This is important. You may be making financial progress in your business. Everything may seem to be running smoothly in your customer relationships. But even if you discussed your values a long time ago, there is no guarantee that they are still:
👉 Well-defined.
👉 Accepted.
👉 Lived out.
"Our values haven't changed," you might think.
But first of all, it is not certain that everyone in the owner family will agree. Secondly, both you and the world around you will change. And then your values will need to be confirmed or rethought to ensure that they are still relevant.
You may only discover a creeping mismatch between values and reality in time if you conduct a preventive review of your values every three years or more frequently.
👉 The values must be well defined:
Your values should be so firmly embedded in the collective consciousness of the company that every family member and every employee can recite them. They should be so well defined that they can be brought into play when you analyze a business issue, make a decision, and act accordingly.
'Everyday use' of values requires that they are well defined. For what do they mean in relation to production, management style, or company parties?
It may be impossible to agree unless we speak from the same definition of the values we must hold up against reality.
👉 The values must be accepted within the company:
Everyone in the company should feel a sense of ownership of your values. Share and cultivate them so that they don't end up as unread words in a corner of the intranet. And discuss the values with respect for everyone's input. This will ensure that they can be lived out with authenticity and enthusiasm – and because they make sense to the individual.
It may be that values that were widely accepted just a few years ago are no longer so in their original form. Your interpretation of values will change as new generations emerge and new norms arise, both among you in the company and in society as a whole.
Therefore, you will need to continuously evaluate your company's values so that they always reflect who you are and who you want to be.
👉 The values must be lived out by the company:
Your company—that is, everyone in the company—should live by the well-defined and accepted values that you have established. If you fail in this regard, it will damage your credibility, and in the long run, the company will lose its fundamental foundation.
If, on the other hand, you continuously redefine your values, ensure continued acceptance of them, and live by them in your daily life, you will be stronger than ever. This is because your values will then serve as a guideline for decisions large and small:
Does social responsibility outweigh the bottom line? Does the company offer continuing education? Should meat be served in the cafeteria?
The answers lie in the DNA of your values and will feel more and more straightforward the more you live out those values in your everyday life.
