Valuing Your Values: What Do Your Values Say About You?

Most organisations create values which they use to engage people and to communicate their culture to the outside world. These values are a way of showing what your purpose is, and why people should care. They communicate the essence of the organisation and look to create connections with people. But when you create those values, are you really thinking about everyone in the organisation? What about people who might join in the future? Are you creating values that truly include everyone? Are these values inclusive for the organisation you are now, and the one you want to be in future?

And how unique are they really?

Here’s a little test….do your values say you are:

Bold
Collaborative
Customer focused
Innovative
Fun

Do any of these feature on your list? They’re not bad values to have! It’s just that every other company has the same ones. What makes yours stand out so people know who you are and what you’re about? How can you create values that talk about your organisation? Let’s have a think about how you can be a bit more unique in how you create your values.

What and who are you valuing?

When you think about your values, what is it you’re valuing? Are you thinking about all of the different types of people in your organisation? Or the people who might join? Or if you’re a start-up the people who you might want to recruit?

When you think about all of these different types of people and perspectives, what might they value? To do this successfully you need to get some feedback and opinions from people who are different from you. They will bring different perspectives which will be invaluable to you; and they will be able to help you think about what it is you, and your organisation values.

Values are about more than employees. They are the core to the messaging you use to engage with customers and partners. They communicate who you are and why people should choose your organisation over others.

63% of people

prefer to spend their money with an organisation that has a strong sense of purpose.

47% of people

will switch to a competitor if they feel you lack a sense of purpose.

So you need to think about what you are communicating through your values, and what perception this gives people about the organisation. This requires looking carefully at your organisation, and making sure you get feedback and ideas from a wide range of people.

Valuing the future

To create values that will take you into the future, you need to have a think about the future yourself. What vision do you have for the future? How do you think you will be contributing to the world of the future? What news headlines might you be generating? What do you imagine people will be saying about you? And who do you think you will want to work with in the future?

Thinking about all of these things will help you to get to values that will inspire you and those who work with you, and they will take your vision into the future.

Getting to this vision of the future means engaging with lots of different people. People who work for you, people who might work for you, suppliers, customers, and partners. They all need to be in your mind when you create your values. You want to create values that last and resonate well into the future.

What unique things do you value?

When you get to some ideas about inclusive values, take a critical look and think about whether they are unique. Or have you created values that are very similar to everyone else? Can people look at your values and get an idea about what your organisation’s purpose is? Can they see what it might be like to work for you? A good test is asking people to look at the values and ask them to tell you what type of organisation they think those values are describing.

If those things don’t stand out as unique, then all you are doing is creating buzzwords for the sake of it. So think about the things that are unique and memorable about your organisation. What makes you tick? What do people say about you? How can you engage with people through values with a strong purpose?

Core values

To help you create values that inspire people, resonate with people and define your organisation, we have created our Core Values package. We help you think about all of these different things and create values that are unique, inclusive, and will take your organisation into the future and show people your vision of the future.

Here’s Allegra with some thoughts about why creating inclusive values are important and how we can help: