Defining and Refining Your Core Values

It is critical to define your business' core values.  And then equally critical to purposefully refine them as your company grows.

Core values are a set of fundamental beliefs that determine and impact the tone, direction, and ethos of a business. They help members of a company unite and function together as a team, compelling them to pursue common goals. Core values set the expectations a business leader has for themself, for the members of their team, and for the people or clients the business serves. 

Core values represent the company's highest priorities, and they should drive every endeavor. 

They are the heart of what a business stands for.

FREEDOM MAKER'S PATH TO DEFINING OUR CORE VALUES

At Freedom Makers, our core values were directly derived from Laura Renner's passion when she founded the company in 2015. Rather than build Freedom Makers as a competitor to other virtual assistant staffing agencies, Laura wanted Freedom Makers to strive to achieve its own levels of excellence. Continually striving for excellence would guarantee that Freedom Makers would never settle for standards set by other companies.

Once a level of excellence is achieved, it becomes Freedom Makers' new standard. Then we strive toward the next level in excellence. 

Always striving for excellence defines the way our company is, how we operate, and why we make the choices we do. Striving for Excellence - along with Freedom and Transparency - became Freedom Makers' guiding principles. 

Freedom Makers' core values support the endeavor of striving for excellence. And they continue to nurture our company's culture as it grows.

Freedom Makers' core values are reliability, accuracy, availability, decision making, and communication. 

HOW TO DEFINE YOUR COMPANY'S CORE VALUES

Freedom Makers' core values flow from and support Laura's passion for always striving for excellence. But sometimes, a business's core values are not as clear or obvious and need to be carefully selected.

Defining core values requires a close examination of a company's culture and vision. What ideas and beliefs characterize the company? What matters most to those that work there? Is making a profit the ultimate goal? Is creating change? How do you want customers or clients to think of your company? 

Every company can and should be explicit when deciding what core values they want to pursue. 

Core values should be inward-facing while also looking outward. They should accurately represent the company while also outlining the business's aspirations and ambitions for itself. Core values should be concise, specific, and unique to the company they speak for. 

While the words are not themselves unique, the specific blend of words and concepts a company chooses as their core values should be unique to their entity.

Some words that could be core values are:

• Honesty
• Trust
• Loyalty
• Agility
• Accountability
• Simplicity
• Openness
• Innovation
• Respect
• Equality
• Teamwork
• Balance
• Empathy
• Results
• Growth

When defining or refining their core values, companies should try to find the right blend of concepts that supports their mission, aligns intentions with actions, and educates clients and potential patrons about the company as it grows.

CORE VALUES SUPPORTS A COMPANY'S VISION

Freedom Makers' core values support our company's vision of striving for excellence, reflecting our founder Laura's personal ideology. She defined what was important to her and used that belief as she brought members into the Freedom Makers' team and began to grow the company.

Being reliable, accurate, available, executing stellar decision-making, and having excellent communication are embedded into Freedom Makers' every aspect. It is what we expect of all Freedom Maker virtual assistants and how we interact with our clients. Our core values complement our vision for what success looks like. 

CORE VALUES ALIGN INTENTIONS WITH ACTIONS

Intentional, firmly-held core values impact everything a company does. They help small businesses make decisions and take actions that are in line with their intentions. Because they become part of the culture, core values can define the way a company operates, help it choose the clients it works with, and steer the way to the partnerships the business builds.

For example, asking the question, "are we living up to our core value of being available to and communicating with our clients?" helped identify the need for Freedom Maker Success Managers. These critical team members are always available to meet the needs of our clients. Success Managers help navigate our clients' relationships with their virtual assistants and build a communication bridge between the two entities. Success Managers also focus on nurturing our Freedom Makers. They help our virtual assistants navigate difficulties they may encounter with clients, and Success Managers also ensure that all Freedom Makers embody our core value of being accurate and reliable.  This helps us strive for excellence, continually delivering the highest quality assistance to our clients. 

CORE VALUES EDUCATE POTENTIAL CLIENTS ABOUT WHO YOU ARE

Defining and refining core values communicates what the company is and what it strives to be to clients and potential clients. Core values can set a business apart from any competitors in its market sphere because they clarify how it envisions itself and helps predict how it will conduct itself. Core values tell a client what the company's goals are. They can also tell potential clients what kind of people make up the company's team. Having clearly defined values can make a difference when competing for new business. If a business' core values resonate with a potential client or customer, they may choose to do business with that company over a similar service provider. 

Core values can lay the groundwork for meaningful business relationships.

THE IMPORTANCE OF REFINING CORE VALUES AS A BUSINESS GROWS

Once a business is established and growing, it is essential to take stock of the organization and determine whether it is fulfilling the intended goals of its stated core values. Is the company holding itself accountable to what it set out to accomplish and how it promised to get there? 

Refining core values often requires asking a new set of questions to see if anything should be changed or added as the business moves forward. 

• What is our business actually doing? 
• Are we acting in accordance to our intended purpose?
• Is our company culture living up to our guiding principles? 
• Do we still have the same goals? 

Freedom Makers has experienced remarkable growth over the past year, and we are in the process of re-examining our core values to ensure we are still, in all ways, striving for excellence. 

Refining core values to ensure they align with actions will serve to deepen the trust clients have in your company and bolster managerial credibility internally.

Every small business should review its core values often to make sure everyone on the team understands and agrees with their stated purpose. Asking team members for their input will allow business owners to gauge how accurately those working for the company feel its core values reflect its culture. If team members don't feel the stated values of their company ring true, they can become cynical about the company they work for, accelerating dissatisfaction and problems with retention. 

Refining or redefining core values based on input from team members can help keep a business focused on its priorities or help reshape a business' priorities as it grows.

CONCLUSION 

Defining and redefining a small business's core values both creates and then nurtures a company's internal culture and helps identify the company's goals to external parties. A strong, healthy internal culture drives more robust interactions with clients and customers. As the business grows with new opportunities or encounters different challenges along the way, core values should be examined, refined, or redefined so that they best reflect - and inspire - everyone involved.