MAKING YOUR COMPANY VALUES MEAN SOMETHING

Company values are at the heart of every company… at least they’re supposed to be.

They set the tone of how you and your employees approach business, culture, and at the core of it all, how you treat people.

Of course, businesses are created to make money, expand, and grow in influence, but as soon as you lose touch with the human aspect, you lose a unique connection with consumers, clients, and employees. This is where company values come in.

I don’t think I’ve come across a company website that doesn’t have a page or list of commitment to certain values.

They usually are along the lines of: “Respect. Authenticity. Ambition. Community.”

Great values, and if carried out in all they do, it’s the perfect recipe for a successful, people-focused business.

But the harsh reality is that when you communicate with these businesses or walk into their offices, there’s barely a hint of these values.

Values aren’t just about helping you sell a service or making your website look appealing, they’re about the day-to-day practices of your company. 

If you want to make statements about your company being respectful, authentic, ambitious, and community-driven – you need to commit to it to ensure everyone that comes in contact with you and your company strongly feels those values.

Your values have to represent the leaders

Leaders determine the entire atmosphere of a company.

They call the shots, train the team, and ultimately determine whether their values are actually acted out. 

When promoting someone to a management position, don’t just think of it as a business or financial decision – think of it as a people decision. 

• How does that person reflect the values? 

• Do they care about company culture? 

• How do they treat people, both their colleagues and their clients? 

• Do they have a trustworthy approach to business?

You should also ask yourself and other leaders these questions because you’re the blueprint for how other leaders will act.

Here are two other blogs I wrote about leadership to use as tools:

5 Signs You’re Ready For Leadership

Want To Become A Better Leader? Here’s How:

Your values have to represent the team

Hiring for skills and experience is important, but so is hiring for a culture fit. And a huge part of a culture fit is shared values. 

If you’re wanting a team who treats each other with respect, collaborates well, and is truly dedicated to the vision of the team – you have to hire people who already have those attributes.

And continue to hire them at that.

It’s no secret that many big corporations lose touch with their values because they’ve focused on scaling rather than refining. But they all began with a small team of friends, working together to create something fun, innovative, and helpful to their target market. 

You may be a startup and have a small team. A team that you can truly say represents the values of your company and get on with each other well. It’s easy to then assume that when you want to scale, you can hire people that will eventually adjust to the culture and business principles of the company. 

News flash: you can’t change people. 

You can get them to adjust to new systems, learn new processes, and learn about the industry, but character isn’t something that can be taught.

Being careless with the people you bring in can lead to them infecting negativity in the culture, leading to entire teams losing sight of the original values, which leads to unhappy clients when they’re getting poor service, and unhappy employees when they’re being treated poorly by their colleagues.

You should be continuously training and keeping your team aware of the values regardless of how things are going, but if your team is already swaying away from what the company stands for, be proactive and make a change.

One thing I recommend starting with is actually speaking to your employees and asking them how they feel about the culture and if they truly understand the values.

Your values have to represent how you treat clients

Ever been watching adverts on the TV and see a company’s great advert and roll your eyes because you know they don’t live up to anything they say?

The same applies to how you also treat consumers and clients.

You can’t talk about ‘excellence’ and ‘dedication’ in your values but provide a lousy service to clients. Ensure both you and your team aren’t cutting corners but truly go out of their way to provide an unforgettable experience for your clients.

Your values have to represent how you treat the team

Companies could outwardly be the kindest most ethical bunch, but they pay little to no attention to bringing their values into the workplace.

Values aren’t a marketing ploy, they’re a real, active part of a business.

If one of your values happens to be ‘respect’, this doesn’t just apply to your clients, but it applies to the Graduate Assistant that should be spoken to like an adult and given excellent training to support their career. 

If another is ‘approachable’, this doesn’t just mean you post fun pictures on LinkedIn, but it means your employees aren’t afraid to come to your office if they have a question or just have a general chit-chat with you.

This also applies to how your team treats each other. Poor team relationships can lead to conflict and turnover, so make sure you conduct regular catchups to listen to how each member feels about the culture and what could be done to improve.

An appreciated team is a hardworking, dedicated team. But a disengaged team is a team that drops all sense of values because clearly, their leaders don’t care about them.

And of course, values are a great way to showcase how amazing your company is. But the best marketing isn’t about pretending your company is amazing, it’s about having an amazing company. Employees talk and you want that talk to be positive, otherwise, no amount of PR will save you.

MEANINGFUL VALUES ARE CONSTANTLY IMPROVED

Make a commitment to constantly reassess your values and see if they match up with how you do business and treat people.

The same way you reassess business strategies, you should reassess:

• Company culture

• Client and customer satisfaction

• Leadership

Because the same way people lose sight of strategies, people get lose sight of values. Keeping it fresh in everyone’s mind, whilst keeping constant communication with your team will ensure you have a business that means what they say.

- Written by Oliver Howson

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