The company’s values are a set of standards, norms, criteria and beliefs that influence behavior. Of course, they are the core of the company’s value; they become the glue that unites employees of various ranks and departments, creates a unity of views and actions and allows the organization to achieve its goals. To do this, they must be divided, cultivated and declared by the management of the company and its most authoritative employees. The company's values, which are held by the majority of the company's employees, determine the set of criteria by which they form a judgment about any employee as an individual.
In an organization they play the same role as morality in society; they enable it to exist and develop. In this regard, it is true that a company where the company’s values are defined only formally will become unviable in the long term. In order for an employee to be sincerely imbued with values, they must correspond to his own social aspirations, moral standards, and understanding of personal direction of development.
Each employee takes his own personal position in the general set of values, which changes over time in the process of interaction between people. It should be understood that not all company values, even those accepted by a person, can ultimately become his personal ones. Recognizing value and treating it positively is not always enough for it to become a personal norm and rule. But despite this, the company’s management must carry out systematic work to form, communicate and explain the organization’s values, and involve employees in activities related to their implementation.
As a rule, the company values, examples of which are given below, are things that most people understand. Something complex and ambiguous may not be accepted or understood. If you look at the ethical codes of large well-known corporations that take this issue seriously, you will often find such concepts as responsibility, self-criticism, honesty and openness, friendly attitude towards employees and clients, and determination.
It is very important to understand that any established organization has its own values, regardless of whether its top management is involved in their formation or not. Therefore, in order for them to correspond to strategic ones, this work must be done, but at the same time, established informal norms, rules, criteria, and traditions must be taken into account. One of the optimal ways in this work may be to establish certain frameworks for existing informal systems, their gentle correction in the right direction, without revolutionary upheavals, prohibitions and repressive actions. This work should be preceded by a deep analysis of the existing informal work with the involvement of specialists, and the desired result should be moved gradually, covering all levels of the organization.
Organizational values play a leading role in the culture of an enterprise. Organizational values are objects, phenomena or processes aimed at meeting the needs of members of the organization and recognized as such by the majority of members of the organization. In enterprises, as in other social organizations, exists a large number of values.
1. First of all, any organization is created to achieve any goals: production of products, provision of services to the population, etc. Therefore, goals themselves constitute a circle of special values.
2. The goals of the organization’s activities are formed by certain specific customers - other organizations that need the products of this organization. If there are no customers, the conditions for the functioning of this production organization will disappear. It is impossible to work “in a warehouse” for a long time.
But the organization needs more than just a customer. Having satisfied the needs of this customer, the organization again needs customers. Any production organization requires stability, sustainable functioning, and certain guarantees of its need in the future. Consequently, a stable customer and long-term stable relationships with this customer are also an important organizational value.
H. For a production organization, it is also essential to know at what cost the result of its activities is achieved, what is the economic efficiency of management, whether the production of a particular product is unprofitable or whether it makes a profit. Maximum economic efficiency, making a profit, is an important organizational value in the conditions of commodity production.
4. The functioning of production organizations is associated with the interaction of two components, means: production and work force. The quality of the workforce and its reproduction are associated with meeting the diverse needs of enterprise employees. This satisfaction is carried out within the framework social policy production organizations. The quantitative and qualitative level of social policy of enterprises undoubtedly belongs to significant organizational values.
In addition to the general values that determine the functioning of industrial organizations, there is also a set of intra-organizational values. An organization fulfills its prescribed goals well only if it adheres to a certain functional and structural order, which is a factor in its stability. Order in the organization is maintained by the labor behavior of employees, their compliance with labor and technological discipline. Discipline is one of the important intra-organizational values. This also includes such a feature of labor behavior as diligence, a high sense of responsibility for the fulfillment of one’s professional and status responsibilities, stability of behavior of both an individual employee and entire teams.
Discipline, responsibility, stability - all these values are, as it were, the preservative qualities of an organization. But the organization has a need to introduce innovations, change its structure, technologies, relationships, and functions. Diverse innovation is also widely recognized as an essential organizational value. This means that innovation, initiative, creative inclinations in in a certain sense can act as organizational values. However, empirical sociological research show that officials with managerial status verbally highly value innovation and initiative, but in their subordinates they give preference to such qualities as personal devotion, conformism, obedience, etc. Consequently, these qualities should be considered as intra-organizational values.
