Forbes: Advice For Business Leaders

Gianna Biscontini, a behavior analyst, said business leaders can take three steps to ensure corporate values serve their purpose and help guide and inform behavior, decision-making and their company’s trajectory:

• Rethink. Are company values aspirational, or are they truly being lived out through behavior, right now? Employees and leaders alike should be able to point to recent examples of values in action without having to think too hard.

• Redefine. Values should be actionable and clear. For each value, ask “What is an example of this?” Excellence, trust and customer-obsessed can mean different things to a variety of people throughout the organization.

• Reward. Are there meaningful consequences for employees who demonstrate these values? Not just at yearly summits, but daily? We reinforce the action we want to see. Behavior-based values should be incorporated into job descriptions, performance reviews and promotion metrics.