs to demonstrate in order to have a culture of excellence. I recommend that you choose no more than 3-5 values to focus on the key behaviors that are essential to high-performance. Those values should be naturally woven into every team interaction, performance review and status check. As the leader pushing those values, you must be demonstrating them in your own work and behavior.

Respect

Outside of your specific team values, every team in existence needs to have values of respect and concern for each other. Even the most talented teams are destined for disappointment without genuine respect for each other. Respect is characterized the following:

• Have concern for the well-being of other team members
• Treat every individual as a valuable member of the team
• Value opinions, thoughts and input of other team members
• Recognize and acknowledge the roles of final decision-makers

Respect, is the basic building block of team work and should be woven into the DNA of every team culture. If you have a respect problem on your team, address that before attempting to establish other core values. This alone will transform team dynamics and shift effort and attention towards common goals.

Team Health

A healthy team is a bi-product of strong, positive values. When the team observes, aligns with and demonstrate the key values, good health is the natural result. Think back to any unhealthy team or organization that you came across? Did they demonstrate good values? I am not talking about the emails or the posters where they talk about doing the right thing. I am talking about actually doing what they say. Every team, even losing teams, that demonstrate strong, positive values is likely to be a healthy team. Teams that win championships, major contracts and funding happen to be healthy.

Winning teams:

• Have leaders that set values and build them into the playbook.

Application

1. What 3-5 values are critical for your team to display?
2. Are you currently communicating these values in your team interactions?
3. As the leader, how would you assess your own demonstration of the values?
4. Does your team demonstrate the core values of respect for each other and leadership? If not, what is causing the poor team culture?
5. What do you need to change in your operations to better demonstrate these values?

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