What does your door say?
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There
was story about a man who checked into a hotel for the first time in his life,
and goes up to his room. This
is rather confusing to the new driver employee, because the recruiter was very
enthusiastic during the selection process and spoke of how friendly the company
was. Unfortunately, this lack of
recognition may create a feeling of unrealized expectations and eventually a
voluntary turnover statistic for the Carrier.
Five
minutes later he called the reception desk and said: "You've given me a room
with no exit. How do I leave?"
The
desk clerk said, "Sir, that's absurd. Have you looked for the door?"
The
man said, "Well, there's one door that leads to the bathroom. There's a second
door that goes into the closet. And there's a door I haven't tried, but it has a
“DO NOT DISTURB” sign on it."
When
reading the story, I thought about how our company culture can give out signals
that say, “DO NOT DISTURB.” Like the man checking into a hotel for the
first time, we have new driver employees aimlessly wondering around terminal
facilities because our work environment gives out signals that say, “DO NOT DISTURB.” This DO NOT DISTURB message
is given out by:
How
can this happenWhile
many companies may have a vision that includes a mission statement, critical
success factors, goals and action steps; this only tells us WHAT course of action to take to
achieve our results and does not tell us how to do it. How to do it comes from
our values and it’s the values that determine our behavior on HOW we are going to go about achieving
our objectives.
Vision
without values may give us a detailed process on what to do to achieve the
desired result; but it doesn’t necessarily address the spirit in which we
achieve the result. Values that are
aligned horizontally and vertically within an organization provide guiding
principles or a moral compass that govern our behavior when engaging with both
customers and fellow employees. More importantly, Values with a clear vision
draw people with like minds to your organization.
So
if you get a chance, exchange that “DO
NOT DISTURB SIGN” for a “WECLOME
SIGN” and start building sustainable relationships today.
