Ep 215 | Uncovering Your Business's Core Values

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I want to talk about uncovering your business's core values, uncovering what it is your business stands for. This applies to all businesses, whether they be big businesses with multiple people and multiple clients, or one-person businesses that are just starting. All businesses have core values. Some are purposeful in the creation of those core values, whereas others, they just wake up one day and they've got these values that exist, good or bad. What are in fact core values? Let's start there. Core values are deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a company's actions. Core values serve as cultural cornerstones. So core values, I think in summary, are those things by which you filter all decisions, the decisions of the products and services you provide, the decisions around the clients you, you opt to work with, the decisions around who you're going to bring into your business as an employee or a partner. Your core values serve as that filter. Now, core values, if they're truly core values, can never be compromised. They oftentimes reflect the values of the company's leadership or the company's founder. They are a source of distinctiveness, what makes your company unique. And lastly, if they're truly core values, They must be maintained at all costs. Now, aspirations are not core values. Core values are core values. Those things by which you anchor, you know, your business around. Now, how do you go about determining your core values? I'm going to give you some questions. I'm going to take you through an exercise. And again, whether you're a sole proprietor, solo man business, or you're running a big business, business, all of these questions will apply. First question I want to ask you on this path to determining your core values: what behaviors does your company value over making a sale? Answer that one for me. You know, jot it down. If you're driving, let's wait till we get to the office and push replay on this podcast. But for today, if you're sitting down right now, what behaviors does your company value over making a sale? If you're not writing it down, I want you to think about it. What is it? What won't you compromise to make a sale? Question number 2: When is it appropriate to put the needs of the team or the business above those of the customer? In other words, when and how should a customer be fired? So again, the second question: When is it appropriate, but the to put the needs of the team, of the company above the needs of the customer? When and how should you— should a customer be fired? These two questions, in answering them, you're going to see rather quickly what core values come about. Now here's the action steps after you ask, after you answer those two questions, after you reflect on those two questions, and maybe you should take some time. You know, maybe jot down what, what, what comes to mind now. Come back to it an hour from now or maybe tomorrow and look at what you jotted down. Here's the action steps though. Once you've gone through those two questions, first I want you to brainstorm a list of all potential values given the answers that you provided in those last two questions. Don't overthink this one. Okay? Just write down a list of all potential values based on what you answered in number 1 and number 2. Okay. Just jot them down. Some things are going to stand out. Now, step 2, once you've jotted down all of the potential values based on those answers, I want you to group all of the similar ideas together and eliminate those that are not essential. So you're going to see a common theme, or maybe you're going to see a natural grouping. Start to group ideas together and eliminate those things that are not essential. Okay. So now that you've gone through and asked yourself, what behaviors does my company value over a sale? And when will I, you know, put the needs of my team in front of that of the customer and potentially fire a customer? Now that you've answered that and you've thought around all of the potential values, you jotted them down and then you grouped them, your core values, Should be pretty clear. Now, if I'm you, if I'm, if I'm the owner of this company, and assuming I either have employees or I have peers that are running companies or businesses similar to mine, I take this and I go test it out. I bring it to my people and I ask them what they think our company stands for. Who are we? What do we stand for? What would we never compromise? I would ask other companies in the event that I don't have employees, I would ask my peers that know my business, hey, what do you think it is that my company stands for? What do you think we believe in? What do we— what do you think we would define as our core principles of operation? Now, when you ask your employees, when you ask your people, or you ask your peers, the peers that truly know you. The answers that they give should reflect what it is you just put together in going through that exercise. If there's a disconnect, you've got some analysis to do. Something is going on there where there is a disconnect and there is maybe a lack of authenticity or a lack of understanding or core values that are more like aspirations than they are in fact core values, as I mentioned at the start. What I want you to do though, through this exercise, is just do a deep dive. Think about your business. Think about what it is you stand for. Recognize also the importance, right? Because the importance of core values, knowing your principles. And I think the greatest need for this is so that you have a filter. You have something to scrub against, always to, always to anchor to. This is very applicable outside of business. Of course, we've talked about it here in previous episodes. It's applicable in your family. What are the core values of your family? And as a result, who do you associate with or disassociate with? Who's aligned with your vision? Who honors your values? Who supports your values? And who or what is the opposite of all of that? See the filtering aspect of this? So the focusing question for you today: how might this exercise apply in your business? Can you take some time to run through this exercise, and what might you discover? And when you do this discovery, when you establish core values, how might that impact your business proceeding forward? It's worth a little bit of time to work on these core values. I know it's going to be impactful. That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.