What are Values?
A company’s core values are a snapshot of its identity, fundamental beliefs and guiding principles. They help employees determine what’s right and wrong, and help companies decide if they are on the right path. The core values within a company are effectively the backbone that support the corporate vision, shape the business culture, and reflect the heart of what it is a company defines as success. While most companies invest heavily in the technical skills of their staff, often what makes a business successful and keeps it running smoothly is a set of core values in which all employees believe.
Benefits of Company Values
- Values help an organization run smoothly and contribute to its success.
- Values guide in decision-making.
- They educate clients and potential customers about what the company stands for and provide insight in to the company’s identity.
- They help with recruiting, retaining, and evaluating employees.
An example of some “Quirky” Values
One of the things I enjoy most about leading organizations as they identify their values is witnessing how the final values reflect the company’s culture and personality. Take, for example, the values of a company called Quirky.
Quirky
Quirky (https://www.quirky.com) is a community-led invention platform. Their mission is to partner with inventors in making their ideas successful. They are dedicated to empowering everyday problem-solvers to share their ideas with the world. As a company that has reinvented invention, they have taken a similar non-traditional approach to creating their culture. For example, decisions at Quirky are not made in the boardroom, but in the living room. The values they chose are a bit unconventional.
Quirky’s, six core values include:
- Get Sh*t Done
- Impatience
- Futurist
- Agile
- Selfless
- Embrace conflict
While these values may not work for a more traditional company, they fit Quirky’s culture and reflect its personality. Everything the company does and every Quirky employee is measured against these five core values. At Quirky it’s not about where you went to school, what degrees you have, or who your previous employer was — success is measured by how you embrace these values.
Quirky’s values form a daily mantra and reflect the standard to which every employee holds themselves, their colleagues, their managers, and their executive team. Their core values are woven into everything they do and how they do it, from attracting, identifying and hiring top talent, to evaluating performance and promotion, to setting new initiatives and goals, and even operating day-to-day.
Hope to work with you someday to identify and/or refresh the “quirky” or traditional values that reflect your company’s culture and make it successful!
