Sometime around the noughties, ‘business values’ became the must-have corporate accessory. And shortly after that they started to become hackneyed. For many, just the term ‘business values’ will conjure thoughts of noble words, grandiose statements – and hypocrisy. Whether it’s green-washing, ethics-washing or using values for public image – for many business values are just buzzwords.

And that’s a real shame. Because when values are more than a marketing exercise – when they are debated before being chosen and then used to inform decisions – they can become one of the most powerful tools in your leadership arsenal.

 

Why Values often Go Wrong

Before we dip into how to ‘do values well’, it’s worth considering what leads to them failing to land. Here are the most common pitfalls:

 

Having too many of them.

What is too many? I suppose that’s a ‘piece of string’ question, but I’ll venture this as an answer: as many as you can list and explain without the need for notes – or a rehearsal.

Not enough thought prior to choice.

I asked ChatGPT to start listing potential business values encompassing work, results, learning, personal & philosophical. We stopped at 100 and not one of them was a ‘bad one’ – but they do get contradictory. I know you want them all – you’re a good and nuanced person – but if you try to stand for everything, you’ll stand for everything.

Being too vague.

Words like ‘honesty’ and ‘integrity’ are great in theory – but in practice are too broad without an explanation of what exactly that means to you. I’ve heard people say some really nasty things – before holding their hands up and declaring that they’re only being honest.

Not being connected to (your) reality.

If your values suggest a caring, inclusive culture but your workplace is toxic or cut-throat, people will notice. Especially your most frequent customers and clients.

Being forgotten.

When values are unveiled in a fanfare and then never spoken of again. They’ve got pride of place on the website but are never discussed, quantified or used when making decisions. Soon enough, even the people who dreamt them up have forgotten what they are.

Fall into 3 or more of these pitfalls and you’ll get apathy at best – and at worst scepticism from employees and cynicism from customers and prospects.

Why Values Matter (When Done Right)

If you think back to your experiences where there is a total disconnect between a corporation’s values and its actions, it would be easy to conclude that creating your own business values is a waste of time. After all, how can something bad happen if simply continue to not have them?

There may not be a negative impact – but you will be missing out.

Business values – done properly – can have a huge impact on your business and teams. Here’s how they could benefit you:

 

Having a filter to use for decision making

As businesses grow, they become more complicated: more people, more dramas, more decisions. And some of those seemingly require the wisdom of Solomon. Being able to justify that decision can go a long way towards defusing negative reactions to it. It’s like having an ethics referee.

Consistency of decision making

If you stick to the same values and use them in your decision making, you’ll become more consistent and precitable – which is a big factor in building trust at a team level.

Attract the right people

Your future star employees and managers will probably not be unemployed or actively looking for a job when you happen to be advertising. Or to put it another way, you are unlikely to be their only choice. Joining a team and working for a boss with a shared set of (genuine) values may not be the only factor – but it is a factor.

Building business resilience

In more challenging times, the right set of values acts as a compass. They help you stick to the right path even (especially) when the going is tough.

Differentiation

There are lots of great businesses out there, and lots of really bad ones – I come across them every day. A set of genuine values that you refer to and live up to will help differentiate yourself from the herd – for customers and potential employees alike.

 

A 5 Step Approach to a set of Business Values – that are Genuinely Valuable

If you’re with me this far, you’ll want to try this for yourself and your team.

These 5 steps cover the big things you’ll want to consider to create something that is valuable in your day-to-day business life – and not just wheeled out in presentations or left to wither on a website.

 

Step 1: Choose Values that Speak to a Higher Purpose (than Profit)

If you genuinely care about this, you will also genuinely care about your industry and the role your business plays within it. You’ll care about how your business is seen by others – the reputation it has.

Ask why your business exists – beyond the obvious imperative to make money. What impact do you want to have – on your industry or community?

Making money is clearly central to any business owner – but that won’t align you with your customers or team. How would things change if making money was a by-product of your approach to business rather than the sole driver?

Top Tip: Imagine the epitaph of your business team – what do you want to be written about you?

 

Step 2: Decide What You Are – And What you Are Not

If you don’t limit yourself at the outset, your list of values will quickly grow beyond the point where they can be referred to and used on a daily basis.

What should the limit be? I’d argue for either 3 or 5. (For some reason 4 doesn’t resonate as much). This should still give you scope to define how you roll.

