Make your core values more than a pretty poster

Make your core values more than a pretty poster

Core values are an important part in communicating to the world who you are and what you stand for.

I often see businesses and organisations with core values that haven’t really progressed from a poster on a lunch room wall to the rest of their day to day operations. The intention is good but it’s too easy to fall into a couple of common traps when it comes to core values:

1.       You have too many
Too many = not memorable and if your team can’t remember them, how can they put them into action or understand their importance?

2.       They’re too vague
They’re vague and therefore they have little meaning to your team or customers

Here’s my rule of thumb when it comes to developing and articulating your company core values - make them simple and make them true to your organisation.

In my view, five should be your absolute maximum when it comes to putting together your core values. Three is ideal. It’s too easy to put together a long list of buzzwords that might feel nice but quickly get lost. Think about drilling down into what three values you feel most articulate the ethos of your company. To do that, ask yourself questions like:

1.       What do we want to be known for?

2.       What principles are most important to us? Why?

3.       What drives our decision making?

4.       What values am I willing to make a stand for?

Think about other companies that you admire or aspire to and identify what it is about them that you appreciate. Could you emulate these in your own business?

Putting language around your core values is equally important. Things like teamwork and integrity often top core values lists but what do they actually mean? Their overuse leads people to glaze over and not really understand how to implement them in their day to day.

If you’d consider integrity to be a core value of your organization, think about how you can make it more meaningful. At Sudburys, we wanted to put it into language that felt true to us. We landed on ‘We do the right thing’. It feels like something our team can own, it’s clear and it’s applicable to our every day. I use it in decision making processes all the time.

Teamwork is another buzz word – and so it should be – but its meaning is often diluted thanks to excessive use from the board room to the sports field. Again, we looked at how to make it ‘stick’ better at Sudburys and so another of our core values is ‘We are a team’.

Finding the wording that feels like the right fit is important but it’s just the beginning. Finding the corresponding actions and behaviour to match are the hard part! Make sure you’re upholding your core values by incorporating them into decision making, collaborating with your team around how to implement them in your operations and celebrate them when you see them in action!

Not sure what all the fuss is about? Are core values really that important? We’d argue they are. Read more here or contact Diana Piggott - diana@sudburys.co.nz to talk more.