How we act, how we react and the paths we follow are our own choice!

It has been said that we think with our heads but act with our hearts.  Our spirit controls our conduct, shapes our attitudes and provides the basis for how we perceive our world.  And our spirit is directed by core values.  It is not a question of whether or not we have core values.  We do!  We need to ask; "What are those core values and are we aware of how they impact us?" 

Organizations have a spirit as well. The spirit, and prevailing attitude, of the organization is reflected in its corporate culture.  While referred to as corporate culture, this driving force exists in groups and teams of all sizes.  Although they may not be openly expressed, core values are still in play.  Even cliques have core values.  If you doubt that, simply observe what happens to a member who fails to follow "the rules."

The culture of a team can be a positive force toward cooperation and success or contribute to conflict and hopelessness. Here’s the good news. We can determine what that culture will be and we can change it if we choose.  The best way to establish a positive culture is by establishing, articulating and reinforcing a positive set of shared core values.

When properly established, the shared values of the team become an integral part of each individual's personal values.  The leadership of an organization must take the time to discuss and determine what core values should be reflected in the organization’s culture. These values will focus on areas such as quality, ethics and character. It is important to describe the way employees should interact with each other and with customers.

The core values should be put in writing. Do not take the easy way out by picking a single general statement that, in its generality, fails to offer any real meaning. Keep the list fairly short, and each value simply stated. The core values need to be easy to remember. The list of core values should be distributed and discussed with every employee and all managers. This list should be brought out regularly at team meetings as a reminder of the organization’s highest aspirations.

As leaders, management should lead by example. The core values should be brought up and used as the basis for making decisions and resolving conflict. Leaders should discuss and communicate how their decisions and actions reflect, or fail to reflect, the core values. Core values should be the basis of discussion when addressing desired changes in behavior. 

Core values can be emphasized through reward systems. Managers and employees can be evaluated and rewarded according to the degree to which their actions and behavior reflect the organization’s core values. I am particularly fond of programs that provide a mechanism for employees to recommend peers and managers for awards based on actions that exemplify the company’s core values. Frequent team meetings where awards are presented for demonstration of core values are particularly effective for reinforcing a positive culture.

Every culture has its own expectations for behavior. Those who wish to be a part of that culture behave accordingly. The most successful teams are those that first focus on “the heart of the matter.”

Business is conducted through human interaction.  Success, for any individual or group, depends on positive relationships.  Trust is the critical factor for building and sustaining positive relationships.  Unfortunately, trust is often elusive and frail.

Patrick Lencioni, in his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, depicts team dysfunction as a pyramid with five layers.  The bottom layer is the base for all the rest - “absence of trust.”  The absence of trust not only causes challenges at work but often erodes our personal relationships as well.  

Individual performance improves in high trust environments.  People who feel trusted tend to have increased self confidence.  They are more willing to try new things, have higher levels of responsibility and tend to hold themselves more accountable for results. When employee trust is high, the workers feel more secure, are more loyal and stay with a company longer.

Managers cannot do the work themselves.  Their success depends on the ability to effectively delegate tasks.   A supervisor that does not trust the workers will have difficulty delegating.  When managers take on too many tasks themselves, or lean toward micromanagement, stress levels increase with resulting decreases in performance.  Low trust delegation often overworks the more trusted employees and limits the opportunity of other workers to establish trust.

Team success requires open, honest and direct communication.  In trusting environments, team members are more willing to share their weaknesses and mistakes.  This allows the team to work together toward improvement.  Team members who trust each other are more open to positive confrontation and more willing to engage in healthy conflict.  This level of communication promotes greater understanding and better decisions.

Many of us look at trust as something that must be earned.  This is a learned behavior.  New born babies seem to have an unusually high capacity for trust.  It is only after frequent breaches of trust, frequent perceived or real betrayals, that we arrive at the point where trust must be earned.  Paradoxically, it takes trust to build or "rebuild" trust.

The trust building process flows in a positive self perpetuating cycle.  As we take a risk to trust and others respond favorably, trust grows which then leads to more comfort in trusting.  The negative "betrayal" cycle is also self perpetuating.  When someone takes the risk to trust us and our actions cause them to feel betrayed they are less trusting and less likely to take the risk to trust us in the future. This gives us little opportunity to demonstrate that we can be trustworthy.

A perfect example can be seen in open, honest, direct communication.  When we trust others, we are more comfortable being open in our communication with them.  When trust is lacking, we may tend to withhold information or even be deceptive.  Our honesty is respected and builds trust.  However, If someone perceives that we are dishonest or secretive, they feel betrayed and trust us less. 

Here are a few tips that can help you build or "rebuild" trust.

1. Take risks - empower others and share openly with them.

2. Be open, honest and direct in you communication.

3. Accept honesty from others.

4. Respond to others openness with respect and concern.

5. Be accountable - do what you say.

Establishing and sustaining trust requires exploration and a concerted effort over time.  The value obtained from improved relationships and resulting levels of achievement are worth the effort.  Take the risk.

