In our work in companies, we come into contact with values on a daily basis: with freshly formulated, fantastic, little practiced, much praised, pompous and sometimes empty phrases. A company is a community of values and as such should also actively formulate desirable and collective values. This is because concrete values generate prioritized thinking, feeling and action, focused on the important aspects of life. In the long term, this can create a valuable culture if the majority of employees live by these values.
We at MontuaPartner Communications have also formulated our shared values and are working to integrate them into our daily work and dealings with our customers. Of course, this is not a matter of course and requires constant renewal and confirmation. Every person brings with them patterns of thought and action, beliefs and character traits that intermingle with the formulated corporate values.
Internal communication should therefore implement a company’s values repeatedly and creatively. Positive examples, role models and stories help, while regularity ensures that values are actually lived and not just read once.
We have just done this and asked some of our colleagues to describe what our values mean to them personally for this blog. An insight into our MontuaPartner culture and a plea for living our values. At the end, we have sprinkled in three ideas for your internal value boost.
Trusting cooperation (Maike Hegeler)
Trusting relationships in the workplace are essential for many reasons and a prerequisite for productive work. If there is no trust between employees and managers, it hinders work on several levels. Mistakes are not discussed or are swept under the carpet, mistrust leads to frustration and distracts from the actual work. As part of a team, we want to feel welcome and taken seriously; it must be possible to send and receive constructive criticism in order to prevent dissatisfaction.
Being able to open up to colleagues; being able to share worries, hardships, but also joy and pride are all part of a good team for me. Only then can I act in a relaxed manner and concentrate on the actual work without being distracted by disturbing feelings.
Positive attitude (Ursula Fröhlingsdorf)
Three words that can change a lot: Yes. Me. Will. If we take them seriously, they have a strong influence on the impact and success of our actions, both internally and externally. With a positive attitude, we try to adopt an affirmative stance – towards life, towards people and towards what we do. Communication is an important indicator of this. It shows all too clearly how we feel about something or a person. A word, a phrase, an emphasis, a gesture, a sound can destroy and demotivate or promote energy and pleasure. We want the latter.
Does that make us a bunch of boring yes-men? No. We keep a critical eye, draw boundaries and yes, we are also normal people who are just in a bad mood or don’t feel like doing this or that. But when we make an effort to have a fundamentally positive attitude, many things appear in a different light. Sounds banal? But it’s not. Nevertheless, it has an effect. In cooperation, in satisfaction and in the results.
Traceability (Christian Imhof)
Honesty alone does not make a good consultant. I not only have to be honest, but also understandable. If I want to convince a customer of an idea, they have to be able to understand and comprehend it. After all, our contacts in their company often have to demonstrate the relevance of internal communication or warm colleagues up to their projects. Comprehensibility is therefore particularly important in the field of communication, where decision-makers can rarely be convinced with “hard figures”.
Transparency is also key in our team. Our work and our specific approach must be clear to everyone so that we all pull together. We don’t necessarily have to agree, but if our decisions are not comprehensible, dissatisfaction within the team is inevitable.
Courage (Carolin Winkelmann)
If values, then please live them. Courage is an important basic prerequisite for this: without the courage to strive for ambitious goals, none of us would develop further. Then the most beautiful formulation remains just a wish list and does not become a guard rail for daily life. And especially when things are not going so well, it takes courage to refer to the postulated values. This is the only way to turn written wishful thinking into reality step by step. When working with our customers, it also takes courage to express opinions and sometimes even unusual approaches in order to (re)stimulate communication. This is much easier if you can support each other as a team. It is fortunate that we are all more courageous than lone fighters.
Passion (Judith Götter)
What unites us at MPC is our passion for internal communication and change. We bring this passion to our customers in order to achieve greater things together and to (re)ignite this enthusiasm in them too. We want to be infectious, even when things become more difficult and complex. Not only is internal communication itself a passion, we also see it as a way of promoting and spreading passion for our own company.
Attitude (Sophie Dunker)
We show attitude internally and externally. Because if we do not show our attitude internally, we cannot represent it honestly to the outside world. By attitude, we mean not allowing ourselves to be bent and standing up for our opinions. At the same time, we also listen carefully to our counterparts. We know that everyone lives in a different context and is different. It is precisely these differences that we want to use – as a starting point, mirror or inspiration for our own actions. Because this is the only way we can perceive the needs and wishes of others in our daily interactions.
Honesty (Gaby Neujahr)
If you are honest, you say what you mean and not necessarily what the other person wants to hear. It sounds uncomfortable, and sometimes it is. After all, you run the risk of making yourself unpopular, of standing alone with an opinion, perhaps even of being accused of slowing down an ongoing process with the objection you raise. So it takes a certain amount of courage to be honest: We at MPC constantly encourage each other to do so because we are convinced that we can only find the right answers to our customers’ questions by acting and communicating honestly.
Honesty is not a one-way street. It requires dialog – honest and open. We believe this is desirable, because only those who open up are open to change and further development.
Mindfulness (Andrea Montua)
Mindfulness is the basis of our value-oriented actions. Every colleague and every customer is different and should be rediscovered. We consciously adapt to the respective culture and the resulting needs of a company. We are attentive to the people we work with and take time for the very individual tasks we are given. We look after each other in our team. This is the only way we can maintain a high level of performance and give everyone the space they need to grow personally.
And now it’s your turn – there are many reasons to remind your company values internally. Any channel, any format can be used for this. Try to involve colleagues and let them tell their story or a story of their own. This way, values become tangible and tangible and do not remain abstract. The management should always lead the way. It is a role model for everyone and can be presented and showcased as such.
Three quickwins for your value boost:
- One week, one value: declare company-wide value weeks: Individual working weeks focus on one value and are addressed in day-to-day business. Managers can be given tools to put values on the agenda in team routines.
- Ten values, ten cards: For example, cool “value cards” with which the team members are asked to deal with a value and share their thoughts. Value cards can also be given to each other to express mutual appreciation and recognition.
- One value, ten votes: To accompany this, produce a series on the intranet, in the MAZ or the app, in which employees and management make statements about the values. Short and snappy testimonials that give the values a face.
Copyright lead image: Joey Graham / Unsplash