Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods, Circuit City, each from different industries, had few competitive advantages. Through empowering people and viewing them as an asset, rather than a cost to be minimized, they all achieved success.

Hudson Valley organizations must create an organizational philosophy to give people a clear sense of what the organization stands for, where it is headed, and what they must do to help it succeed.

A 1995 study reported in the Academy of Management Journal concluded that organizations emphasizing long-term strategy, extensive communication, and acceptance of their vision by employees are most likely to be successful in creating lasting change.

A recent Inc. magazine survey revealed that the single most important long-term motivator for employees was “a sense of mission, vision and values.” This placed ahead of raises, performance bonuses, and profit sharing.

The mission defines the purpose of the organization, the reason why everyone comes to work. What products and services do we provide? Who are our customers? What do our products and services do for our customers? What makes us unique?

The vision describes the desired future for the company and requires the ability to imagine a better situation. An effective vision must engage people’s emotions, and provide meaning to their work.

Core values help people determine what’s right and wrong. They tell everyone what is important, and how they should behave, solve problems, and treat people.

Simplify because people have difficulty remembering your entire mission, vision, and core values. “At Ford, quality is job one.” L.L. Bean’s slogan is “100% satisfaction in every way.” A philosophy will only make an impact if widely communicated and understood.

Hudson Valley organizations that have created and instilled a philosophy in their companies must now establish a positive climate in which employees want to come to work, give everything they’ve got, and stay with the company over the long term.

Key to this climate is trust. If you trust your people, they will behave as independent, empowered adults. If you trust all of your customers and employees, 97 percent of them will reward your faith.

Trust can only succeed once you’ve established the mission, vision, and core values. Only when people know how they are supposed to behave, can they do their work without having to be told.

The most common reason employees leave is because of lack of praise and recognition. Although praising employees is easy and cost-free, few managers do it. Learn to catch employees doing things right, or almost right.

Master the PIN technique, a three-step mental sequence that first focuses on the “positive”; then on what is “interesting and innovative”; and last on what is “negative”.

Key in the company’s climate is the reward system that ties rewards to performance. Recognize about three-quarters of employees each year do it in front of peers. If you are rewarding outcomes you don’t want, begin to change your reward system right now.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker™ about Business Planning Issues.