What Are Company Values?

One of the main benefits of having company values is that you keep everyone on the same page at work otherwise you have people who create their own little mini-cultures and there can be conflict about “who’s was is right?”

It's one of the key factors to create culture, and to consciously create the culture that you want for your business. I'm also recognizing the importance of it in today's business economy, because of the massive lack of staffing, and the number of people that are consciously choosing businesses that have an amazing culture.

And it's even more important for you to have those values really clear so that people will choose you.

According to a Christchurch study, “46% of the people interviewing for job positions mentioned how important culture was for them in their job. “

One of the main benefits of having company values is that you keep everyone on the same page at work otherwise you have people who create their own little mini-cultures and there can be conflict about “who’s was is right?”

Because the thing about culture, is it perpetually down spirals, or perpetually up spirals. And it happens really slowly. Just one little comment, one little attitude, one little thing at a time. And then you turn around, and you realize that it's been solidified. And it's really hard to undo. And that's where values come in.

So what are values? Values are the emotional experience that we want to have on a consistent basis. It's what we want to live. It's how it's what we hold important to us. The things that you love.

But how does that work in a company? Well, in a company, it's literally how we do things here. It's who you are, as a company, it's who you want to be, and consciously creating steps towards that.

One reason why I love values so much is because it helps you to recognize who is going to succeed within their job. And who isn't.

Because when you hire somebody that is a values match, that person will feel like they're part of something, they'll feel like they belong, because they have the same common values that the company has. And they will be the ones that will grow with the company and put their hand up to take on more responsibility because they truly believe in the culture of the company.

It's not enough to create your values when you (hopefully) did your business plan and to have values you've really got to live them.

As the leader, it's our responsibility to bring those values to life. What you can do is use them in your team meetings. And it's a real massive benefit. Because if you have a normal team meeting, and you start the meeting by, okay, what's happening at the moment? Everyone share what you're “doing” in their role. That's a pretty normal meeting, isn't it?

But imagine starting with: “I would love an example of how somebody lived the values this week? Or “Share with me, when you were engaging with that customer? What values were you sharing with them? And those kinds of questions are deeper, more complex. They reward how the team member is ‘being’ and not just what they are ‘doing’.

Do to get the difference?

The next point is that values are setting the expectation for the company. When you've got clear values on the wall, everybody knows how they need to act and behave. And that's an expectation. They see it, they understand it, they buy into it.

The other part to this is that it wastes it less time when everybody knows how they're supposed to be, and how they're supposed to show up. We don't waste time figuring out if that person's a good fit. And the staff turnover rates these days are really getting up there. And it's really incredible how many companies don't hire based on values, and they spend all this money training someone and then that person leaves because they don't feel they fit in. And they don't probably because they weren't values match in the first place!

When we take the time to step back, and create these values with your team before these problems happen, we save ourselves in the long run.

Values can also help mitigate problems within the company.

I'll give you an example. I worked with an organization and one of their values was “care always” This seems like a really lovely value but what happened is the team was caring always about everyone else………And they weren't caring for themselves and burning out in the process. When we did my Values workshop we were about to create a new value that was something like “top up your cup first”. This meant they had a more sustainable approach and all the managers could keep their team accountable for relaxing and taking time to unwind!

So what are the steps for us to be able to bring these values to life?

The first one is having those values clear. And quite often, companies don't know what their values are. And that's where there's an opportunity and opportunity to create them as a team. Or maybe there was already some, but they're a little outdated. Or maybe you do have really great values. And they could be used more in the company.

We can also use the values to hire fire and coach people. So having the values as an expectation means that at the beginning of somebody's role, it's clear how you expect them to act, Then if you saw that they weren't living the values a coaching conversation might go a little bit like this. “Hey, Johnny, I noticed that one of our values is to cross your t's and dot your i's the last project that you did, I didn't see that level of care. Are you able to just share with me what went on there? And do you need some support to help do it better next time?

As the Leader you have a clear list of what you need to recognise in your team and give immediate feedback if you don’t see it or see something that opposes it.

When you haven't seen that value being lived, it's an opportunity right there. Not in 90 days when you have a performance review, but in the moment or in the week, to be able to course correct to help that person to raise their standards to meet the values. That’s culture.

Lastly, it helps give your customers a consistent experience. Especially when you go from being owner-operator to having employees and you want your team to be able to give your customers the same experience that they initially got from you so you can step back and be the Leader.

For more information on values check out the Inspired Leaders Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/3HI11ckkQB1IUkU9mumNK3