7 reasons why your company needs core values
Hiring your first employee changes your business in many ways. One subtle way that often gets overlooked is the added complexity it adds. Instead of knowing how to get stuff done and just doing it yourself, sharing that information is crucial to helping your new teammate help.
The process repeats itself as your business grows and new people are added to the team. Communication becomes a vital part of your company. Your company’s success puts new demands on your ability to share the tools and systems that drive business.
All of this impacts the bottom line in very tangible ways. You can see the needle move when your sales team lands a deal or when your marketing team launches a new campaign.
If you’re not careful, you’ll hit a tipping point where your company starts to slip. It’s different for each company, but when you start adding employees you’re adding more than a force to help you get shit done. You’re adding people with unique experiences.
Everyone wants to do great work. Not everyone has the same interpretation of what that “great work” means — even if they can agree that it has something to do with growing your company’s bottom line.
That’s just one reason why it’s critical to identify, define, and communicate your company’s core values to your entire team.
Here’s a few more reasons why it’s important for your company to have core values.
Core values establish a foundation. Everything in your company is built on your core values. It’s who you are; not who you want to be — those are aspirational values, not core values.
Core values set the ground rules for acceptable behavior. Your core values should be what you use to hire and fire. They’re the rules you won’t let anyone cross.
Core values set the tone for your company’s mission. Your mission statement is what you do. Your core values are how you behave. Together, they send a clear message about your company.
Core values set expectations up front. When the time comes to fire someone who has violated your core values, everyone will understand why the decision was made to let them go.
Core values give your tribe BAM. Using core values in your hiring process helps ensure each person belongs at your company. This’ll naturally lead to more BAM from like-minded people working alongside each other toward a common goal.
Core values help in decision-making. There are thousands of decisions being made across your company each week. You hired great people who want to do great work. Clearly identifying your core values helps them feel confident the decisions they’re making are pushing the company forward instead of holding it back.
Core values hold you accountable. Leaders need to be held accountable, too. We lose sight of what’s important sometimes. When you’ve identified core values and built an environment where your tribe trusts you, they can call you out when you’re straying from the path.
If you haven’t identified your core values, now is the time. Each day that passes is a missed opportunity to help your team feel confident they’re rowing in the same direction. We’ve put together a free guide to help you walk through the steps to identify, define, and communicate your core values for your tribe.
Originally published at www.patelokc.com on October 18, 2018.
