Implementing Corporate Values
By Michael Wilkinson, CMF
Managing Director, Leadership Strategies
As a consultant, I am always excited to hear from organizations which have successfully implemented and benefited from a training concept or service Leadership Strategies provides. But it is doubly pleasing when the organization is owned and operated by a relative!
Time-to-Dine is an Atlanta-based catering organization specializing in providing a wide selection of menus for corporate functions, special occasions, private and social events. Owned by Michelle and L. Pepper Heusner-Wilkinson, Time-to-Dine recently put in place a set of corporate values. I asked our Marketing Director, Kathy Bedford, to interview one of the owners, Michelle Wilkinson, about what they did and the immediate impact it had on their business.
"I'd been working with Michael on corporate values statements and strategic planning. Every day we try to make sure that corporate values are put into action through our language, whether we are talking about the food we prepare, conversing with customers or dealing with vendors. Our primary goal is maintaining the trusting relationships we've built with our clients. In order to accomplish this, we recognize there are certain things we have to do. We had never come across an exact language or put into writing what we were modeling to our employees.
Michael sent me a copy of a set of corporate values Leadership Strategies utilized. After going over it with Pepper, my business partner, we realized this captured the essence of goals we wanted our own team to achieve. The document really described what we endeavor to accomplish every day at Time-to-Dine.
We decided to implement the values and had the value statements nicely printed and laminated, then hung them everywhere, including our eight work stations. Pepper and I held a staff meeting that Friday afternoon, making sure everyone understood what each value meant-in essence what Time-to-Dine's responsibility was in partnering with our clients. We also emphasized individual responsibilities between each other, going through each value and giving practical examples of what each statement 'looks like' in the work place. Our staff includes Spanish speaking employees, and we recognized the importance of translating the values into Spanish as well, so everyone could better understand our corporate philosophy.
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