A better understanding their own values gives more advantages to experienced professionals. The first steps in any field require a lot of effort to understand the essence of the profession, to develop special skills. But as soon as you are ready to move on, a more difficult question arises, how to direct yourself and the people around you in the right direction. And which direction is generally correct? And the right one for us will be the one that brings pleasure.

Working with values is life-long work. I hope the recommendations below will help you take the first steps.

How to reduce contradictions

If we look around, almost all companies, structures that have existed for a long time, have an integral culture and worldview. They may be wrong from a more global level of understanding, but internally they are logical and mutually supportive. Very strong contradictions lead to destruction. At a distance of centuries, such structures do not stand the test of time. But this is also fair in everyday life, in shorter periods of time.

When everyone is working towards a common goal, it’s incredibly empowering for everyone involved. At the same time, if there is no mutual understanding, it will weaken everyone. If it was necessary to imperceptibly destroy the company, then the first place to start is to create internal conflicts due to contradictory approaches. But if such a task has not been set, then it is better to avoid actions and ideas that contradict themselves. This can be done by anyone at any level of the hierarchy. Each such contribution will be a great investment in the common cause.

Some examples of the simplest contradictions:

• An employee does not want to strain, but wants to earn a lot. We will ask this person “Are you ready to hire a personal assistant and pay him well, but he will work for 20% of his efforts?” I think, he does not. Such an example sometimes happens in the corporate environment. I classify this as cheating and stealing. Any personal affairs or side job during working hours, if there are work tasks, is a way to cheat. I think that in cases where a person cheats, he should be dealt with harshly.
• A person wants subordinates to listen to him, but he himself does not know how to obey. In fact, the higher you are in the hierarchy, the more opportunities you have, but also the more circumstances you have to obey. Opportunities always come with responsibilities and obligations.
• The manager encourages subordinates, wants them to show activity, to think for themselves, not to come with “stupid” questions. The reason for such questions may be the employee’s lack of confidence that he has the right to make a mistake. Or the fear of letting the team or manager down. It will not be possible to get both. Draw a line for yourself and put a dot on it that best matches the company’s goals. This dot should be reflected in all internal procedures.

  

• The manager asks to be honest with him, but he himself cannot directly say what he thinks about you. This is a case when the manager tries to provoke to frankness, but he himself is dishonest with the subordinate. In such a situation, we can also make it clear. If we are a manager, then we begin to say what worries or disturbes us. For example, “I’m worried that you haven’t been able to get your work done lately. I like working with you, but I don’t think you’re up to it. Let’s think about how to fix it.” If we want to be honest, we start by being honest ourselves. If we are a subordinate in this situation, we can say: “I feel that you are not satisfied with my work. And I can’t understand why. But I feel dispirited. I want to be useful to our common cause. Help me understand what should I pay attention to.”

It is necessary to choose a form convenient for us if it is applied to us. In addition to solving a local problem, we will create a holistic, long-term communication model for work.

Remember your examples. To notice them in life, you have to look for them. The most painful things for us are hiding in such contradictions. The stronger the contradictions, the more they hit us and the environment. There are also direct forms of deception. If you say different things to management and subordinates, or prepare different presentations, something is already wrong. There are cases when it is better not to make something public, but the deception suggests that there are already strong contradictions both within the company and within us. For example, “I want power, but for everyone to love me.”

Before trying to implement a new approach or procedure, it is necessarily to check whether it is in line with the values. Whether people will accept them or be able to respond to them. To do this, you need to understand what the approach itself is based on, understand its limits, in which case it works and in which case it doesn’t.

For example, a person read a book about the culture of Netflix, which calls for honesty and directness in communication with colleagues^[1], and began to tell everyone the truth about what he thinks about them. He may feel that he is helping people to grow. But the essence of Netflix’s culture is different: everyone works for the same goal. They have a common cause, so the actions of each participant directly affect all his colleagues. People are waiting for clues from each other. If you give advice to a person who does not ask for advice, and if his affairs do not directly concern you, then you will get nothing but aggression in your address.

Let’s look a little higher at the level of the company’s organization and its culture. If you have ambitious people in your team, they will work best if you set ambitious goals and tasks for them. They do not need to be separately motivated, forced to develop. If you like this approach, choose the right people for yourself. But do not expect that you can pay them little. They may work for experience, but they will soon leave you.