There are common values of enterprises that objectively grow from the conditions entrepreneurial activity. And these values are integral part enterprise culture. However, at each enterprise these values have their own modifications, these modifications can be manifested in the placement of different accents, and some of these values acquire the character of the most important principles at a given enterprise. The ability of an enterprise to create key values that will unite the efforts of all structures of an enterprise is one of the deepest sources successful activities enterprises.
Corporate values: the organization's value system.
Has your company seriously thought about formulating and implementing corporate values? Do you want the values you create to be accepted by your employees and used by them in their work? Vision Trainings provides full consulting support in the creation, formulation and implementation of values in the corporate culture of the organization.
How necessary are corporate values in organizations? Where does corporate culture come from? Many young companies, at the stage of their rapid growth, are faced with the fact that either they take control of the formation of corporate culture into their own hands, or the culture is formed by itself, just as in any team informal values arise that everyone adheres to.
What are corporate values?
There is the following definition of the concept “Corporate values”: these are the rules and principles accepted and shared by all members of the organization that determine the relationships of the organization’s employees both among themselves and with external environment(its customers, suppliers, partners, media and government). Corporate values are created on the basis of the Strategic Vision of the organization, and are intended to help the company and its personnel concentrate all efforts on realizing its purpose and implementing its Mission.
The company’s corporate values are fundamental and unchanging (created for a long period of time), and are more permanent in nature than the organization’s strategy or its organizational structure. Of course, everything can change in life. But if a company abandons its Mission and corporate values, then most often this means the disappearance or complete transformation of the organization. (“We realized that we chose the wrong Mission...” or “We now share different corporate values” - such fundamental features of the organization cannot be changed overnight). While the organization's strategy can be adjusted and revised much more often, if managers have found more the best way achieving the organization's strategic goals (for example, achieving the same thing, but in a different way).
How do corporate values work?
When a company has a clear Strategic Vision for its future, which is shared by all managers and employees, then there is a need to be able to be focused on a common cause, even in a situation when neighboring departments seem to be engaged in some unknown tasks. . Each department in the organization is responsible for its contribution to making the Strategic Vision a reality.
Imagine that some employees work with complete dedication, while others pursue only their local goals. Such internal sabotage can often be found in companies with low level corporate culture. But when you want to be firmly convinced that having done your work to the highest quality, you can count on the same result from another department, then you cannot do without some kind of common value that would help you unite your interests. Such a corporate value in some companies is Trust!
Company employees who share this value will never cover up the actions of those employees who did something contrary to generally accepted corporate values. And on the other hand, relying on Trust as a corporate value, they will openly share information and provide colleagues with all the necessary support, because they understand and realize that “we are all in the same boat.” Corporate values work there and when it is necessary to make important decisions, allocate company resources, hire or fire employees, and resolve disputes with clients and suppliers.
All situations cannot be included in job descriptions, and in provisions on interaction between departments. Therefore, it is corporate values that are the measure that can be taken as the basis for a particular decision. If the decision you are about to make is consistent with your company's corporate values, if it moves your organization closer to achieving its Strategic Vision, then you are doing something right. Otherwise, decisions that go against corporate values will sooner or later lead to negative results that affect the work of all other employees.
“It is values that order people,
and encourage them to act together,
in the name of common interests"
K. Blanchard. "Value management"
A set of corporate values determines the culture and character of the organization itself. And just as the Vision and Mission of a company are unique, the corporate values of companies cannot be the same. The established corporate culture allows employees who are suitable for it to immediately feel at home, “at ease”, in a group of enthusiastic like-minded people. And on the contrary, no matter how valuable a specialist an employee is, if he is not close or does not like the existing values and principles of the company, then he will be tormented by internal contradictions and will not be able to realize his talent in this organization 100%.
The organizations of the future will be radically different from the companies that exist in the markets today. Just as the steel industry in England differs from, for example, the British representative office of Google. Attitudes towards people, functional responsibilities, jobs, leadership principles, all this is being transformed thanks to new technologies and new approaches of modern management.
Linear structures will divide and disappear, and they will be replaced by matrix teams, mobile offices, project teams and communities of people united common interests and general corporate values. Values and ideology are already coming to the fore! Employees don't just want money, they want to participate in creating something Great! And at the same time, they want to work in an organization that would attract them with its corporate values, which they are ready to subscribe to as their own! Either an organization offers people worthy corporate values, or it finds itself in decline and turnover. the best personnel, and ultimately to death! This will be the world of the future! Its signs are already beginning to appear now, and the Mission of Vision Trainings is to contribute to its speedy onset! Be with us!
