7 questions that can help define your company’s values

A company’s core values can be an incredibly powerful tool. When defined clearly and with everyone behind them, they explain what the company stands for in simple and clear terms.

A company’s values can be relied upon to help steer difficult decisions. They provide guidance and set a benchmark which employees can act against in day-to-day work.

From product design and dealing with customers to hiring and firing, employees can refer to the company values and make decisions more quickly and with confidence. There is no longer a need in calling a meeting or checking in with superiors.

Creating company values

So how do you go about creating your company values? It’s easy enough to brainstorm a list of buzzwords and phrases such as agile, transparency, and innovation. However, they have little meaning without further context.

A better way to approach defining yourselves is to answer specific questions that enquire about the way you want your company to work and how people should interact with each other and your customers.

Seven questions

1. Why are we doing this?

Is making wads of cash the sole reason for your company to exist; or are you trying to achieve something bigger? Maybe you are striving to improve yourself and your employees. Maybe it’s about learning more, or teaching others? Do you want to improve the world, or maybe just your home town?

2. In general, do we prefer to take risks or play it safe?

The answer to this question will let employees know how to address certain situations. In the pursuit of moving quickly, are people to be forgiven if they slip up? Or do you need things to be triple checked first?

3. How should a work project be approached?

Are you a fan of agile or lean methods or are you more comfortable with a waterfall approach? Are you happy releasing a minimal product first that can be iterated upon? What level of polish do you require? Does the idea of moving fast and breaking things fill you with fear? Are you happy to learn as you go, or spend time researching up front?

4. Who is the face of your company — the faceless institution, the leader or the individuals within?

This question grapples with the identity of the company itself. Some companies like to show they are a collection of personalities. Others prefer to be seen as ‘the company’ and not the people within that company.

5. How important is maintaining a work/life balance?

Your employees need to understand what is expected of them. Do you need your employees to put the job first or their personal time, friends and family first? Ask yourself what you expect of people outside of core hours, at the weekend or during time off. If you send an email at 11pm when would you expect a reply?

6. How should your team mates communicate and what should they be saying?

Some companies value transparency whilst others operate on a strict need-to-know basis. Should every meeting and discussion be logged somewhere? How do feel about the use of communication tools: email, Slack, mobile phones, HipChat?

Do you love or hate meetings? Are they important to you to for driving the company forward, or do they suck the life out of everything?

What are you happy with your employees knowing? Each others salaries, project budgets, staff reviews, bonuses, sales figures, KPIs and company metrics?

7. What sort of personalities and attitudes are important to you?

Define the ideal attitude towards work, fellow colleagues and your clients. Helpfulness, empathy, candor, positivity, humbleness, critical, calm, excited, patient, genuine, honest, aggressive, competitive, gratitude. Should everyone just look out for themselves or or put their team first?

Start the process today

Use these questions just as a starting point. Make sure your answers are true and honest — fake values tend to be see-through to both your employees and your customers. If the answers provide further questions that need answering then you’re happily on the road to defining your values!

It doesn’t matter if you feel like your values aren’t completely defined or unfinished. They will most likely change and be added to as time goes on anyway.

What other questions or exercises can help define a company’s values? I’d love to find out your thoughts and ideas. And if you found this article useful, please help me out by hitting the ♥ button!

Thanks to Steve Worsley for helping me with this article.