In Crisis: Are your Company Values Resilient?

The end of 2022 leading into 2023 has been full of surprises for all companies but particularly tech startups. From seemingly endless layoffs to shocking bank-runs, we have been served stark reminders that challenging times are both unpredictable as well as inevitable. As the dust settles and companies get on with it, employees that were "unaffected" also do some soul searching of their own. One of the things they will be evaluating is how your Company values fared in crisis. In an introspective post mortem they will ask themselves whether the words from their leaders displayed on the company website and internal communications stood the tests that surfaced. This is the main reason crafting resilient core values is a leadership imperative particularly for startup Co-Founders and their Leadership Teams.

At some point in their journey every startup leadership team gets in a room with the intent of crafting or doing a refresh of the Company Core Values; that North Star Ethos that no matter what will guide how everyone huddles and moves forward in pursuit of a common mission. Typically this exercise is an exciting one with everyone involved eager to share the few guiding principles that made the cut, why they are important, and how everyone will live through these well into the future. This is also typically done when everyone is at their best; when funding is solid and the future looks incredibly bright. Not so fast please. Have you stress tested those values to see if they will withstand shocks to the system?

Whether you are writing core values for the first time, or doing a refresh, here are a few things to think through in crafting resilient core company values that will stand the tests of time:?

1. Start from a Place of Integrity: There is nothing wrong with being aspirational with your values. We are all flawed humans; works in progress, constantly learning. That said, creating your company values may not be the best time for aspirational stretch goals. Actions speak louder than words. For example, If you are looking to build a culture where mistakes are not only welcome but encouraged as learning opportunities, you can’t follow that value by immediately showing people the door at the first perceived mistake when things get tough. At that point your employees will undoubtedly question all the values and their validity. Being aspirational is fine, but even under duress stay true in action to behaviors consistent with your values. In other words, don’t say you want to be like the Big Bang Theory only to end up behaving like characters in House of the Dragon when hard times arrive.?
2. Include Employees at All Levels to Create the Values: One of the key mistakes particularly new companies make is to limit Values crafting to the Founders, Senior Leadership, and HR. Unfortunately, in most cases this group tends to be rather homogenous in life experiences and background. As a result, to write the best values you need to not only engage employees from all levels of the company, you need to invite the diversity of those individuals whose life experiences will add great new dimensions to the conversation. Some have been through hard times many at the top have never faced. Including that experience at the table will help you come up with values that serve everyone with more equity.?
3. Survey Employees about Values at Past Employers: Everyone joining a company comes to the table with the richness of their past professional experiences. That includes company values. Your warriors have great things to share about values they experienced and how leaders were culture carriers of those values. They can also offer constructive ideas on how values may have been tested; what worked, and what did not. Nothing provides perspective like past experiences.
4. Stress Test your Values: The conversation about values in theory should be a fun one. However, it should also include some tough conversations. You can do this by discussing existential threats to your business, worse case scenarios, and hard decisions every leader, manager, and founder at some point has to make. By discussing those things openly in defining the values you can also discuss how you want to operate, what you are challenged by, and how others can support your leadership in sustaining the company’s core values during the toughest of times.?
5. Empower Your Chief People and Inclusion Officers to keep you Honest: ?I have provided this feedback to Founders and CEOs of Startups at various stages. The person in charge of People needs to report directly to the CEO. The primary reason is it not only allows the CEO to have a direct view of all People matters, it gives that person a seat at the table and sends a strong message to your employees that People do matter at the highest levels of the company. Taking it one step further, the CEO and Senior Leadership Team sets the tone for Inclusion Equity and Diversity Initiatives including how these concepts are incorporated into the values. By having a seat at the table, that CHRO can be that voice that not only challenges the values in their crafting, they can be the steward of their application in practice especially in challenging times,
6. Create a Culture Playbook: This is probably the most important of them all. Companies create playbooks to manage critical pieces of the business. If Culture is that important and critical, why should it be any different? This Culture Playbook should include not only the general behaviors to exhibit for each value, it should include how people from the top down will behave under the toughest of circumstances. Layoffs, reorgs, and downsizing are very real. How a company treats its people would be guided by this playbook. Consider this the Business Continuity Plan for your Company Culture.?

One of my favorite quotes is from the late Poet Laureate Maya Angelou - “When People Show you who they are, Believe them”. Character and who you are shows best under duress. Integrity shows up when leaders have to make a choice between what is right and what is convenient. Walking the talk is hard, but how you do this will be showing your employees who you are at the core. When in hard times and making the tough decisions you abide by what you promised, your employees will not only take notice and thank you, they will double down in following you and your mission all the way to success??.