When it comes to establishing your core values, it is very important to gain the buy-in of all concerned, in other words, your key stakeholders at the very least. These are the people who either have an interest in your business or an influence over your business. If you work independently, this is still just as relevant, so please do not pay lip service. I say this because to build a business of true worth, you will have to bring other people into it at some point. Gaining buy-in to your values is of key importance. The following will work if you are designing values for the first time, but equally, it will work, albeit with a little adjustment, for existing teams too, where values are already in existence but may need to be updated or re-worked to fit the changing environment in which you are operating.
Getting Values Buy-In
If this is the first time you are designing core values for your business, and you have a team already, this is a great system to use. In fact, I would use it even if you have already established values and have a team that has not been directly involved in their generation. Even if you don’t have a team, you can share your ideas with your mastermind group.
- Have around the table meeting to discuss the culture of the business and the main principles that are or are going to be the foundation of the culture you want to develop. All the previous exercises will be of significant help to this aim.
- Get the team to discuss this and what behaviours they feel will represent this culture and how they can be applied to the business.
- Once you have fully discussed this, you can start to create a set of core values with the team that reflect the main principles that will go toward creating the personality of your business.
- I have personally found the best way to achieve this is to give the initial creative responsibility to each individual, allowing them to design their own set of core values. Once done, they can be presented and discussed. It is likely there will be duplication, which is a good sign.
- Ultimately the condensed list can be completed by the appropriate person or persons in the business before their formal adoption.
The clear benefit of designing core values in this way is that you are getting instant buy-in, and while you may ultimately control the end results, the contributions made by each individual help to gain the full support and buy-in you’re looking for, or you should be looking for.
The Double-Edged Sword
Your values, once constructed and adopted, are not to be taken lightly and not to be messed with; let me explain why. Your values have multiple tasks in your business. For example, new prospects may well undertake research and will look for information that will give them a feel for the personality of the business. This will probably come from two areas. Firstly what you are saying about yourself, maybe via your blog, the press and certainly your published values. Secondly, what others are saying about you in other media.
This is where values can be a double-edged sword. Values can do great good for your business but also have the potential to do great harm. Of course, the values are not the cause of the good or bad, but you and your team very much are.
Your values should be reminders to those working in and on the business of how they should be behaving. Your values should be the guidelines that your marketing and sales function follows. Your values should be the foundation of all process and procedure that allows the machine that is your business to operate.
Your values will initially be used to judge you and your business. If they promote a picture that you can be trusted, then this needs to be demonstrated in all that you do. People will judge you on the actions you take and will indeed compare what you say to their actual experience or indeed what they have heard. I urge you to take heed of this.