At the beginning of 2021, I had the opportunity to take the staff cohort of Sharesource through two foundational phases of values training.
With teams located in Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and soon to be Colombia, Sharesource’s workforce has since enjoyed an average growth of 10 new employees each month over the first few months of 2021 after these sessions.
To say a strong culture is HIGHLY important for this fast growing crew is an understatement.
My experience of this company is that they are already incredibly purposeful with their intent to be a values-led organisation. This was only reinforced when their team, across different cultures and backgrounds, all showed up with the same intention: How can we support each other and feel supported?
Phase One of the Values session was for all-team involvement, regardless of title or rank. It was designed this way to inherently focus on allowing space for each person to share their voice about what’s important to them to experience at work.
When people feel like they have a space to share and express what’s of value to them in the workplace, they play a more active role in contributing to the culture of said workplace. When they feel like their voices aren’t heard, where no matter what they say it doesn’t matter, it tends to ultimately lead towards complacency and lack of ownership.
Phase One also ensured the team took note of what they can personally do to show up in these values each day: What particular actions would this value look like? What certain questions could I ask? How could I put it into a tangible process?
What came next was a beautiful display of humans showing up for each other in a way many workplaces elsewhere might brush off as utopian or unrealistic. In learning to understand what each value word meant for each individual as far as action-steps, so many of the actions put forward were ‘other’ focused.
“How can I support you best right now?”
“What do you need? Time alone or someone to listen?”
This focus on the ‘other’ rather than the self displayed a robust culture in how they care and approach the business of being human within a business. This is key to culture. Regardless of whatever values a business holds, healthy culture can’t exist without care for the ‘other’ within its workforce. This includes leadership.
Phase Two moved its focus towards the leadership team. As a direct follow-on from Phase One, which concluded with the entire employee-base of Sharesource not only having a clearer understanding of their own and their colleague’s values at work, but also a robust knowledge of the tangible ways it could be practiced daily, in each moment, Phase Two then asked the question of leadership: “Where is leadership’s role in this?”
There was a direct continuation of accountability, being other-focused, and building a working community that genuinely feels supported in the way they need – not in the ‘easy’ way leadership has decided.
Working with Sharesource to uncover the depth behind their values and the richness that already exists in this strong workplace culture was such a pleasure. The kindness and humanity actively being cultivated is every facilitator’s dream to walk into.
