How To Define Your Company Values To Attract The Right Support
Summary: Do you feel lost when it comes to defining your company's values? You're not alone. It can be a challenging task, but it's crucial for guiding your business in the right direction and enhancing your brand reputation.
Join me as I share some straightforward steps that will help you not only attract the right team but also make better decisions and reap all the benefits of defining your company values.
Have you been told you need to work on your mission, vision, and values in your company’s culture? Well, it’s probably sage advice...
...BUT it’s hard to get started.
Especially when you are knee-deep in the day-to-day work in your business. We are going to talk about how you define your company’s values so you can attract more team and support in your business.
Defining Your Company’s Culture
If you are at that stage of expanding your team, defining your company’s values and culture is more critical now more than ever. One of the biggest fears entrepreneurs face in their business is not only hiring the right people but can they trust them. Can they trust them to make the right decisions, help grow the business, and do the work as you would do?
That’s why defining a company culture is a crucial part of you being able to say yes to a new hire and being able to trust people! It’s the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that the company deems as desirable. Defining this element sets out your playbook. It tells people what is within the bounds of your business. This makes clarity for your team, which will reflect in their actions.
Why You Should Create and Define Your Company’s Values
There are a few key reasons you should create and define your company’s values:
- Your values are what attract, retain, and engage your team. It is what people can make a connection to at your company.
- It also improves morale. When you have happy people working at your business, you are happy too! Not only this but, happy people tend to get more done. Happiness goes hand in hand with productivity.
- Company values help to make a company scalable. Your team starts to do more and more for you because they understand your values. It helps your company have better systematic decision-making. Externally, it will also build your brand. It will give more people a place to connect with you on.
There is a four-step process that makes defining your company’s values simple.
Four Steps To Define Your Company’s Values To Attract The Right Support
Step 1: Recognize What Words Describe the Heart of Your Business
Where I see a lot of people go wrong is when they try to do the “right” thing. That’s not what this is about. This is about finding what you react to positively - your heart song. I give my clients a bank of words and three minutes to react (not think) and circle the words they respond to.
We find that people respond to certain words like integrity, respect, honor, intention, etc., and then tend to congregate into a category. Once we know the right category of their business, we then narrow them down.
Step 2: Narrow the Words Down to Three Words
Narrow all of those words down into three words.
If you can’t narrow them down to three, then no more than five…
BUT, if you can’t remember all five words, and recite them as the business owner, then let the ones you can't remember go.
Most likely, they do not need to be on the list because it doesn’t resonate with you as much as the other values.
Step 3: Sit with those words and look at your team/business.
You need the opportunity to decide if these values really define your business. If you have a team, take them into account. Do you see these values throughout your team’s everyday life, and how do we demonstrate these words that you resonate with your business?
Then, come back in a month and look at your work and these values again and refine. This will be a process, and you’re trying these values for your business and feeling your way through it to figure out if these words genuinely describe what you are trying to encompass in your company.
Step 4: Once Your Values are Narrowed Down, Ensure Your Team Supports Them
Once your values are narrowed down, share them with your team. They need to be involved in defining your company’s values.
With this group exercise, they can feel the connection with the values you are trying to figure out and implement and help define them better.
You need the team to agree with the values in order to support them.
If you don’t have a team just yet, no worries! Once you have that bank of words you’ve chosen, illicit more opinions.
Whether you have team or not, talk to your clients, mentors, advisors, and anybody that is around your business. Ask them if they see these words within your company. If they do, ask them how you, the team, and the business demonstrate these values.
Final Thoughts
When you have your final words narrowed down and you’re comfortable with them, what can you do to make sure your team supports your company’s values? You can now create value statements and think about how you demonstrate these values inside the team, with your clients, and in the world.
This is the BEST way to write a value statement because you want to give examples of what integrity, fun, and innovation look like within your company. This is a great time to pull out your values when you have to make tough decisions. Defining your values means you can wrap them into your sales, marketing, and recruiting process.
As the owner, you NEED to be the lead visionary in this area of your business, and it will pay off dividends with a team that is enthralled with working with your company. All of these elements come back to help you grow your business, find the right team, and hire the right support– all by defining the right values for your business!
If you are looking for a better way to utilize your values to build an engaged team who have your back to help your business grow, then let’s chat. Find some time at www.yourbizrules.com/chat
Leslie Hassler
Leslie Hassler is a dynamic author, speaker, and business strategist guiding businesses into more profits, cash flow, and success. Business owners come to Leslie seeking a way to strategically scale their businesses richly, stop the money leaks, and get back in control with confidence.
Using her more than 15 years of experience in business, finance, mindset, and more, Leslie takes multiple 6 and 7 figure businesses from cash-strapped and struggling to profitable and thriving with her unique Profitable Growth Incubator program.
Her genius has also been featured on stages around the United States, such as the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and in publications such as Entrepreneur.com.
Leslie is a mother of two high school boys, an avid traveler, a Past President of NAWBO DFW and an alumni of the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Business program.