Diagnosis of corporate values
Many of our clients ask questions: “What to do if we have formal corporate values in our company, but no one follows them?”, “What to do if we do not have and have never had formulated corporate values?”, “Can we change existing corporate values? Each of these tasks requires a separate approach. After all, even if a company’s corporate values exist only on paper, in fact, every day many employees have to be guided by some principles that help unite common efforts to achieve overall result. There are two types of corporate values of an organization: formal and informal.
If formal corporate values are not accepted by the majority of employees (for example, values such as: Proactivity, Open Relationships, Mutual Respect), then informal corporate values come to the fore (for example, such as Visibility of work, Closeness, Internal corporate struggle, Competition for resources).
Very often, the presence of informal values in an organization is a big revelation for the company's top management. After all, looking at an organization from the top level, it is often simply not clear what values and principles guide middle management, and even more so ordinary employees. To detect such gaps there are special tools strategic diagnostics of the organization’s corporate values, which help to understand what principles employees are actually guided by and identify their main patterns. After the current situation becomes extremely clear and management has a complete picture of the actual corporate values, you can move on to the next stage of work, namely the creation (updating) and formulation of new corporate values of your company.
Algorithm for creating corporate values
To effectively create corporate values of an organization, it is necessary to complete the following stages of work (on your own or with the help of business consultants), and only after going through all the points of the algorithm for creating corporate values, you can be firmly convinced that the company’s new values will work and will not remain forgotten in two weeks.
Stage 1. Diagnostics of current corporate values
Stage 2. Analysis of the strategic vision and mission of the company
Stage 3. Analysis of the company's strategic goals
Stage 4. Analysis and assessment of the company’s key competencies
Stage 5. Creating an expanded list of possible corporate values based on the Vision, Mission, Strategic Goals and Key competencies companies.
Stage 6. Attracting personnel from different levels to work with a list of possible values.
Stage 7. Strategic session to formulate the final list of corporate values.
Stage 8. Translation of each corporate value to the level of behavior (What exactly needs to be done to be, for example, “Customer-oriented”? What actions to take to be proactive in your work? And so on)
Stage 9. Approval of the final list of corporate values, decomposed to the level of behavior.
Stage 10. The longest and most difficult - Involving the company’s personnel in awareness, acceptance and adherence to the corporate values of the organization. The hardest thing to take root is what is presented to people from the outside. If you have small organization, then it is better to involve as many employees as possible in working on corporate values. If the scale of the organization is more than 50-100 people, representatives of all levels of the organization should be involved in this work, and rely on the most experienced employees who are “opinion leaders” for their colleagues.
Vision Trainings provides services for the application of the algorithm for creating corporate values, both as a whole and within individual stages. If representatives of top management have the desire, and with the support of experts from the personnel service, many of these stages can be done independently, and consultants can be engaged only when finalizing the list of corporate values.
Application of corporate values in business
What comes first: goals or values? If the company's goals are at the forefront, then is it worth achieving them at any cost? Or are there values that are more important to you than achieving your goals? Is making a million dollars more more important than leaving customers more satisfied? Each company answers this question itself.
Some people declare beautiful values and easily sacrifice them for the sake of their profits. Such companies in long term doomed. Remember, consumers are vindictive! Others would rather sacrifice part of the profit, but in controversial situations with clients, they will make a decision based on their values. And clients will return to such organizations again and again.
Therefore, it cannot be said that corporate values must correspond to corporate goals, because values are the link between the Vision and Mission of the company, and its strategy. If the company's mission is to deceive consumers, then any list of beautiful values that they will not follow anyway is enough for them. Of course, not a single organization will write that “Our Mission and the reason for our existence is to deceive consumers in the most sophisticated ways and improve this key competence,” but in fact there are a lot of such companies, and by their actions towards consumers , especially with their terms of service - they show that this is what they do.
When developing corporate values, it is important to remember that they should be directed both inside the organization and outside (they should affect what is inside and what is outside), namely: the values of the company itself, the principles of its work with partners, its relationship with clients and staff, its development principles. Therefore, when working on a list of corporate values, it is necessary to look at us underneath different angles perspective, trying on the positions of certain managers and employees of the organization, and also asking questions:
Why and for what purpose should we follow these values?
Why is it beneficial for me as an employee to follow these values?
What happens if you don't follow these values?
How will this or that value be taken into account when making decisions?
How should you behave in accordance with this or that value?
