The Practical Effectiveness of a Deliberate Culture

Part 3 of my interview Mark Urso, the owner and president of Bear Contracting, a heavy civil contractor out of Bridgeport, WV.

Me: What practical effects did clarifying your Core Values have?

Mark: “We quickly saw that we had people who weren’t aligned with our Core Values. They weren’t Committed, they weren’t Driven, they weren’t Trustworthy or Team Players. You can go out to any of our jobsites now and ask anyone, superintendent or laborer, what our Core Values are, and they will tell you.”

Here’s an example of how the Leadership Team (LT) at Bear Contracting experienced the fruits of a strong, deliberate culture that they had consistently shared with their employees:

A field employee had bragged to his fellow employees that he was using an out of state home address so he could collect a per diem, when in reality he lived in-state.

Some of his crew mates shared this information with Mark and said to him, point blank, “I get what you’re trying to do here, and I’m in. But are these Core Values that you’ve been preaching to us real or not? What are you going to do about it?”

Holy cow. Can you imagine if your employees did that to you?

In the end, Mark didn’t even have to do anything. The guy quit because the culture, but more importantly, the people in the company who shared the Core Values, rejected him.

On any given day, employees may not give a lot of thought to their company’s Core Values. But when they observe a behavior that they think doesn’t fit with the company’s culture, they will have a frame of reference to know WHY they don’t think the observed behavior ‘fits.’ On a more positive side, your ‘good’ employees want to know that they belong. They want to fit in. And they want to be surrounded by people who believe in the same things they do.

Most companies don’t bother with the real work of spelling out to their employees, “These are our Core Values. They are real, and this is what it’s like to work here. If this isn’t you, this may not be the place for you.”

Core Values are NOT feel-good platitudes that you frame and put on a wall. They are a TOOLs you can use to ensure you are surrounding yourself with like-minded people. And LT members had better “live” those Core Values day in and day out, because your employees can sniff out a fraud from a mile away.

If you go back to the first post of this “Mark Urso Series,” you’ll see one of the more desirable outcomes of a strong, deliberate culture.

And if you would like to sample the EOS experience (for free), you can get in touch with me HERE or email me at will.karbach@eosworldwide.com

Will Karbach is a Certified EOS Implementer, serving VA, WV, NC, DC, and Western MD.

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