We recently worked with a public relations company that had several departures from senior staff. The Founders stated that those that left said ‘these are not my people now’. They felt that they and the current teams did not hold the same core values.
What are core values? We are all complex beings holding a various set of values or ‘iron truths. If think you represent only a finite set of personal significances or iron truths that cannot be violated, consider where your deep views rest: Patriotic Convictions, Importance of grandparents and relatives, Intellectual growth, financial ethics, Respect for others, Moral worldview, and Reverence for any higher source. Core values are not characteristics such as, kind, loyal, or boldness. They are the principles that are worth living or dying for.
For businesses, it has become customary for companies to also declare value statements, because values guide solution creation. People will have to act on their instincts guided by their personal values. And the quality of a person’s performance in their job will be driven by their own unique personal values. These values will influence a person’s work judgments, priorities, and risk of initiative taking. Personal, and company, core values with inspiring power include:
- You and those you associate with savor the good things recognizing things for which we are grateful and appreciate them by all.
- You and others are compassionate not judgmental. Instead, it is an open state, curiousness and interested in what is happening in and around your thoughts, feelings and actions. Sometimes you have to go ‘find your people’.