In many companies, employees are motivated financially and non-materially only for achieving results (sales volume, volume of work, number of orders processed). In the case of introducing a system of corporate values, it is also necessary to apply motivation methods to those employees who, by their behavior, demonstrated adherence to any of the company’s corporate values (for example, they did more for the client than they should have, prevented a possible conflict, in the event of a critical situation they took charge). take responsibility and find a solution, etc.)
Teaching employees how to use a values orientation in their work is best done by providing clear examples of corporate values. Such examples need to be found from life, and to gain experience in resolving various situations, conflicts, or vice versa, achieving victories and beyond results (find thanks to what values this was possible). To compare the viability of your corporate values, we provide you with examples of how values are spelled out in well-known organizations.
And remember, introducing corporate values into the minds of employees and consolidating them at the level of behavior is only possible through an engagement mechanism, through group work or through training on corporate values, which you can order from our company.
Still have questions about corporate values? Do you want to work with the corporate values of your company? Ask us a question or contact our experts!
Have a question about Values?
Example 1: Adidas corporate values:
Adidas Company Mission: Our mission is to be a leader among global sports brands. We achieve leadership based on our vision - our passion for sport makes the world a better place. All our work is inspired by the passion for sport that drives us, allowing us to improve ourselves and the world. Our values are the principles by which every employee of the company works and lives.
Adidas corporate values:
1) Be open
We openly express our opinions and listen to the opinions of others. We welcome non-standard ideas and approaches and are open to everything new.
2) Rely on facts
We use only reliable information and rely on facts when making a decision or taking an action.
3) Don't play political games
We act honestly and openly and are always guided by the interests of the company and principles corporate ethics in your work.
4) Interact
We work as one team, show partnership and are always ready to support our colleagues.
5) Be efficient
We do everything possible to achieve maximum results. We do not rest on our laurels and always strive for more.
Example 2: ZAPPOS Corporate Values
ZAPPOS Mission: Live with " WOW ”-feeling and deliver it to clients.
As we grow as a company, it becomes increasingly important to clearly define the core values of Zappos that guide our culture, brand and business strategy. As the company grows and more new employees join, we need to make sure they are all like-minded people who live up to our vision of what Zappos should be.
Over time, we will evaluate employee performance so that it is largely based on the alignment of their decisions with Zappos' core values.
While there are many aspects to these core values, we have summarized the ones that are most important to us in the following ten points.
1. Evoke “Wow!” -feeling with our service.
2. Accept and encourage change.
3. Create a fun and slightly unusual atmosphere.
4. Love adventure, think creatively and outside the box.
5. Celebrate growth and learning.
6. Build open and honest relationships through information sharing.
7. Create a positive team spirit and family environment.
8. Do more with less.
9. Be passionate and determined.
10. Be modest.
Ideally, we want all ten core values to be reflected in everything we do, including our interactions with each other, with customers, with suppliers and business partners. What awaits us ahead big job, and it will be some time before these ten values truly manifest themselves in the way we think, how we act, and how we communicate. As we grow, procedures and strategy may change, but we want to keep our values the same. They should always be the framework that determines all our decisions.
Example 3:
Corporate values of the Russian Railways company (Russian railways)
The mission of the Russian Railways (RZD) company is to satisfy market demand for transportation, increase operational efficiency, quality of services and deep integration into the Euro-Asian transport system. Russian Railways brand mission: We are the most important part global system movement of people, goods and technology. We work for clients, contribute to the unification of peoples, and integrate Russia into a single economic space. Our solutions are based on a unique infrastructure, the skills of a team of professionals high level and innovative technologies.
Russian Railways brand values:
Craftsmanship - the continuity of traditions allows us to pass on our knowledge from generation to generation. Accuracy, safety and reliability in everything we do are the result of constant development and improvement of our skills. Our dedication turns knowledge and experience into true excellence.
Integrity - understanding one's role and following a common duty, an active life position and work for the benefit of a better future have served as our support at all times. Guided by common goals, we bear sole responsibility for the results of our work and the decisions we make.
Update - the constant search and implementation of the most advanced solutions and technologies into daily practice - is the key to our leadership and commitment to excellence. We know how to live in a constantly changing world, we are open to opportunities and implement them.
The ethical principles of JSC Russian Railways are a set of everyday rules, following which employees of JSC Russian Railways implement the requirements of corporate competencies in practice.
