If you have followed me and my stories, you will have noticed that I have implemented many big and radical changes in the companies I have been responsible for. Changes aimed at getting the business right, based on a strategic and holistic approach.
I have always believed in people’s desire to do the right thing – so I have always believed that communicating why change is necessary is the right and obvious thing to do.
I believe in people’s ability to judge whether I, as a leader, am ‘for real’ or not.
For those of you who are considering to use soft values such as defining the company’s core values as a tool, I have a clear message;
You must believe 100% in the power of this and be prepared to live and communicate these values every day.
I have already told you about the process Atea Sverige went through to define its core values. Values that, more than 15 years later, continue to guide their daily activities. As CEO, I took personal responsibility for this process, because I realised that this was an issue of such magnitude that the leader had to be fully committed.
And so I did. There wasn’t a single speech I gave where I didn’t talk about our values and what we stood for as part of the speech. I don’t think anyone ever felt it was tacked on – they felt it was real.
It could sometimes be provocative. I remember visiting one of our major US suppliers. The CEO of that company said in a meeting, ‘We have values too,’ and then he showed a ppt slide with some values. One minute later he went on to talk about numbers. It was a very clear example to me of when something is NOT real.
To summarise.
When you do something as a leader. Do it for real. Be authentic. Your people will know immediately when you are NOT.
I my next story I will tell you how we created a strong “Why” as part of upgrading Nexus Group – Global position.
Do things for real!
