You’ve identified your Core Values, right?
Meaning, you’ve (collectively, of course!) taken the time out to agree on the guiding principles and fundamental beliefs that determine the way your ‘employee community’ should be thinking and acting on the journey towards achieving the company’s vision.
Done right, your Core Values will go beyond a company declaration and will communitize your employees – creating a sense of identity and belonging through their shared standards.
So, assuming you have identified your Core Values, back to today’s question …
In what ways did you experience your Core Values today?
How noticeable were your Core Values in employee interactions? Customer interactions? Supplier interactions?
If you weren’t there during these interactions, pick a core value and ask several employees for 3 examples of how that Core Value was reflected in their behavior today.
And then share 3 examples with your team of how you lived your company’s Core Values today.
I’m looking for the ‘stories’ here.
Because, if you think of Core Values as being like chapter titles in the table of contents in a book …
Then each Core Value is a chapter around which the story of your business is going to be written …
And without stories, the book is just going to be full of empty pages.
You can even think of your Vision Statement as being the title of your book, if you like.
And then go one step further and actually turn this metaphor into a physical book each year …
To be distributed to your team …
Lenders …
Investors …
Suppliers …
Potential recruits …
(A potential buyer of your business even!) …
Or anyone else that is playing a part in helping you achieve your vision and you want to share the fact that you really do live by your Core Values.
Committing to write a book that cornicles your Core Values is a bold move – fo’ real.
And, I’d love to receive a signed copy!