EMBiz: Defining Core Values for Your Company

Laurel Mintz, CEO & Founder

Defining Core Values For Your Company

Hi guys Laurel Mintz here with Elevate My Brand. Today I want to talk to you guys a little bit about how to define your core values. Now I think that this has become a more and more important conversation in this day and age and we’re going to give you some tools and tips so you can work through this process on your own or hopefully with your team. 

So number one is think through all of those big win moments. What are the big client wins or the big personal or professional wins that you have had across the prior years? Usually there are some common themes within those wins. And similarly and secondarily, look at the fail points. Now you guys know that I don’t really believe in failure. I believe that everything is an opportunity to learn and to grow, but usually when there are multiple fail points, there are commonalities there as well. So make sure you think about the wins and the losses and bring both of those into this value based conversation. 

Number three is thinking about the types of people in your life. So your business group, your client group, your professional and personal groups - these kind of each have their own segmentation. Usually the values within each one of those groups are a direct reflection of you as a business owner and you as a human being, because let’s face it values are human based. So looking towards your groups of people will help you find some commonalities. 

And finally, thinking about what other people say about you. Now I’ve said this many times, we think it’s important to survey your audience and ask for real time feedback. This might be a really great opportunity for you to have your audience, your clients, your team even, reflect back to you who they see you as and what values they see within you and your company. Now this is also an exercise that you can do with your team. We actually did this recently with our team where we did the word vomit exercise where we threw up all the values that we felt we embodied and that the company should embody on the board and we discussed which top three to five really stood for Elevate My Brand. We also talked about what values we didn't want to embody. Again as important as it is to understand the yes words and the yes values, it’s almost as critical to understand the no values and the no words. So make sure you do both sides of that equation. 

Lastly, what are the common themes between each of those segments? I think you’ll start to see some repetitive nature in terms of the words that you use, the types of clients you attract, the types of team you hire, etc. and that’s a really great starting point to defining your core values. And of course if you need any help with that, that’s why we’re here to elevate your brand.