Ten basic ethical principles of Russian Railways:
1. Work conscientiously.
2. Be proud of the title of an employee of JSC Russian Railways.
3. Rely on skill.
4. Focus on results.
5. Make informed decisions.
6. Perceive yourself as part of the whole.
7. Put people first.
8. Respect the commercial interests of JSC Russian Railways.
9. Be a leader.
10. Strive for something new.
Example 4: Corporate values of Sakhalin Energy
Mission: “Sakhalin Energy strives to be a leading producer of energy resources on the global market. We build our activities on the basis of efficient, reliable and safe production, and a responsible attitude towards social and environmental issues.”
Vision: "To be the leading energy source for the Asia-Pacific region."
We are convinced that the key principles of the team’s work should be trust, openness, professionalism, team spirit and pride in their work.
Sakhalin Energy personnel shares the company's core values:
1) Honesty and integrity;
2) Respect and care for people;
3) Individual responsibility with team support;
4) Professionalism and continuous improvement.
These values are reflected in the following Sakhalin Energy standards and guidelines:
· Regulations on general principles activities;
· Code of Business Ethics;
· Sustainable development policy;
· Human Rights Policy;
· Complaints/whistleblowing procedure;
· Procedure for resolving conflicts of interest;
· Procedure for compliance with anti-bribery and corruption legislation.
We have reviewed with you four examples of describing the corporate values of well-known companies with a long history (two foreign and two Russian companies). What do they have in common? If you look closely at their values, you will find a lot in common, and on the other hand, each of the examples of corporate values shows the uniqueness and inimitable character of each company.
Start working on the corporate values of your company today, and the results from the fact that your employees will be inspired to follow the new corporate values will not be long in coming!
We will be happy to help you with this!
What is more important than goals? This article describes the main condition for achieving the goals of the organization.
Please do not confuse the topic with psychology, as it is more related to axiology - a branch of philosophy. Without it, goal setting is ineffective. To tell the truth, strategic planning as a process, directly depends on the values of the organization. This, if you like, is the foundation, and all sorts of matrices, analyzes and others like them are just simple tools.
This series of articles discusses exclusively important topic for small businesses - the values of organizations. Not the small amount that is defined in the law, but the classification written in our article “”.
Values are ideas about what should be done, what is best, what is most important, for which it is worth working, sacrificing time, effort and something else. Ideas about perfection in different areas of life.
A.I. Prigogine
In any small business everything, or almost everything, is decided by one person - the manager and/or founder. If this is not so, then such an enterprise is not a business, but a club of interests.
Even when at the beginning of work several friends-partners gather to establish an organization. As a rule, sooner or later a leader stands out among them. The rest either leave or withdraw themselves, working in secondary roles, in the rear, so to speak. It’s good if humility and prudence prevailed and the person stayed, but if he left... it’s bad, of course.
For example, if a manager’s main value is comfort, then business growth, much less development, should not be expected, and profitability too.A small commercial organization will not achieve its goals if they contradict the values of the leader of this organization. Moreover, the goals of the enterprise should be developed with an eye on the manager’s values.
PKF "Stratego"
The priority of these values among the manager, and indeed among any employee of the organization, plays an important role. In the first place there may be family values, in the second place, spiritual values, and in some tenth place only the values of the organization in which the person works. Despite this order, a person can ostentatiously declare one thing, but there will be no result for the business. It is difficult to recognize the truth; even a diagnosis of values cannot always help, but it will, of course, reveal something. I'm not saying that the organization's values should be at the very top, not at all. However, the manager should have them, at least in second place, after family ones, for example. There are cases when the values of the organization come first, then there will be sacrifices in personal life, but great enterprises appear.
In medium and large businesses, the problem of mismatch of values is not so acute and fatal; such managers are quickly replaced, finding a suitable replacement in the labor market.
Among them are:
Core values. These are those that have been set since the inception of any organization. There are two of them: manageability and customer focus. They are inherent in all organizations that have been operating in the market for a long time.
In turn, controllability is also characterized by two variables - the consistency of goals and actions and the feasibility of decisions.
Leading Values. Those that an organization acquires in the process of its development. For example, entrepreneurship, stability, quality, etc. ...
It should be noted here that we believe that many of the acquired values of a leader are added to the leading values of the organization he leads, and sometimes to the basic ones too.
The value system of an organization or the ideology of an enterprise.
Ideology consists of the basic and leading values of the organization, which in turn create a system of interconnected and non-contradictory principles of the organization's work.
