Hello Chasers,
Productive people and businesses have a set of guiding principles and beliefs that help them function together as a team and work toward a common business goal.
These guiding principles and beliefs are their core values.
So, what are values?
Values are the things that are most important to us.
They are our core beliefs.
They are the qualities that make up who we are.
Values can set a business apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for its Team. But coming up with strong values – and sticking to them – requires real guts.
In fact, when you live and breathe your core values you will experience pain, and inflict it too!
According to Patrick M Lencioni’s article in the Harvard Business Review – Make Your Values Mean Something – “They make some employees feel like outcasts. They limit an organisation’s strategic and operational freedom and constrain the behaviour of its people. They leave executives open to heavy criticism for even minor violations. And they demand constant vigilance.”
He goes so far as saying that you shouldn’t even bother having a vision statement if you are not willing to go this far!
Nonetheless, if you are willing to adopt this stance you will be build an amazing business culture and position of excellence in your community and industry that others will envy.
When coming up with your values make sure they are not things you want to see of would like to happen in your business. For example, there is not much point in a value – ‘We Deliver’ – if your business is constantly missing deadlines, loses parcels or fails to arrive on time.
When you have your value list make sure to build some text around what each one means so that your Team know what they are and they are striving to achieve.
They should be so deeply ingrained in your business psyche that any compromise is called out and not tolerated. Your business values should flow through every interaction, every decision and every policy you have or make.
Developing your values is the easy part, it’s living them every day that is the hard part …
… but the rewards are outstanding for your Customers, your Team, and your business.
Have a great day!
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