2 minute read
Respect for the Individual: What Does it Mean to Us?
As an organization that promotes growth for our colleagues and partners, we strive to maintain authenticity every day. At Wiley University Services, authenticity means being yourself at work and having respect for the individuals who help our partners achieve their goals.
Every Day Values: How we live this company value every day
On its surface, authenticity seems straightforward, but there are many components to it. By committing to authenticity, our team invests in our mission to empower learners to create positive change. At the same time, we maintain transparency by sharing honest feedback that our partners need to make informed decisions that lead to growth.
By underpinning our authenticity with empathy, we turn the concept of being yourself into a selfless act. For example, if a colleague is experiencing difficulty in their personal or family lives, we band together as a community to help in the best ways we can.
Our people rally around each other when needed, whether it is a group of colleagues chipping in to help another colleague repair property after a storm or the many GoFundMe pages that have been launched to help colleagues dealing with a variety of serious personal situations. This is extremely important, and it’s one of the things that make us an empowered organization: We rally together to help our Wiley family. This is who we are as a team.
Authenticity guides relationships between managers and members of their teams, too. After all, taking an empathetic approach to authenticity bolsters the respect for the individual necessary for constructive development conversations. Development conversations can help us grow in our professional and personal lives. It is imperative to weave respect for the individual into these conversations, as this practice ensures managers deliver development feedback in professional, respectful, and helpful ways.
Successful development conversations occur when colleagues receiving feedback understand what they can do to improve their performance while continuing to develop as an individual and a professional.
Some development conversations are difficult for both the giver and the receiver of the message. If both parties enter these conversations with the understanding that the goal is to help the colleague grow and develop (instead of seeing these conversations as punitive), the results will be a more productive discussion and development plan.
All of us are developing professionally every day, a fact that guides our managers and colleagues when they give or receive feedback. Feedback is given and received at all levels of the organization, and all input has merit. This all-encompassing approach to development helps make Wiley special.
Authenticity and respect for the individual are fundamental to our culture, and they inform everything we do. Because we put so much emphasis on respecting the individual, we have a framework for empowering our teammates in both professional and personal situations.
Would you like to learn more about our culture? A great next step is to review our core values on our Culture and Values page.
