At EG, we have debated the age-old question of what came first – the chicken or the egg. The twist in our story is the question of whether our personal beliefs came first or if EG’s values did. This may appear to be a trivial question to an outsider but, from inside the tent, it is fundamental to our high-performance culture.
Unlike the chicken and egg story, we came to a definitive conclusion. Unfortunately, the complicated answer is neither – or both.
The reason that the answer to this question is so important to us is that the absolute alignment between personal beliefs and EG’s values is fundamental to our culture. This alignment means that individuals show up to work as their true selves and there is no wasted energy in their personal and professional growth. For EG, there is a deep trust in individual performance and responsibility as beliefs are innate and highly predicable.
Building on this trust, we feel free to respectfully challenge and debate decisions, buy-in and commit to decisions, be held to account, and have a clear focus on the results we are able to achieve.
Understanding the alignment between personal beliefs and EG values is even more critical to us during the current growth phase. As we meet new people, everyone at EG is invited to join in the recruitment process to get a different perspective on how that person aligns with EG’s values.
Relatively innocuous questions about moral dilemmas help us understand how someone might go about investing in an ethical way. Their personal use of technology will give an insight into their drive to embrace data-driven investment. Their background will be a clear indicator of how innovative they are, their entrepreneurial spirit and their ability to deliver social and environmental impact.
So, the next time that you feel a little uncomfortable with a decision at work, ask yourself if it aligns with your beliefs or if the company’s values are just. You may be surprised by how much this misalignment is affecting your performance. And if it is affecting your performance, how that is affecting those around you.
Now to the story of the goose that laid the golden egg – that’s a completely different debate.