3 Steps to Creating your Business Values and Brand Behaviours

val·ue

 noun

plural noun: values

1. the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.

2. the worth of something compared to the price paid or asked for it.

3. a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.

Values are at the core of every business. They're a reflection of you and they’re what your business stands for. They’re your philosophy, your reason for being. Your business's values help to steer your business and its management and they help everyone in your business to make decisions in your absence.

What are business values?

• Your company's standards of behaviour - what is the acceptable way to treat each other, and customers, in your business? From a customer viewpoint, values are the kind of service they can expect to get when they deal with your Brand.
• Your principles and what you stand for – everyone will have their own, but for example, honesty, openness, fair and equitable treatment, innovation, respect, passion, and integrity.
• Shared beliefs and attitudes held by everyone in the company - how people should behave, the way managers should act, and "how things get done around here".

A clear set of values, agreed and understood by everyone, are behind the most successful organisations. Most likely you have values already and they’re displayed in your business every day – but if those go undocumented you’re missing an opportunity to map them out and let them percolate through your business.  

There are three steps that you can take to uncover and develop your business values.

1. Map your personal principles, beliefs and values under categories

Write a list of everything that you value and then chunk those up into categories. Some of your values may sit under more than one category. For instance, if ‘honesty’ is one of your values, that probably sits under both Customer Service and Teamwork.

To aid in this process, it may be helpful to look at other businesses' stated values, especially organisations that you admire or aspire to. But don't forget that you are creating your own values and spelling out what your business stands for.

Sample business categories

• Customer service
• Decision making
• Teamwork
• Leadership
• Business improvement
• The wider community

For each category, the answers to the following questions can help to clarify your thinking:

• Why is each value you’ve listed important to you?
• What principles and values come to mind when you think of the individual categories – like customer service? Teamwork?
• How does each value impact the way you approach or manage a business? In other words – "How do we show up in the marketplace?"

Ideally, you’ll include your whole team in the process of discussing the Why, What and How to make it come alive and provide practical examples of the types of behaviours everyone wants to see. Your team is much more likely to embrace business values and embody them in their working life if they’ve been a part of the process of creating them. Everyone needs to feel connected to the business’s strategic goals and this is a great way to foster that. And as the saying goes – the more the merrier! The whole team will most likely highlight values that you may have not considered.

2. Reflect on the meaning of each value

Sometimes we lose the meaning, or connection, with the words we use to express values and what they really mean for us. When listing them out, try to clarify each one and specifically the meaning behind it. Telling a story or narrative about each one and why it’s important helps.

• What is this value really about? What do you mean by it? Does everyone understand it in the same way? Will your customers understand it and value it too?
• What assumptions does everyone on the team hold around the value? What other words, ideas or mental images do you associate with this value?

Less is more - 1 or 2 words or a short, simple phrase is usually sufficient to describe how the value relates to the team and customers. Simple, to-the-point values are easier to remember and explain in the marketplace. KISS principles rule here!

Once you have completed this step and have a good understanding of each value you’re ready to turn those values into practical principles and behaviours.

3. Translate your values into a set of guiding principles and standards of behaviour

This is what we call Brand Behaviours.  Here's an example:

• Value: Honesty
• Principle: I am open in my dealings with people and expect others to be open with me.
• Behaviour: If I have a disagreement with someone I'll try to resolve it directly with them in the first 36 hours after the disagreement arises. If we can’t resolve it together I’ll revert to other members of the team for guidance.

Create this kind of definition and behaviour guideline for each value you’ve outlined.

Implementing Brand Behaviours

After completing these steps you’re ready to develop a draft values statement with your whole team. When you do, try to keep it relevant and simple:

• Keep it short! Three, and certainly no more than five, core values everyone knows and cares about will have more impact than 25 that don't mean much to anyone.
• Core values are values that act as behavioural guidelines that shape everyone's actions and influence your strategy, what you do and what you don't do.

If everyone lives your values, they become a key driver of your Brand and what you're known for. To have an impact on your business, you need to make your values a part of everything your business does and especially the Brand.

Steps that you can take every day to reinforce the importance of living your values include:

• Stand up for business values consistently. Be bold - you may decide not to go down a path that brings short-term benefits because it doesn't align with the bigger picture.
• Regularly discuss the values and test new ideas and suggestions against how well they align to your values.
• Include demonstration of the values as a key performance indicator in reviews, recruiting and promotion. 
• Train the whole team in the core values and the behaviours they're expected to model. For example, if one of your values is teamwork, ensuring everyone understand the rules of engagement for working on the team is critical.
• Encourage everyone to publicly catch people in the act of ‘doing the right things’ (and also call out the ‘bad’ behaviours, but perhaps less publicly).
• Raise values as part of your meetings and discussions when considering courses of actions or business decisions. Ask “How does this course of action/decision meet with our values and Brand Behaviours?”
• Make your values visible: include them in your staff code of conduct, talk about them, display them in your work and common areas, and use them in staff inductions.