The power of belief

When you were interviewing for the technology manager position at your company, you may have asked your interviewers to talk about their company culture. The answer might have included a reference to their corporate mission, perhaps recited from memory or stumbled over during an impromptu recollection. Possibly your corporate mission and some core values are hanging as a wall placard that you, and everyone else in your organization, passes by each day. 

Startups, in particular, might not have "taken the time" to create a mission and set of core values, and very few companies of any size can point to a majority of their employees that know their company's mission and core values. When it comes down to brass tacks, why does it really matter anyway? The answer is in the power of belief!

Technology managers as a general rule are pragmatic engineers. It is easy for us to discount the need for, and power of, a living model of inspirational leadership in the heat of everyday problem solving and solution building. If a corporate mission or set of core values doesn't have everyday use, they rightly deserve to be treated as a posturing exercise to either be avoided or politely shelved.

A corporate mission and supporting core values are intended to remind us and guide us that we, as a company, are (or aspire to be) a certain way. Because we are characterized by a set of values and beliefs, we will then act a certain way. We will act this way when our options take us to a fork in the road. We will especially act this way when our company is under stress. When the members of the team stop believing their company is the way it claims to be or has no way at all, they will become cyncial and emotionally shielded from contributing the fulness of their excellence and passion. When they see us as leaders linking the being of our values and mission to the doing of our everyday work content, they will rally around us and our company. If you are ever fortunate enough to work in a company where its mission and core values are written on the everday conduct and conversations of its team, you will know a fulfillment where you will want to spend the rest of your life working.