I was watching one of those nature documentaries narrated by Sir David Attenborough on the weekend. He was discussing the life cycle of various animals and how they rely on plants to survive. One of the interesting facts he mentioned was that grass is considered THE most resilient plant on the planet. It was in the context of describing a bush fire and he reminded viewers that the heart of the grass plant is underground so it can easily regenerate after a fire. In fact some types of grass need a regular burn off to thrive.

It got me thinking about how people bounce back from adversity at work. Often on the surface we can appear to be completely ruined whether it is through stock market crashes, natural disasters or employees who act unethically. So what is it that helps organisations to come back from the equivalent of a fire? It is the values of the organisation. They are the heart of the organisation and are often hidden underground but they inform everything that happens.

If your organisation doesn’t have strong values then you are going to hit trouble when times get tough and we have certainly seen plenty of examples of that in the last few years. Equally, your leaders also need to have strong personal values that guide their decision making in good times and in bad. The values of the leaders act as an example to the staff who rely on their leaders to show the way. If you don’t think your staff are behaving in an ethical way then you need look no further than your leaders to know why.

So, on a scale of 1 (weak) to 10 (strong), how would you rate the values in your leadership team?

Tags: Employee Communication, Employee morale, engagement, Engaging conversations, Organisational culture, resilience at work