Why a Lack of Beliefs is Hurting Your Business: 6 Tips

Like a house, a lot gets ignored in a business -- until it breaks.

For any business, the start-up phase is inherently frantic, chaotic and rife with details. The learning curve is as steep as a flagpole.

So if there is a creaky stair or a drippy faucet, you tend to step over it, ignore it and say a silent prayer it will hold until there are more dollars in the bank, time in the day or support to take care of it.

Last week as I sat in an EO Arizona Learning Day on People, the discussion turned to what the Gazelles refer to in Scaling Up as “core values.”

I do core values work (we call them beliefs) with my clients as a brand strategist in my company, Root + River. Values are what constitute the foundation of the brand, so I was pleased to revisit this territory.

These days a good number of business owners think about values. They may spend time selecting words or ideas that seem important to associate with the business (standard issue values tend to be respect, integrity, honesty). But often the discussion around values ends there. Leaders do not dig deeper. They don’t make a personal connection to the values they write. They cannot explain an instance in their life and work where they held to that value and lost something (or gained something) as a result.

Values are things you are so committed to; you are willing to make significant sacrifices for.

While it’s pretty common for a cursory set of values to be noted in a company, and perhaps shared on a website or in a handbook, they are only rarely integrated into the culture in a real and meaningful way.

Even rarer is the organization and leaders who transform beliefs into specific behaviors. When organizations don’t do this, the values are not part of the brand in any real way. They become just an exercise you did because you once heard a business coach or trainer tell you to.

Until something breaks.

You lose an incredible member of the team. A partnership crumbles. You finally reach the point where you need to hire – and fast.

Or someone screws up or screws you over, and you are scrambling to find the emotional and meaningful underpinnings of what you stand for and expect in those who work with and for your brand.

It’s a painful place to be.

The tiny faucet leak becomes a deluge of water. The creaky stair gives clean away while you are climbing the staircase with an armful of laundry.

Time to pay attention.

Core values are more than a list of five (we always determine five, less is too few, more is too many to remember easily) qualities that make you feel good.

Beliefs, as we call them, are things you believe to be true that no one else taught you.

They are the non-negotiable convictions you have already based your business and your life upon.

And once you have them, you can take tangible action to make them organizational behaviors.

Once you establish (or name them, in the case of the established organizations we tend to work with) these two foundational elements of your brand and culture, you have two of the seven essential elements of an enduring brand.

It’s as tempting to ignore the values work as it is to step over the creaking stair.

But here is the payoff in establishing beliefs sooner rather than later.

1. Beliefs and standards will differentiate you in the market in ways no product or service ever will.
2. Beliefs and corresponding behaviors are shorthand for describing the unique culture of your company. And they are easy to remember and repeat, which helps with branding, marketing and talent attraction.
3. Beliefs can be used in job ads and in pre-interview screening questions. Pro Tip: Most people want to work for organizations with a strong set of values, so this will attract more aligned candidates.
4. Beliefs can be used in interviewing. Pro Tip: with your set of five beliefs, craft interview questions around each one.
5. Beliefs and behaviors guide who you do business with and can help with vetting partnerships, collaborations and vendor relationships. Pro Tip: Once you have your beliefs and organizational behaviors (we call them standards), publish them on your website and make them part of partnership agreements.
6. Beliefs and standards present easy ways to recognize your team members for doing incredible work. The best organizations recognize their people in alignment with their beliefs and standards – it is much more memorable and meaningful to the team that way.

As we turn toward more mindful and ethical marketing, practices like setting beliefs and standards are becoming increasingly commonplace among those who want to market unto others as they would like to be marketed to. Talented individuals no longer want to work for a company that does not understand and can describe its foundational brand.

And consumers are far less motivated to do business with companies without a strong brand based on what they believe.

So, as they say in so many aspects of life, work and home ownership: Invest now and avoid the hasty and expensive fix-it job later.

Emily Soccorsy is cofounder of Root + River, a brand strategy team that believes all great brands are spiritual experiences. She's also an award-winning writer and the co-author of Rooting Up: Essays in Modern Branding. To learn more about establishing your brand's beliefs and standards, reach out.