Core values are an established set of beliefs and philosophies that guide your organisation ie the rules by which you agree to behave.

Every organisation has core values, whether they are defined in writing or not. But when done right, taking time to clearly define these values can have a significant impact on the success of your business.

Why are core values important:

• they guide you in decision making in your business
• they help dictate what type of people you want in your business
• they determine what you will hold yourself and your people accountable to.
• they define how your team will behave towards customers and each other.

Core values must be relevant and actionable and If they don’t align with your what your business does in practice, they will simply be ignored.

Your company core values should reflect who your business serves and what your company delivers:

• How do you want your business to make your customers feel
• How do you want to be different from your competitors
• How will you measure success in your business
• How will you’re your team interact with others

How to come up with your core values

It helps if you have created your company mission statement- this allows your values to support your mission and align with that central goal.

For more information on creating your mission statement see our Insights article https://www.altoadvisors.com.au/insights-a-business-on-a-mission-the-importance-of-a-mission-statement/

1. Identify those values that you relate to and are important to you personally.
2. Get the team talking and giving ideas – this could include their own personal values or how they see the business.
3. Collate and identify patterns
4. Consider how those you identify with would contribute to your mission and goals
5. Reduce the list down to a manageable number.
6. Show the selected values to your team – you will likely not end up with consensus but you need to make sure that least the majority of your team agrees with the values and can abide by them.
7. Check that the values are viable overt the long team – you can adjust as you grow but the goal is to create stable values that will last.
8. Polish them up to make them memorable.

Rules for creating your Core Values

1. Should be a level up from basic moral principle such as respect or team work
2. Shouldn’t be vague to cover every situation. More specific values will provide guidance of how put them into action.
3. Don’t make them overly complicated – if you cant remember them, you are unlikely to put them into practice

Creating the core values is just the first step – sharing them with the team, reinforcing them and implementing them into every day operation is the important part.

Contact Alto if you would like assistance in formalising your core values or advice on creation of a complete strategic plan for your business.

Author: Donna Bruce