In business, and in life, our level of success is dependent on the strength of our relationships. Family, friends, co-workers, customers, clients, colleagues, associates, and even those who simply observe our actions contribute, in their own way, to the flow of our productivity. They may be assisting or they may be consuming but always they are serving as the point of reference for who we are and what we have to offer.

The most critical factor in building strong teams and sustaining strong relationships is trust and trust is established by keeping our commitments.

Keeping commitments, like all acknowledged virtues, is dealt with by each individual internally and is always a matter of choice.  Once made, commitments often create obligations that can be very difficult.  It is in this difficulty, in the struggle, that character is built, integrity established and trust forged.

Some recognize the value of certain virtues and consider the implications of their choices carefully while others follow the path of simple convenience.  All our choices are, in fact, subject to the level of commitment we have to ourselves - to our own core values and what we consider important.  Consequently, commitment to others can never be separated from commitment to self.

Fortunately, we can make it a bit easier to keep our commitments to ourselves and to others.  We also have a choice regarding what commitments we will make in the first place.  We can often avoid a bind down the road simply by considering the potential difficulties associated with keeping certain commitments.  "Look before you leap."

When looking at the commitments made to others, mutual understanding is critical.  Commitments should always be explicit.  They need to be fully expressed without any vagueness or ambiguity.  We can set ourselves up for problems when we imply, or allow people to infer, what the commitment entails.

We sometimes imply that we will do something we are not prepared to do.  "Don't worry I'll be there for you."  Am I implying that I will be available at any time of day or night for any need that may arise?  Are there circumstances that could arise that I am not prepared to "be there for?"  

Commitment by inference can be very difficult to avoid.  When we agree, for example, to chair a committee, there can be a lot of variance in the expectations people have of this position.  We have to anticipate what others may perceive and be prepared to ask questions that can help clarify the expectations.  This may take some time.  But failure to clarify can saddle us with a commitment that can be very hard to carry.          

We can't anticipate everything and there can be many reasons for choosing not to follow through or keep our word.  The obligation may be larger than expected or the journey longer than desired.  We may lose strength or lose heart.  We may fear that we will not do well or even fail.

But those people we deal with every day, the ones that have so much impact on our success, are always watching.  The strength of those relationships will be based on the tough choices, not the easy ones.  We will most often be judged not by the level of success so much as by the willingness to make the effort.

It may be said that it is better to keep a commitment and fail than to fail to keep a commitment.

How many are the faces of diversity?

We have heard so much about this term, diversity.  In our society, our schools, our government and our workplace diversity is becoming an increasingly important area of study and concern.  Diversity training is mandatory in many sectors and the call for greater understanding seems to have reached nearly every business and organization.  For some the message has even grown stale.  "Do I have to attend another lecture on diversity?"

What comes to mind when you hear the word diversity?  Like many of the "buzzwords" we hear today it tends to be used in a very broad sense while meaning different things to different people.  For many, this term relates to issues of equal opportunity and laws protecting certain classes from unfair discrimination. Some people tend to focus on discrimination regarding race, or religion.  Others consider issues surrounding age or gender.  In my experience, there are additional protected classes commonly considered including ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, political affiliation and veteran status.

But the diversity training of today goes beyond the legal prohibition of discrimination for protected classes and digs deeper, unearthing the concept of tolerance.  Teaching tolerance is more progressive in that it goes beyond prohibitions of discrimination where the law can be applied.  Tolerance is more of a social and personal concern where the concept involves each individual's acceptance of someone who is different.

Of course, teaching tolerance is not limited to schools, consultants or trainers.  Each and every one of us can be a part of the program.  We can share the importance of acceptance with others and, most important, we can lead by example.  We can also remember that tolerance is not limited to the ten common stereotypes I acknowledged above.  To make a significant social impact the understanding of diversity must go farther.

The only thing we all have in common is that we are different.  We come in different sizes and shapes.  We come with different backgrounds, abilities and limitations.  We have different levels of education and different types of experience.  Any one of these differences offers an opportunity for judgment and intolerance.  Each identification of a difference also offers an opportunity for acceptance and inclusion.

When it comes to building successful teams, businesses and organizations, tolerance is not enough.  Great leaders have diversity awareness; they recognize that there is strength in diversity and actually seek it.  These leaders search for diversity, identify the potential value of the differences and capitalize on them.  They build teams with members that are not like each other and different from the leader. 

One key difference is particularly important to success yet rarely sought - a different point of view.  The best decisions and initiatives emerge where different perspectives converge.  It is sometimes difficult to accept disagreement and even harder to admit being wrong.  With diversity awareness, people can accept and respect different points of view, evaluate the strength of each, and emerge with improved clarity and understanding. 

Life is for learning and you have nothing to learn from those who agree with you.