values 101

When the legendary John Wooden was coaching basketball at UCLA, he seldom made home visits to prospective players. He did make an occasional exception, however, like the time he went to see an extremely talented prospect who had great potential to help his team.
Wooden had every intention of offering the player a scholarship that night. In fact, all the necessary paperwork was ready and waiting in the pocket of his suit coat. But when he left the player's house later that evening, the scholarship was still in his pocket.
What changed Wooden's mind? His decision had nothing to do with basketball, that's for sure. Rather, as Wooden watched the player interact with his mother, he was troubled by what he saw as a decided lack of respect. He surmised that a young man who spoke disrespectfully to his mom probably wouldn't respect his coach, either. That was enough to keep Wooden from offering him a spot on the team.
When Wooden shared this story with me, he noted that he had often passed on exceptional talent if the player lacked good values. "What I have found is, just because the talent and the giftedness is there doesn't mean you're going to be able, as a coach, to bring it out of them," he said. "But if their values are there — the right ones — you can bring the best out of them every time."
This story is a great illustration of an important teamwork concept: Values — those guiding principles that influence and guide behavior — determine the foundation of the team. When the members of a team are guided by respect, integrity, excellence and other positive attributes, their footing as a group is strong. Their shared values provide stability for their organization to build upon.
That's not all a strong set of values will do for a group of people working together, of course. Let me illustrate with a few word pictures.
• Values are like glue. They hold an organization together.
• Values are like a ruler. They set the standard for a team's performance.
• Values are like a compass. They give direction and guidance.
• Values are like a magnet. They attract like-minded people.
• Values provide identity. They define and identify the team.
It's easy to talk about values in a generic sense. It takes a bit more effort to identify the specific principles that your company or team lives by, and even more discipline to communicate those values effectively to each person you hire. Sharp new employees will be able to ascertain much of what your organization believes in by watching your team in action. But it's always helpful when you reinforce those nonverbal messages with some kind of structured presentation that explains who you are and what you believe in as a company.
I did this very thing several years ago when I moved my company to Atlanta from San Diego. We hired quite a few people when we moved, and to bring them up to speed on where we had come from organizationally, I gave them a formal overview of who we were and what was important to us.
In this talk, I articulated the following values to my team:
1. Personal growth.It is the responsibility of each individual to grow personally, but it's the leader's responsibility to help facilitate that process. You can grow your organization only as much as you grow your people.
2. Making a significant contribution. I believe every person ought to do something that he or she truly believes is making a difference.
3. Living and working with passion. I don't know about you, but I want everyone around me to love what they do as much as I do. I have no desire to motivate people the people I work with to get passionate about life. I would rather beg them to find another job!
4. Commitment to excellence. As I've written in this column before, I believe each of us should set the bar higher for ourselves than anybody else will.
5. Team leadership.The only way to build a successful organization is by developing a great team around you.
6. Living a life of integrity. Without this, everything else is meaningless.
Finally, the best way to ensure that everyone on your team is guided by similar principles is to examine each prospective employee through the lens of your organization's values and hire only those individuals who share those same values. If their values already match yours, they'll fit in much more quickly and start being productive a lot sooner than they would if you had to help them adapt to your company's mindset.