The ideology of an enterprise for its strategy is the guideline that can be “clung to” when building and which cannot be treaded upon when implementing a strategy, namely the execution of tasks in accordance with given goals.
As a result of this entire note, the conclusion may be that one of the first actions, along with defining a vision, in developing a strategy for a small commercial organization is to determine the values of its founders and the person who will lead it.
Literature:
— A.I. Prigogine “Goals and values. New methods of working with the future"
— A.I. Prigogine “Methods of development of organizations”
— Michael Porter "Competitive Advantage"
Business owners and hired managers, aimed at the long-term success of their enterprises, think not only about the strategy and tactics of their development. Modern environmental factors and internal organizational conditions persistently push them to reconsider a wide range of different aspects of their activities: relationships with business partners, clients, competitors, authorities, the business community, and their employees. The management of almost all domestic enterprises is busy solving these issues. The motivation is clear: either you change, and you change quite quickly and seriously, or you leave the race, and another, more dynamic and pragmatic competitor takes your place. In a situation of fierce competition in all market segments, no one has time to get going.
Companies that hope to emerge from the next crisis stronger and qualitatively different are reviewing their organizational norms, standards and rules. They ask themselves a lot of the right questions to get the right answers: Who are we? What have you achieved and what are you proud of so far? Where and why (for what) are we going? What helps us to be successful? What do we need to change in ourselves (stop, continue, start doing) in order to use the crisis situation in the interests of our business and increase the efficiency of the company? The very foundations on which the enterprise rests are being revised - not the financial, material foundations, but the psychological and philosophical ones.
Gone are the days of slogans, corporate hype, beautiful phrases and ostentatious loyalty. Largely declared organizational values, generated by no one knows who and directed from above, are being replaced by values that are developed and proposed by managers and employees themselves and are guided by them in their work.
Strong corporate cultures, like strong family cultures, grow from within and are created by leaders, not consultants.
American manager K. Hickman
The category of “corporate values” is understood as a set of public or unspoken rules with the help of which employees determine priorities, form a system of behavior and rules through which they can achieve success.
Values can be:
ethical;
socio-economic;
communicative.
Some of the values are not new; they have been previously declared in these and other companies. Their content has changed, they have become qualitatively different, but the most important change has occurred in the attitude of the staff towards them.
Confidence. According to many business owners and hired managers, the latest systemic crises are crises of confidence that destroy relationships, collapse markets, and break deals. Trust is the foundation, the basis of successful teamwork in an enterprise and its most important component at any time. Current environmental realities force us to take a fresh look at this organizational and managerial value. The basis of trust is the understanding that each team member wants his colleague to succeed. He can freely and sincerely talk about what worries him, without worrying about counter-criticism from colleagues, since constructive criticism in the company is aimed at fruitfully solving current problems and emerging issues.
“I trust, they trust me. Accordingly, trust is a two-way street.” The basis of trust, according to many managers, is a combination of three important characteristics: competence, integrity and reliability of colleagues. True trust in an enterprise is manifested when everyone can rely on everyone, knowing that they will not be let down.
When you trust your colleague, you are sure that the assigned task will be completed, he will not let you down, and you do not need constant control. This allows you to spend less time on business communication, information exchange between the manager and subordinates occurs faster and more efficiently.
Approach to interaction with colleagues within the company from a “WIN-WIN” position. This organizational value is a consequence of the previous one and is expressed in mutual support and willingness to help colleagues. The team will not benefit if some of its members achieve their goals at the expense of others. Everyone wins, everyone wins. This approach allows us to obtain an acceptable result for each party through mutual concessions (finding a compromise). This position is most effective in building long-term partnerships.
Team leader. If earlier the concept of “team leader” meant the presence of a person who accepts management decision, then in current conditions it is seen as important resource for more effective action. In a team focused on effective work, it is important to have someone who knows where to move, how, with whom, for what, and at the same time has the trust of team members: “leaders attract potential leaders.” It is ideal when a leader combines formal and informal leadership status in one person. Supervisor structural unit, enterprises must be the leader of their team. Behind long years In management work, experienced managers who are recognized leaders in their teams have discovered a simple management postulate: the first and most important responsibility of a manager-leader is to be close to his subordinates in any, and even more so in difficult, situations. Therefore, the main rule that a leader must adhere to in crisis conditions is to remain calm and confident himself and instill them in his subordinates. In a difficult situation, this is quite difficult to do, but that is why he is a leader, so that, while realistically assessing the current conditions, he remains optimistic and infects his employees with it: like a captain on a ship, soberly assessing his and his team’s actions, despite the storm, a manager-leader clearly sees the result and leads the team towards it.
