In the research I have done on various companies and looking at their literature, websites, and marketing materials, it’s startling to see how many organizations do not promote, or list, or even seem to have an essential piece to govern their path.

Core values of many companies are simply not listed.

What should be such a fundamental component of an entity more often than not fails to get promoted or noticed. This may be deliberate, or an unconscious decision, but for any organization to succeed and thrive it must state these values clearly for a number of reasons:

Identify with your customers. Customers in our times want to buy and be serviced from companies that they can identify with. Whether they want to be pampered, delivered, or know of your good stewardship, customers are looking for those businesses that mirror their own values, dreams, and passions. Transparency of mission. Having the values out in public lets others know the agenda you claim you’re on. If you want others to join and believe in your mission, you need to tell them why it’s being worked for in the first place. Accountability of results. Whether internal or external partnerships, your values will let others know what you claim you stand for. If integrity is a value, then your people will hold you to that value to make sure you’re true to the core. It opens your company up for synergy and shoring up disruptive goals and behavior. Guardrails for operating. Core values are the guardrails that keep the company car from skidding into the ditch. People development is a great core value if it leads to efficiency and productivity, but when training budgets get slash at the expense of quality products or services, then you have jumped the values guardrails. Keep them in check and steer straight. Alignment of people. Not only do your values help ensure your people are on the bus with your philosophy, but it allows you to select and attract job candidates who mirror your operating beliefs as well. Congruent strategic planning. If a business acquisition would steer you away from your mission, a values assessment would abort that plan before it gets realized. Values keep you on course. Preserve the core culture. While this phrase borrows from Jim Collins in Built To Last, your values are like centripetal force that pulls a body to the center. An adherence to unchanging values (versus the change of innovation and application within those values) keeps the heart of the company intact for generation after generation. Values should also govern long-term business and succession planning as well, which will always have the core in mind.

Core values are not a fancy strategic planning session with a high-paid consultant. They are not a plaque that gets hung on the lobby wall and becomes wallpaper to everyone in the company. Core values are the skeleton on which the strategy, or meat, can then adhere to the bone. They are the foundation for the company mission, payout of stakeholders, treatment of staff, and servicing of customers. Core values are a tell, and more and more this world demands your hand to be shown.

However you promote them, whether internal training and branding, website presence, business cards, or even a long-term marketing campaign, resolve to start now to promote your values and let the world know who you are to them.

(image: created on Canva, copyright The UPwards Leader)