The goal of creating core values is to define who you are and how you conduct business.
What are 3-5 characteristics your organization is known for to your clients, your team and new recruits?
These are the essence of who you are and what you value as an organization. These core values would be the same if you started a whole new organization in a brand-new industry. They are how you behave. These core values will be the guidelines for how you hire and fire, you will benchmark all of your team on whether they are living these core values or not. And you hire based on whether recruits have these or not. Core Values provide clarity on how team members should behave. Clear core values – that are adhered to – make attracting the right people easy
If an organization is tolerant of everything, it will stand for nothing.
Exercise:
60-90 minute
- Get all of your team into one room….if you are really large organization, maybe limit it to 20-60 department leaders. If you are a small organization, have everyone on your staff be a part of this.
- For 10-20 minutes : break into groups of 3-5 people and have them answer and work through these questions:
- Who are the people in the organization who already embody what is best about the company….dissect them…what is true about them?
- The people who were no longer a fit for the organization…dissect them…what was it about them that made them a problem?
- What characteristics do we do better than most organizations?
- What values or characteristics are we already doing well?
- How do we behave?
- Have 1 person speak from each group and share their findings. Each person can share for 3-5 minutes.
- During this process have 1-2 people listen for themes….asking “Are there similar traits each group keeps bringing up as a strength?”
- Have those 1 or 2 people share the consist themes they are hearing (maybe its 5-8 themes). Write these themes /characteristics on the board for all to see and then have the whole group try to synthesis this into 3 core values. 5 core values is too many-work to get it to 3 core values…
- You don’t need to get it to 3 core values in this exercise….meet again after thinking about for a few weeks and then try to synthesize again with a group of 3-10 from your leadership team.
Example of NP Now’s Core Values:
- We Deliver (We deliver for our clients. We do what we say we are going to do. ‘Results 1st’)
- We Serve (How can we make someone’s life better today?)
- We Get Better Everyday (How can we improve ourselves daily at our craft?)
Another example:
Take Initiative: Be proactive, challenge each other, take risks and adapt.
Be Passionate: Care about your work and take pride in what you do.
Have Fun: Create a positive work space and build strong relationships
Value Teamwork: Approach problems with a “we over me” mentality
Ensure Growth: Learn and evolve personally, professionally, as a team and as a firm.