A company vision and profit plan help employees see what will be achieved. The shared values that help employees understand how they are expected to work together to accomplish company goals are often missing. The good news is defining your shared values is easier than setting your vision or framing your profit plan. All you need to do is complete three easy-to-do exercises to establish your company’s core values.
Overview
A company’s values are the core of its culture. While a vision articulates a company’s purpose, values offer a set of guidelines on the behaviors and mindsets needed to achieve that vision. While many companies find their values revolve around a few simple topics (integrity, respect, professionalism, etc.), the originality of those values is less important than their being consistently modeled by the management team.
Values are of little importance unless they are reinforced in a company’s practices. If an organization professes, “people are our greatest asset,” it should also be ready to invest in people in visible ways. Whatever business owners’ value, they must be strengthened in contribution review criteria, incentive payouts, and promotion policies. They must be baked into the operating principles of daily life across the company to help your employees better work together to achieve company goals.
The best company values define what makes an organization unique to work for and with. In identifying the values that best represent your company, consider the following:
- What makes us different from our competitors that we want our company to be known for?
- How do we want those who interact with our people to remember them?
No company can build a strong culture without people who either share its core values or are willing and able to embrace them. People stick with the cultures they like. Your shared company values reflect how work is expected to get done and are the most efficient way of defining what is and what isn’t acceptable behavior.
Recognize that trying to improve your company culture with catered lunches, free massages, and NERF guns is like trying to survive on popcorn. While the buttery goodness might be satisfying for a while, the nourishment that will fuel good culture is the meat and potatoes of employees who feel valued and supplied with guiding principles and trust.
