THE RAINBOW INTERNATIONAL ® DIFFERENCE By Mark Welstead
• How do you reinforce the Code of Values at your franchise? • Do you recite them at company gatherings? • Do you display them on a wall? • Do your personnel know the values are YOUR values? • Do you live the values daily for all to see? • Do you keep the need for ethics as top of mind? M ost of the new franchisees who come into the Rainbow International® franchise family tell us that the Code of Values was one of the major tipping points during their due diligence. That means all other things were basically equal, but they wanted to own a franchise that respected the franchisee. They wanted to be a part of an organization (you and me) that operated with Respect, Integrity and Customer Focus. Knowing that ethics and values are at the forefront in determining our new franchise owners is humbling and so encouraging. So, how do we show it? How do we live it every day? How do we reinforce the need for positive values? For me, the starting point is focusing on the first item listed on our list of Code of Values… “We live our Code of Values by treating others as we would like to be treated .” It seems to me if you do this one value well, the rest of the values seem to take care of themselves. That sounds pretty simple actually. If you were to always apply this one filter to your decision making, perhaps doing the right thing wouldn’t be difficult to do. This reminds me of a quote by Norman Schwarzkopf. He says, “The truth of the matter is that you always KNOW the right thing to do. The hard part is DOING it.” Role playing is a good tactic to practice to help make our values “real”. Create a few scenarios where values come into play and discuss it with your team. Ask your team what they would do and why? Discuss the thought process of how you, as the leader, feel about a situation, what you recognize as potential dilemmas and alternatives (good and bad), and how you would resolve the situation. Here are some tips to help you lead a code of values discussion at your next team meeting: • Don’t go first. When you give the answer first, discussion can be stifled and you may get canned answers. Stress openness and honesty as you
discuss how to handle the scenarios. Emphasize the code of values that may come into play in the scenario.
• Don’t criticize the responses. If you want open discussions and ideas in the future, your team must feel safe sharing their opinions and know that what they share has value and is taken seriously. If you criticize the first time, the next time you ask a question, the only feedback you may hear will be silence. • Don’t limit the scenarios to drying a structure. Potential ethics issues are within the entire organization from top to bottom. Discussions over time can be on subjects like time clocks and payroll; personal expenses with company resources; accuracy and quality of paperwork; preparing accurate estimates; managing relationships with insurance personnel; responding in a timely way to internal or external requests, and so on. As you can see, the list is endless, and you aren’t singling out a group. It’s important to remember that what we all do as individuals affect all of us. • Emphasize the thought processes used to achieve the right answer. You can’t be in the room for every difficult decision every day. In the role- playing exercise, make sure you ask “Why” and “How” a lot. Every person does not have to answer every question correctly, but every person needs to be listening to what the right answer is and consequently “Why” and “How” the individual arrived at the right answer. Now, the hard part: As the owner, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. YOU have to walk the walk. Just like little kids, all of your employees are watching, learning and ready to imitate your behavior. In the words of H. Jackson Brown, “Live so when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you.” Living daily may seem like a lofty goal, but this goal is part of why a lot of people choose Rainbow International over other restoration franchise opportunities. Our Code of Values are the differentiator when making the choice. Before you beat yourself up over not being perfect, remember, “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2), but we must remain steadfast and keep striving to do the right thing… and the rest will take care of itself. See you at Reunion!
STORMSURGE TM | E1:2017 5
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