Clearly this will mean you have to make some tough choices – but managing a growth business will involve some tough choices too and pinning your colours to the mast when it comes to value will make it easier.

Top Tip: as a starting point you could make a list of things you really do not want your team to be (beyond the legally obvious ones) – your values will be the opposite of these.

 

Step 3: Debate them Vigorously – and Involve Your Team

The second part of this is contentious for some. I recall a great session I had with Sir Clive Woodward and his (very strong) view was that the owners define the big stuff like purpose, mission and values – and then get the team to buy into them.

But you could argue that a team will more readily buy into something that they have had a hand creating.

Either way, you’ll want to examine and debate your values. Your limited number of choices will mean that lots of perfectly worthy values are not on your list. If you can’t win the argument, they may not be the ones you want to stick to.

 

Step 4: Be Specific – and Personal

I remember the first time a client really ‘got this’ and ran with it. They’d been through the first 3 steps and created a list of 5 words.

What they then did was write an explanation of what each one meant – to them.

You might think that everyone would write a similar explanation – but they really don’t. This is the bit that elevates your values to something more specific, personal and meaningful.

 

Step 5: Give your Values the Acid Test

Before you carve your values in stone, test them against real or imagined scenarios within your business.

Could they have helped clarify a difficult decision relating to a tricky customer? Or an office argument?

Would they have changed a decision you made?

Tilted the balance between two potential hires?

If they would have helped in these scenarios, you’re on the right track. If not, revisit them.

 

Bringing Your Values to Life

Of course, at this stage you should have a list of values that are meaningful and authentic – but that doesn’t make them impactful or valuable.

You can only get to that point by actually using them.

But how?

 

Step 1: Incorporate your Values into you Decision-Making

A colleague once jokingly suggested getting the letters “WWBD?” tattooed onto a part of his body. It stands for “What Would Brad Do?” and refers to Brad Sugars who started ActionCoach and is in the debate for the best business coach around.

Another time, when discussing tattoos on a family holiday – and what we’d get if we had one – a friend of my daughter’s said hers would be “WWJD?”, which adds a touch of religious conviction into the mix.

“What should we do in this situation if we acted in line with our values?” makes for less catchy initials on a tattoo (pause while I double check it doesn’t spell anything rude) but it will ensure your values become a living and real thing.

 

Step 2: Reward & Recognise Values-Driven Behaviour

There’s an argument that regularly ‘catching people doing it right’ is the single most important and effective leadership habit.

Whether this amounts to a tangible reward, a public acknowledgement or a private thank you – there needs to be a positive consequence of doing the right thing.

Of course there’s a flip side to this. What happens when your team or customers are acting contrary to your values?

Or more problematically what happens when a top-performer contradicts your values? Or a customer?

This is where many a well-intentioned set of values hits the skids. Either you’ve got to re-think what’s actually important to you – and your reputations – or bite the bullet.

Either way, no consequence = no sticking power.

 

Step 3: Embed your Values in Your Recruitment & Onboarding Process

If you’re doing the first 2 steps, you’ll want to also do the 3rd.

There’s no point adding people with the wrong culture to a great team. There are a number of ways I help my clients enhance their recruitment process to help those with aligned values opt in – and those who are a ‘culture-clash’ opt out.

Some people worry this will just reduce the available talent pool but hiring the wrong people is the real killer.

 

‘Devils’s Advocate’ Corner

Some of you may be thinking “I don’t need this, my moral compass is working just fine.”

There are 3 potential problems with this approach. All of which are devilishly hard to avoid.

Firstly, whilst the list of potential values goes into 3 figures and none of them could be construed as ‘bad’ – they are contradictory. Which means that if you don’t pick a horse, the values you exhibit will be contradictory over time.

This isn’t a massive problem if you have a small enough team for them to understand the circumstances that might influence your choice of which one to live by at different time – but this won’t work as the team grows.

Secondly, if they’re not formalised and regularly referred to, it’s just too easy to temporarily put them to one side when the need arises.

Lastly, this may work if you’re exceptionally stable and have a small team. The problems will arise when you appoint managers – and expect them to act in a way that you approve of. They will be ‘good people’ too – but may live by values that fly in the face of yours.

 

Best regards,

Tim

 

P.S.  If you’d like to discuss this regarding your business and teams, use the links below to get the ball rolling.