Board members on the forefront agree that company purpose, culture, and values are significant levers of profitable long term company growth. If defined and implemented well, these can be strong driving forces guiding the strategy and decision-making processes, as well as important prerequisites for recruiting and retaining best talent.
Even if most companies have a clearly defined purpose, culture, and values, many boards find it hard to get an understanding of how well these are embedded in the organization – and rightly so! Though board members may interact individually with various leaders at the company, the board generally does not have a practical tool for obtaining measurable insights into these issues.
Here are a few questions the board could ask the executive management to get a better sense of the situation.
- Why do people want to work for the company, and why do they leave?
- How has the company employee churn developed over the last five years?
- What do the current company surveys (like “Employee Engagement Study” and 360-degree leadership evaluation) tell us in terms of culture and values?
- If we do not have sufficient data to provide measureable insights on the organizational culture, what internal data could be collected, or what new surveys could be implemented, in order to get an understanding of this important area?
Having the answers to these questions can give the board a good initial foundation for discussion and provide the basis for development of an action plan.
Another way to measure the extent of implementation of the agreed purpose, culture, and values is to use a tool that we have developed and used with several clients. This tool can help boards get more involved in this arena and work hands-on with good corporate governance.
Our Cultural Behavioral Indicator Analysis highlights alignment and reveals gaps in the organizational culture within and between several levels of the organization. It highlights the strongest and weakest links between what the organization has defined and what the different levels experience in terms of cultural behavior indicators. The results are presented in a way that enables the board to have a sound discussion and to decide how to follow up.
If you would like to learn more about this new indicator, please contact us at reception@LeadershipAdvisorGroup.com
Interested in self-evaluation? Try Online Board Evaluations
Well-aligned with national corporate- and foundation/charity governance recommendations, our board clients usually conduct an external board evaluation every three years. However, most national governance recommendations recommend that boards perform a self-evaluation in the years between an external board evaluation. Therefore, we have developed OnlineBoardEvaluations.com which is a tool enabling boards to self-evaluate effectively and effortlessly every year.
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