Successful Companies Led by Strong Values BY ASHLEY VELEZ
Does your company have a clear set of brand values? Does everyone in your organization work with these values in mind? Core values are one of the components that make up your company’s brand. These values are the pillars of your company messaging, and make up the ideas on which your brand is built. Having a strong set of core values helps ensure your employees, from leadership to entry-level, work toward a common goal. Other key components of a company’s foundation include mission and vision. These elements support each other overall, but shouldn’t be confused with the values, which shape the why and the what. Mission is the why behind the work, the reason behind a company’s existence. Vision is a company’s goals for the future and what they hope to achieve, or the problem they wish to solve. Values matter, because they humanize your business. They guide stories, actions and, most importantly, behaviors. Maintaining your values is an ongoing process. Clearly defined values are the first step toward building trust and loyalty with your employees. Another step is how you train and empower your employees on these values. How do you expect them to show up and exhibit the values each day? As a leader, how can you ensure they are representing company values in their interactions? These questions, and the answers, shape your company culture. According to research by Brené Brown, around 10% of companies actually operationalize their values into observable behaviors that people are taught, and for which they are held accountable. The result often is culture misalignment, which arises when there’s a disconnect between core values and how the organization operates daily. This misalignment can cause people to feel splintered by their personal and professional values, i.e., who they are, and who they are at work. Disengagement at work comes from a misalignment in values. Do your words and actions as a leader set an example for the expectations you place on employees? If you’re not leaning into the values, you risk having higher levels of employee disengagement, higher turnover and inefficiencies in your systems and processes. When an organization is living its values, authenticity is seen and felt by the employees and the customers. In such a noisy world, one of the most impactful benefits of being a values-led company is trust in your leadership and brand.
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Ashley Velez is a digital marketing strategist, freelance writer and company culture advocate. She's a proud resident of Woodstock, where she lives with her family.
*Qualification is based on an assessment of individual creditworthiness and our underwriting standards. For complete terms and conditions, visit www.CUofGA.org/promo. TOWNELAKER | March 2022
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