Core Values – Know Who You Are

This part is all about “Who you are.” This small set of principles will guide your company along the often time tumultuous path. When times are good, these keep you humble, and when things are not working well, these core values encourage you.

These values define your culture and who you are at your most inner core. Once you get these items on paper, start promoting them; you will start attracting the right type of employees and customers. You will also most likely get rid of those that don’t believe in those same values, or they will most likely leave.

We take each company through a process to dig down deep into their soul to ensure we dig out the gold deep down inside., bring the entire leadership team in to get them to look inside for these values.

Here is the exercise that our coach took us through. The first step was getting everyone on your leadership team in a room and follow this exercise:

Meeting Exercise

1. Have everyone write down at least five people they admire in business and life.
2. Write down the name and the qualities they embody that is desirable.
3. Go around the room and share the people and their qualities.
4. Write every quality mentioned on the board.

Examples of Qualities:

1. Works hard
2. Stays true to their conviction
3. Compassionate
4. Honest
5. Has Fun

When your team lists their examples, your Core Values are hidden in the list. Circle which values are the best. During this process, you may want to combine some or discard some. The overall goal, however, is to highlight three to seven qualities.

Once you have the best qualities circled, it is time to debate and find out which ones are at the core of your business.

Resources for Creating Core Values

You can find great examples on page 38 in the book Traction.

Once you have identified your Core Values, you will easily decide:

• Who to hire
• Who does not fit into the organization
• What businesses to partner with
• What vendors to work with
• What customers to work with

These core values will be used to analyze people in which you interact. Your core values are the heartbeat of your company. They are the filter that all decisions flow through.

As an example, these are Legacy 4:12’s Core Values.

Legacy 4:12 Core Values:
S. teward Well Time, Money & Resources
T. ransparent in Our Relationships
A. chieve Excellence in Every Aspect of Business
N. urture all Legacies
D. iligent in Business Practices

Still not sure about creating your Core Values? Contact Legacy 4:12 today to learn how we can help you.