Result-oriented. As noted in previous chapters, in pre-crisis times, many domestic companies were built on a family-type model; the relational component in them often dominated the business, resulting side of the work. This is how it happened historically, and the management of such enterprises had no particular need or desire to change anything. Accordingly, the demand from employees for results was not strict: for various kinds of miscalculations and shortcomings in the work, the culprit could be reprimanded or punished - but not particularly strongly.
The actions of all team members must be aimed at achieving the goal, at obtaining a specific result. And to do this, you need to clearly imagine the goal as an image of the future result and keep it in mind during the work process. Next, focus work and subordinates on the result, and not on the process. It is important that the result is clear and equally perceived by everyone on the team. Result orientation is, firstly, the ability to clearly imagine this very result, secondly, to maintain this idea during the work process, and thirdly, to have a strong motivation to achieve it.
Innovation, not stereotyping. Modern conditions doing business force management and employees of companies to look for new non-standard options for solving business problems, to show creativity get to work, use your creativity. Creativity is seen as an activity that creates something new and original; as going beyond existing knowledge, overcoming, overturning boundaries; as the process of creating new products through action. Creative thinking in business occurs when a person solving a problem invents a new, previously non-existent solution to this problem.
Anyone who has only a hammer as a tool tends to look at any problem as if it were a nail.
American psychologist A. Maslow (1908–1970)
Creativity refers to a person’s ability to abandon stereotypical types of thinking, discover new ways of solving problems, and develop constructive, non-standard thinking and behavior. Creativity as a personality characteristic is highly correlated with intelligence, motivation, initiative, persistence, diligence and determination. Creativity is important for innovation. If creativity refers to ideas, then innovation refers to the goods and services that arise from the emergence of creative ideas. Innovation is application or adaptation useful ideas in business as the opposite of stereotyping - adherence to proven paths and familiar options for solving business problems. Its organizational value presupposes the desire of managers and employees for development, the use of non-traditional methods in solving standard problems and achieving set goals.
By studying and implementing new ideas you can improve your quality new level any system The main thing is that the desire for change does not become an end in itself. Innovation in the company - required condition its survival during the crisis. The ability to foresee the future, keep up with the times, promote positive changes, improve processes and organize uninterrupted operation - these qualities can ensure the company’s success even in periods of instability and exacerbation competition. Acquiring sustainable market advantages and, as a result, a large market share is only possible through innovation.
Earn, not receive. The crisis forced everyone - owners, management, staff - to count money and correlate the employee’s real contribution to the result of the enterprise’s work with the fee he receives. The owner of a large holding company, a businesslike and pragmatic person, expressed the idea that everything in business can be digitized: “An employee must understand what he brings to his company, his team and himself through his actions. An employee in a company should be assessed only by the level of his knowledge and skills, ability to achieve high results in his professional activity. An employee's monetary remuneration should be recognition of his competence and professionalism.
Customer focus. The fight for the client - this is currently written about a lot in almost all business publications and discussed at various trainings, seminars, conferences, forums, etc. The topic is quite popular and relevant. At the same time, both theorists and practitioners note that currently there is no segment in which there would be no competition, that the market is becoming extremely tough and this trend will only intensify over time, and only customer-oriented enterprises are able to win in a difficult competition.
But is this really the case? Have domestic companies really entered the race for the client, competing to see who can show the most best service and not in words, but in deeds, will he turn to face the client?
Sketch from life
One of the central hotels regional center, 8.30 am. The administrator, a girl of about twenty-five, is sitting in the reception area, writing something. A guest enters the hall through the central door with two suitcases, the girl looks up at him and continues writing again. The guest comes close to the reception desk, the administrator does not react to his appearance.
Guest. Good morning!
Administrator (sitting, staring at the guest in surprise). Wow!?
Why does a person who comes to work in the service area sometimes behave in a very “non-service” way? The reasons for this can be divided into organizational and personal.
Firstly, this happens due to the fact that the organization does not have customer service standards written down and implemented in the work practice of client specialists.
As clear example You can cite a plot from the famous film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.”
A dry cleaning employee (receptionist Lyudmila) gives completed orders to customers. She puts a dress on the counter - an order from another client.
Client (noticing a stain on the dress). Oh girl, spot, look...
