Leadership's Future: Visions Trump Values
by Miki Saxon
Raising kids is about teaching values, among other things, but kids learn by watching more than by listening. “Do as I say, not as I do” just doesn’t fly these days.
Cheating is not only a good example, it’s a global one.
Everyone knows that cheating is wrong, yet in US surveys 64% of high school students say they have cheated, while 84% of undergraduate business students and a whopping 56% of MBA students also admit to cheating. Not only is cheating prevalent, parental action often condones it.
Since many of these same parents are leaders in the workplace, the results of a McKinsey survey asking “which capabilities of organizations as a whole are most important for managing companies through the crisis” should come as no surprise.
Ability to shape employee interactions and foster a shared understanding of values.
Only 8% thought that important, which placed ‘shared values’ dead last on the list of nine.
What was first on the list? The item considered the most important?
Ability to ensure that leaders shape and inspire the actions of others to drive better performance.
Number two isn’t much of an improvement.
Capacity to articulate where the company is heading and how to get there, and to align people appropriately.
All the research I’ve seen claims that the best way to avoid ethical lapses is to have sustainable ethics embedded deep in the company’s culture.
And the comments of Rick Wartzman, director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University, really resonate.
Perhaps the oddest aspect of the McKinsey findings is the suggestion that providing leadership is somehow separate from promoting values. In fact, the two are bound together—the double helix of any corporation’s DNA.
One would think that means the company’s leaders understand the value of values and would proactively work to foster and embed them.
But no, these leaders, likely the same one whose kids admit to cheating, believe that visions trump values.
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: Warning Sign Generator
November 12th, 2009 at 4:46 am
Thanks for reporting this. I don’t put much stock in opinion surverys, especially in the workplace. A lot of folks confuse these opinion surveys with real scientific research on workers and performance and that is a big mistake. But this survey might tell us there is a crisis in leadership, which I would agree with. My post today is on shared purpose, and I think that is more important than any of this. Of course, it was not a question on the opinon survey…. http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2009-11/leadership-the-value-of-shared-purpose/
November 12th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Hi Bret, I agree about opinion surveys, but sometimes people are less careful and give more honest responses than they do to real research and I think McKinsey probably has a better reach than all the executive search surveys floating around out there.
I like what you say about shared purpose, especially that is isn’t a top down vocalization. Of course, as one of your other readers pointed out, the execs who understand this already do it and it’s a tough teach to those who don’t.
Good to see you again, I’ve missed your input!