YOUR VALUES SPEAK LOUDER THAN COMPANY VALUES

I'm interested in how top leaders can be so excited about the company values 
and yet be blind to or not interested in their personal values.
And yet, your personal values either support or erode the stated
company values.  Your personal values are up in neon for all to see through your day to day actions.

There are a million  reasons why you can excuse yourself from living the company values.  Complexity, competing values, extraordinary situations.
NOT.

There is a very different feel to an organization when the top leader's values support those of the company.  When this is not the case, there is a a kind of character flabbiness that leads to subtle cynicism, lax respect and self focus in general.

When there is a leader that lives the company values, all kinds of energy and power are in the atmosphere.  There is a back bone to the organization.
There is a sense of clarity and security that allows the focus to be on the business, not on personal safety.  There is a freedom to run fast.  The company makes sense.  Congruence releases energy.  There is so much less muck to manage.  

Try bravery.  Find a way to learn what values you demonstrate on a day to day basis.  

DON'T LET CONSULTANTS DO YOUR JOB

Consultants want you to need them.
They need you to need them.
Seems obvious but don't be blind to the moment when they are leading you, not vice versa.

Consultant Red Flags for Top Execs:

1.  You can't articulate the exact outcome that you want to accomplish with the use of the consultants.

2.  You don't have a precise end point for the work to be done. You are stalling.

3.  Your direct reports are taking action based on the consultants advice ---informing  but not involving you.

4.  You spend more time with the consultants than with your direct reports.

5.  You expect the consultants to make you job easier and they do.  (Managing/
leading consultants is just as hard as managing anyone else. Should not be easy)

6.  The ROI is being traded for placating and feeling good about yourself.

7.  The cultural language of the company has become that of the consulting group.

8.  The work space of the consultants has begun to look like home.

9.  The consultants attend major company meetings.

10. There is no feedback loop or performance discussion between you and the
consultants.  

THE EXCITEMENT OF BEING STEADFAST

New Year's carries the fenzied excitement for the new that I don't trust.
Especially in business right now.
Shallow new instead of deep innovation.
Anyway, I want to speak up for steadfastness to the point of boredom.

Absolutely one of the best companies I worked for and with was noted
by Wall Street analysts as "boring".

It was steadfast. 
It set a course.
It held the course.
It completed the course.

It set a course.
It held the course.
It completed the course.

Yawn, yawn, yawn.
Consistent, incremental positive results over time.

Oh to be excited by that much boredom.
Your company is yearning for it.
There has been so much "world class", "best in class" only to end up "bottom of the class".
Fresh starts, kick starts, new ways, my way or the highway.
Design, re-design.
Upscale, up level, upstart.

You've got people living in perpetual transition, neither here nor there.
Setting the course may be the hardest thing you'll ever do.
But boy is there power in the steadfastness of staying the course.
Aim for a little boredom.