Receptionist (tough, moralizing). These stains cannot be cleaned. You need to wear it more carefully! (Irritably, she packs the dress in paper.)
So, for your money, not only did your order not be fulfilled efficiently, but they also publicly humiliated you, scolding you like a guilty, naughty schoolgirl.
Secondly, service standards may exist on paper, but the staff is either not trained to implement them, or has undergone appropriate training, but does not want to follow them (the standards), and is not guided by them in practice. Many companies have their own training centers to develop various working skills of staff, including service skills. Training as a method of deliberate changes translated into Russian means not only “training”, “development”, but also “training”.
In the same plot from the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”, the same heroine, when interacting with another client (general), already uses the words “please”, “I ask you”, smiles, shows politeness and courtesy towards him. As they say, “he can if he wants.” And on whom depends the manifestation and implementation of the employee’s desire to create a good mood for the client? The answer is obvious - from the manager of this employee.
This leads to the third reason: the company does not have sanctions for violating service standards, and if they exist, they are applied extremely rarely. Moreover, in some cases the immediate supervisor in conflict situations with the client, openly or indirectly takes the side of his subordinate when he is clearly wrong.
Fourthly, the reason for the low customer focus of the enterprise is poor selection of personnel, which in some companies turns into “filling vacancies.”
Unfortunately, not every person who comes to work in the client area understands and accepts the postulate that his work is a game. And that in this work he is a service employee who must constantly create the client the feeling that he (the client) in a situation of business interaction is psychologically just above the “client”, that he is the main, central figure of an exciting action called “selling” " The client votes with his wallet either in favor of the company or in favor of a competitor. At the same time, he wants to receive not only a product (service), but also take a good mood with him.
Customer-oriented, open, friendly, optimistic salespeople, as a rule, do not experience burnout syndrome. The main factor influencing this situation is that they do their work with love; it brings them both pleasure from the process and benefit (in the form of money earned, not just money received) from the result. It is not for nothing that the corporate code of some companies clearly states that “money is earned, not given away, and earning money depends on talent, opportunities and laziness, and not on the need for money.” And as the main path to a source of income, it is also indicated: “quality service, quality service, quality service...” The phrase “quality service” written three times is not a typo, but a statement of the main prerequisite for both the individual earnings of a sales consultant and the company's success in its market segment.
Also a significant factor positive mood and the well-being of an employee of a company’s client division is a powerful energy-information exchange: the more you give, the more you receive. One of the basic existential principles says: “As you are to the world, so the world is to you. Smile to the world!” For successful “clients”, a smile is an important, if not the main, tool in their work.
To improve the customer focus of their organizations, managers need to follow the following rules:
accept as an axiom that the selection of client personnel is one of the main management functions, implemented in a continuous personnel work. Depending on the specifics of the product in various trade organizations, personnel turnover can be 100% per year. Any specialist in the field of HR management will say that this is normal, that this is a modern market reality that must be taken into account. Therefore, the organization must carry out a constant, scrupulous selection of candidates who exhibit client-oriented qualities;
show high daily demands on staff in terms of compliance with corporate standards of working with clients;
implement various programs within the company aimed at increasing staff loyalty. It is known that only an employee committed to his enterprise can make a client a supporter of the company.
Now there is an understanding that the client in a company is its most important value. It is the client who brings money to the company and influences its development and sustainability. The customer's loyalty to the company allows it to survive in the most difficult times. Therefore, the struggle for clients will intensify, and the winners will be only those who, not in words, but in deeds, turn their faces to them. In this regard, it should be noted that they invest in someone they trust. They trust someone who has a positive reputation. A person who has good word of mouth in the market – from clients, business partners, the business community – has a positive reputation. And good word of mouth does not arise on its own; it is always the result of specific actions of each employee of the company and, above all, customer service specialists.
Internality. This organizational value is considered as the attitude of each team member: (“Everything depends only on me!”), his confidence that there is a real opportunity to influence the course of events related to the company’s business. This is a quality that motivates to search for ways to influence dynamic changes in the situation, as opposed to falling into a state of helplessness and passivity. This team member is confident that any difficult situation can be transformed in such a way that it will be consistent with his professional and life plans, and even be useful to him in some way. He takes specific actions in his area and achieves his goal. These values, developed by the managers and employees themselves, are complementary or complementary in nature, are closely related to each other and follow from one another. The commitment of each team member to these values and following them in their work will allow companies to successfully overcome various crisis phenomena and emerge from them stronger and more effective.