It is often hard to believe when you hear the motto “our people are our value”. This always leads to the search for contradictions. Sometimes this leads to pushing a person to “growth”, free trainings and goal setting are built into the processes. Human development requires enormous strength. Yes, it happens that a company invests such large resources in each individual person, but this is rare. Still, I don’t think it will work. The student is looking for the teacher, and not the other way around. The initiative must come from a person. If he does not want to learn, then you should not create the illusion of learning. Maybe he has other tasks now. Or he is already quite strong in his field, and spends all his free time dancing or reading books. If we put a person as a priority, then his personal goals, development, work balance, good condition are more important than work tasks. It is much easier to give him the opportunity to grow, to create an atmosphere and conditions. Sometimes for this you need to tell an unpleasant truth, which will help a person take an important step. For example, about the fact that he does not fully fulfill his duties. I noticed that in some cases they try not to talk about it.

And statements do not make sense without supporting them with actions. If the company wants to keep a person in a place that is already too tight for him, then this is all a lie. Only if the company puts personal development above its local interest, only this will mean that employees are truly valuable. But even in this case, the value will be not just “person”, but “development/learning”. This is not profitable to articulate in business, because the client will understand that a large percentage of his money goes to support the culture of learning. This will work better for customers with corresponding value. And declaration of different values for employees and customers also indicates deception and contradiction.

It is necessary to work with the employee through the creation of opportunities and assistance. The main part of the manager’s work is working with people, understanding their characteristics, and training them. Feeling people and understanding their values will give you the opportunity to help yourself and them. We will be able to give people not what we want, but what exactly that person needs, because often the manager imposes his opinion and way. It is also necessary to look for the steps which a person needs in order for the employee always to be interested. Many people get bored with work if it is completely mastered.

There is a popular opinion that a person must be told that his work is important, talk about his contribution to the common cause, about his significance for the team. For now, let’s skip the question of whom it suits and whom it doesn’t. But before saying it, it is better to ask yourself “Do I believe in this myself?”. People can feel cheated. Don’t say if you don’t think so. Or say, “This work is of high quality, but not so much here. But we appreciate you for your work. If you want to fix it, let’s work on it together.” People appreciate being honest with themselves, even if they can’t afford to be honest themselves yet.

What’s next

If our values are not fully understood and formed, then they are subject to external influence. In companies, values often trickle down from the top. Therefore, choose your manager very carefully. As leaders, we also broadcast them. It is better to do it consciously if we want to influence the growth of the company. Because only by making an inventory of values, it is possible to eliminate contradictions. Management requires a latitude of views. It’s a daily job. From the point of view of values, we need to change the focus of our attention so that we notice how each of our actions affects us and those around us in the long term.

Values do not work as a project or a tool for solving problems. We cannot match values to the task or for greater profit. There is no need to invent values specially for your company. It can be successful with almost any of them. And everyone will have their own success: coming home at 4:00 p.m. to spend time with family, making people more educated or free.

True values involve search and presence of errors. We don’t know what the company or ourselves will become when we take a few steps in development, because values make us bigger. And any strict plan will lead us to other people’s values, those offered to us by society.

As a first step in working with values after analysis, try to enter simple cyclical actions, but which will change the existing system in the right direction. Only within your sphere of responsibility. For example, start meetings on time and don’t wait for latecomers, or make it mandatory for a random person to take notes after an important meeting, or measure a metric that will encourage the team to adjust their behavior to the shape you chose.

Don’t expect gratitude, it might even annoy people at first. That is why it is better to do it gradually, and not all at once. A correctly selected exercise should cause slight dissatisfaction in the team. This condition is necessary, but not sufficient. The reason is that the team considers it unnecessary and excessive, because they have less experience and have not yet seen the importance of the procedure for themselves, and you understand its necessity from your experience.

Each such task is a time-consuming process that brings really important fruits. It is worth it, because we do all this to fill our lives and the lives of others with meaning.

Exercise

At the end I offer a small exercise, which I do after reading books or articles, and which turned out to be very useful while working with people.

Question: what values does the author of the text have?

If the author does not juggle discourses, but expresses his opinion, then his values and contradictions can be seen behind each text. If you have read a text to the end, you most likely have similar values. Surprisingly, we rarely read articles that do not correspond to our views and do not have meaning for us, and we cut off the rest of the possible options.

When searching, you can pay attention to the following tips:

• When a person expresses an peremptory opinion without justification.
  For example, that you need to be a first-class specialist. Why? After all, it is not important for everyone. Why not strive to be a “caring son”?
• Any better/worse comparison is possible if the criteria are set. If the author compares something explicitly or not, then behind this are his criteria by which he measures himself and the surrounding world.
  For example, why is it better to be aware of values than to work with them subconsciously?

And if you find a contradiction in this article, I will be grateful for a comment.