I’m going to share something I wrote for work because we announced a pretty major shift today: we changed our Core Values. This has only happened once before over five years ago and then they only changed slightly. Today we went from seven values to four, with only one original value making the cut.
We are a very values-driven culture so this was a big deal for us. I had enough of a head’s up that we were considering it to process and then get excited about re-evaluating them. I had started to feel like there were these unspoken things in our culture that were central and important and while we pointed to our values it wasn’t reflected exactly in those words. Now I don’t feel that way.
We crafted the new values as a leadership team by looking at our employees and the behaviors they embodied (values are who you are after all, not who you want to be). I did the polish on the wording and ultimately wrote all the definitions of our values. We call it “The Speech” — one document explaining our core values which we ultimately use to guide as we hire, develop, promote, and fire.
Our Core Values Speech:
Be Kind.
Above all, we are kind. We care deeply about one another, our clients, and the world around us.
- We put people first and move through our days, our conversations, and even our conflicts with empathy.
- We are a team of givers, not takers. We are generous with our time and resources. We seek out opportunities to help others — our coworkers, our clients, and our community.
- We believe gratitude changes everything and practice it every day. One way we do this is by ending our week with an all-company meeting with the core purpose of expressing gratitude for one another through public shout-outs.
- We know kindness is more than niceties. It is not operating without boundaries or being a “yes person”. Kindness does not mean stifling our opinions, our voice, or our feedback.
- We care about making a positive impact on the world and do this through environmental conscientiousness, volunteering with and donating to charitable organizations, and creating a safe and inclusive work environment that values diversity and justice.
- “Always try to be a little kinder than necessary.” — J.M. Barrie
Speak Up, Step Up.
We have a voice and we use it to make an impact.
- We communicate openly and honestly and then take initiative to create meaningful change.
- We foster a culture of trust and collaboration through genuine conversations.
- We are a self-motivated team, driven by a deep ownership of both our personal productivity and company goals.
- When we see a problem, we say something. If we don’t have a solution, we are ready to help discover one.
- We are not critics. We are change-makers. We are in the arena, daring greatly.
- “Leaders are not the ones with the right position or a proclaimed or given title, the actual leaders are the people who start acting, who step up, who do change, no matter in what way or how small!” — Akilnathan Logeswaran
Keep Growing.
We embody the growth mindset.
- We take small steps every day to improve ourselves and our business.
- We are forever students, hungry to learn. We are never satisfied with the explanation: “because we’ve always done it this way”.
- We embrace change with flexibility, curiosity, and an open mind.
- We do not wait for opportunities to grow, we seek them out.
- We own our mistakes. We apologize. We turn our failures into learnings.
- “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” -Maya Angelou
Work Together, Win Together.
We team up to achieve goals and celebrate accomplishments.
- We are a team of collaborators and helpers: we ask for help, we help, we solve problems together.
- We actively reject siloed teams and communication and instead look to understand the needs of all teams to achieve our goals.
- We put the good of the team and the company above our individual benefit. For example, when a salesperson has the opportunity to make a paycheck on a deal that will be bad for the company and a pain for their colleagues, they don’t make the deal.
- We take the time to call out wins, enjoy successes, and take a breath at the summit before moving forward to the next mountain.
- “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb
With Love,
Natalie