How to Mess Up Your Company Values

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Defining your company values is easy to get wrong. Here’s how you can mess it up.

Defining company values is a critical step for any business. Values provide a framework for decision-making and set the tone for company culture. However, the process can be fraught with pitfalls and mistakes. We’ve summarised the common mistakes business owners make when defining company values, as well as providing useful tips on how to get it right.

The Pitfalls

  1. Copying values from other companies – One of the most significant mistakes made when defining company values is copying them from other companies. While it’s useful to look at other companies for inspiration, it’s crucial to create values that are unique to your business. Copying values from another company can make it challenging to establish a distinctive identity and may not reflect the true values of your business.
  2. Lack of employee involvement –  Defining values should be a collaborative process that involves employees from all levels. It’s important to get buy-in from everyone and ensure that the values reflect the culture and beliefs of the entire organisation.
  3. Failing to communicate – Defining your values is only half the battle. It’s crucial to communicate them to employees and customers effectively. Failing to do so can lead to confusion and a lack of clarity in all your decision-making.
  4. Not demonstrating your values – Defining values is meaningless if they aren’t put into practice. It’s crucial to live the values and ensure that they are integrated into the daily operations of the business. Not doing so can lead to a lack of credibility and a breakdown in trust with both employees and customers. Mainstream media is awash with examples of brands not living by their stated values.
  5. Creating too many values – Creating too many values is a very common mistake. While it’s essential to cover all the important aspects of your business, having too many values can make it difficult to prioritise which ones are the most important to you, and it may dilute the impact of each value. It’s important to keep the values concise and memorable.

Getting It Right

  1. Involve everyone – It’s important to get buy-in from everyone in the business and ensure that the values reflect the culture and beliefs of the entire organisation. This could be achieved through surveys, focus groups, and workshops.
  2. Be uniquely ‘you’– Your company values should reflect the true values of the business. It’s essential to create values unique to your business that reflect the culture and beliefs of your organisation. This will help establish a unique identity and differentiate your business.
  3. Communicate – Communicate your values to employees and customers effectively. This can be through training, internal communication channels, or even external marketing campaigns.
  4. Live your values – Defining values is meaningless if they aren’t put into practice. It’s crucial to live your values and ensure that they are integrated into the daily operations of the business. Try doing this through employee training, leadership modelling, or recognition programs.
  5. Keep it snappy – Keep your values concise. Use simple language, focusing on the most important aspects of the business, and try creating memorable acronyms or slogans.

Defining your company values is a important step for any business owner. However, it’s important to be aware of the pitfalls. By involving every member of the business, being authentic, communicating effectively, living the values, and keeping it concise, you can define company values that reflect the true identity and mission of the business and set the tone for an unbeatable and distinctive company culture

To find out more about company values tool purpose, and how it can help you measure and track whether you’re living up to your values, get in touch.

Why define your company values?

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Defining your company values and purpose brings bottom line benefits to your business.

As a company, your values are at the core of everything you do. They guide your actions and decision-making, and help you to maintain a consistent and positive culture within your business. But, could you easily articulate and define your company values if someone asked? And, why are they important?
Company values are the principles and beliefs that shape the way your company operates and interacts with its employees, customers, and the larger community. They serve as a compass, helping to guide all your business decisions and actions in a way that aligns with your company’s overall mission and goals. However it’s not that easy to demonstrate in practice, as much research from the likes of McKinsey highlights.
Why should you define your company values in a way that is easy to understand? Here are a few reasons:
  • Values help to create a strong culture within the business. Your company values serve as a common language and understanding among employees, and help to build a sense of shared purpose and commitment to your business objectives.
  • Values help to attract, recruit and retain top talent. Companies with strong, clearly-defined values attract employees who are looking for more than just a monthly salary. They want to work for an organisation that aligns with their own personal values and beliefs. In times of a talent crisis this is more important than ever.
  • Values help to guide decision-making. When faced with a difficult decision, having a clear set of values can help to provide you with some guidance and a sense of which direction to take.
  • Values help to build trust, authenticity and credibility with your clients. Clients are more likely to do business with a company that they perceive as being trustworthy and having strong values which chime with their own. Forrester have been showing this for some time.
  • Demonstrating clear values has proven commercial benefits, with companies such as EY and Gallup highlighting increased productivity and profits of up to 21% per year.
Given the obvious benefits, as a business owner, what steps can you take for incorporating your company values into your operations?
  • Define your values. This is the first step! Obvious perhaps, but it’s important to sit down and take the time to clearly define and articulate your company’s values.
  • Communicate your values. Once you’ve defined your values, make sure to communicate them clearly to your employees, clients, and the larger business community. You can put them on your website, social media channels, marketing materials, and employee handbooks – if you have them.
  • Incorporate your values into your hiring process. When hiring new employees, make sure to look for people who align with your company’s values. This will help to create a strong culture and ensure that new hires are a good fit for your organisation and cut down on money wasted in recruitment when you bring the wrong people onboard. Purpose the company values measurement tool from event:decision, costs less than a wasted recruitment fee if you get that hire wrong.
  • Use your values to guide decision-making. When faced with a difficult decision, use your values as a guide. If you’re choosing between two courses of action, which is the one that most closely reinforces your values?
  • Lead by example. As the owner or director of the business, it’s important to lead by example and demonstrate the importance of your company’s values in all your dealings both internally and externally. If sustainability is important for example, demonstrate you make sustainable choices personally. Remember, your teams will established their behavioural boundaries based on their leaders’ worst observed behaviours.
  • Reflect your values in your event planning. Incorporate your company values into your event planning, make sure any events you are involved with reflect your company’s mission and goals.
  • Measure your values. Many areas of businesses are measured, reported and monitored. As values are central and critical to your teams,  decision-making and bottom-line, valued also should be measured to improve organisational performance.
Your values are essential to the success of any business, and event planning businesses are no exception. By making the choice to define your company values and communicate them clearly, incorporating them into your hiring process and decision-making, and leading by example, you can create a strong and distinctive company culture – easy to describe and communicate – and build trust and credibility with clients.

To find out more about company values tool purpose, and how it can help you measure and track whether you’re living up to your values, get in touch.