Ep 473 | How to Determine Your Company’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. Just the other day, we discussed Coach James Franklin from Penn State and the core values of that Penn State football team. I got to observe it during Fiesta Bowl week. It was pretty special and it really left a mark, not necessarily in that they had these core values, but in how the team lived these values, how Coach Franklin brought them to life each and every day. Well, after that episode, you know, I received a few different texts from some of our No Days Off Nation that were about the episode, you know, how they liked it and they liked the story. But a couple texts around, okay, I get it, but how do I go about creating my core values? How do I end up determining, or what steps should I take to determine my company's core values? Now, having gone through, I don't know, 470+ episodes, we've certainly talked around core values, but I've never— I'm not sure we've ever gotten as granular as we're going to today. Today, I want to talk about the exact steps I would recommend that you take in the creation of your company's core values. This is what I've used in the past as I work through my different companies, and, and this process has been effective for me. And maybe this process would work for you, at least components of it should work for you. So, let's, let's talk through how you go about determining your company's core core values. Okay, so number 1, I think you've got to reflect on your company's purpose. Why does your company even exist? Like, beyond making money, what's the deeper reason it operates? Like, why are you doing this? Why are your people doing this? In thinking through this, right, I think it helps define the principles maybe that align with your mission. So, why does, why does your company exist? And then, you know, kind of a sub-question, what impact do you want to create? What kind of change do you want to see in the industry or in your community or with your customers? So, again, start with reflecting on your company's purpose. Why do you exist and what impact do you want to make? Number 2, identify key behaviors. So, observe what drives your company's success. Look at your most successful moments. What were the behaviors? What were the decisions? What were the attitudes that contributed to that success? In addition, I want you to examine maybe how you operate under pressure. Values tend to show up when you're facing challenges. So, how have you— how has the company handled setbacks? Lastly, around identifying key behaviors, one, one big question I want you to answer: What behaviors does your company value over making a sale? So, when we're thinking about identifying key behaviors, observe what drives success, examine how you operate under pressure, and then lastly, maybe most importantly, answer the question, what behaviors does your company value over making a sale. So number 1 was reflect on your company's purpose. Number 2, identify key behaviors. Number 3, engage your team in terms of actions, steps to take to develop your team's or define your team's core values. Engage your people, gather input, you know, ask your team members to talk about the company's strengths and what they're proud of and the principles that they think are most important. In, in an effort to engage your team, make sure you seek alignment, right? Ensure that these values, they actually resonate across all levels, from, from your leadership all the way to your, your entry-level people. And then lastly, one big question that I like to ask when with the team, when you engage your team: when is it appropriate to put the needs of the team above the the needs of the customer? It's a really big question. In other words, when would you fire a customer? What we're kind of looking for is, is something along the lines of when a customer does this and violates, you know, this sort of thing that we believe in. So number 1, reflect on your company's purpose. Number 2, identify key behaviors. Number 3, engage your team. Number 4, analyze your personal values. You're the leader, so your personal values often influence the company culture. So think about what it is you stand for and what values guide your decisions and, and your relationships. So analyze your values. Number 5, examine what sets you apart. What makes your company unique? Your core values should likely highlight how you're different than the rest of the market. What are your customers and your partners— what do they most appreciate about you, about your company? You want this feedback from stakeholders because it could reveal some unspoken values. Number 6, test for authenticity. At the end of the day, your core values are going to have to be authentic. They're going to have to be actionable. They're going to have to be enduring. So, I want you to reflect on how you operate today and aspire to grow, not just, you know, leverage those values that sound appealing. I think authenticity is so critical here. And then, as we wind down this exercise for defining your core values, number 7 here is going to be to prioritize and finalize. Brainstorm a list of values given all the questions and thought you just put in in numbers 1 through 6. Brainstorm a list of values, then group those values together, group those ideas together so you could simplify, and then come up with 3 to 5 core values. I think that that's the, the max. Your list should be 3 to 5 core values. Too many may dilute the, the focus. And then I'd create some phrases or explanations for each value. So for example, if integrity shows up as a big core value It would be something like integrity, do the right thing even when no one is watching. Or innovation, always look for a better way. So, the 7 steps to determining your company's core values. Number 1, reflect on your company's purpose. Why do you exist? What impact do you want to create? Number 2, identify key behaviors. You know, what, what's driving success? How do you operate under pressure? What behaviors does your company value actually over making a sale? Number 3, engage your team, bring them into the process, gather input, seek alignment, answer the question, when is it appropriate to fire a customer? Number 4, analyze your personal values because as the leader, they're certainly going to influence the company culture. What is it that you stand for? What values guide your personal decisions and your relationships. Number 5, examine what sets you apart as a company. What makes your company unique? What do customers and partners appreciate, appreciate you about you? Number 6, test for authenticity. We want to make sure our values are authentic. We want to reflect how we operate today and how we aspire to grow, but not just what sounds appealing. Then number 7, prioritize, prioritize and finalize. Brainstorm the list, group the similar ideas, come up with 3 to 5, and then create some phrases around those core— for each of those core values. So, some action steps for you today. I'm telling you that you may go through this exercise You're going to identify some core values and it's going to make a big difference. Now, what would make the greatest difference? If you embed these values into your company culture. You've got to incorporate these values into hiring, into performance reviews, into decision-making. You got to regularly recognize behaviors that exemplify these core values. So, the action item for you today, the focusing question for you today, What part of this process can you put into play such that you have clarity around or brings clarity to these core values? Or how can you take this process I just gave you, this 7-step process, go through the exercise, and starting next week or whenever it may be, you now have a set of core values by which you can live and the company can operate. That's how— 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.