Strategic Discipline Blog

How do you find people that share the right values?

In Good to Great, Jim Collins offers, “You don’t you find people that already share the values.  You create a culture that so consistently reinforces people who have shared the values that those that don’t share values tend to be surrounded by the antibodies and rejected like a virus.”

In NFL Draft – Hiring the Right People – One Question we discussed asking questions that determine whether or not the candidate shares your core purpose.  That directly aligns with this question about finding people that share the right values.

One question that might fulfill that is simply to ask the candidate, “What’s your Purpose?’

In discovering whether the person has a purpose or not you will detect not only whether that person is a good fit for your business but also whether they are self-aware.

Last Thursday I mentioned one of the members in my Toastmasters group shared Brendon Burchard, 6 Guiding Questions for High Performers.  You can watch his video to learn more.  He’s the best-selling author of The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice, and The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel, plus several other self-development books.

At the base for the six guiding questions is one foundational question:  Purpose – How can I serve greatly.

If you agree that these six principles guide the growth of high performers, than doesn’t it make sense to look for this in the candidates you wish to add to your company?  Does it also make sense that giving your business a purpose will drive it to perform better?

It’s curious to note that in Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras believe that every organization has a purpose, even if it hasn’t been articulated yet.

Purpose, as Collins and Porras see it, can be described as the heartbeat or soul of your organization—your organizations “most fundamental reason for being”. It should never be confused with product lines, services or customers, purpose motivates and inspires.

A true purpose grabs “the ‘soul’ of each organizational member” and reflects their “idealistic motivations for doing the work.”

Perhaps their best description of Core Purpose is, “…like a guiding star on the horizon—forever pursued but never reached.”

Core Purpose guides and directs your organization.  It determines who fits within an organization and who does not.  It is the plumb line by which all other decisions should be measured.

Imagine that.  Your Core Purpose is a plumb line to measure all your decisions.

Wouldn’t it be great to have such a measuring device for your business?  Wouldn’t it be great to have such a measuring device for yourself?

That’s why a Core Purpose is so valuable.  If your business doesn’t have a Core Purpose how do you know whether you are serving greatly?  How do you know if a candidate who wants to work for you is a good fit?  How do you know whether that candidate is driven to be successful?

Listening to Jim Collins in Good to Great this weekend I’m reminded of his first step to building a successful organization: People. 

Are you managing your people?  Do you find you need to manage them tightly to achieve results?  Collins notes on page 56 of Good to Great, “The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.  The best people don’t need to be managed.  Guided, taught, led – yes.  But not tightly managed.”

Take a moment and ask yourself, who do you have to tightly manage?  Is the message clear to you why you need to make a change here?

Determining when to make a people change is another message discussed in Make a People Change – Good To Great Discipline # 2.

The real issue is that when you hired them you probably didn’t determine whether or not the person shared your values.

Core Purpose and Core Values are the subjective area of your business that many business owners and executive teams struggle with.  Collins called the balance that is required to “preserve the core and stimulate progress!”

"In the end you have to have Core Values and Big Hair Audacious Goals.  You have to have both."

We’ll examine that balance is the balance required to grow your business, next blog.