15 Questions to Define your Business’s “Core Values”
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- What does my business stand for?
- What is the success for you?
- How will you satisfy your customers?
- Why would your customers choose you over your competition?
- What is something that your company value in each employee?
- What are the types of habits your business Values the most?
- What types of relationships your company Values the most?
- What is the community that your business Values the most?
- What are the competencies that your company needs the most?
- What responsibilities are most important for your company?
- What type of decisions are most important for your company?
- What do you think about respect for individuals?
- What about tolerance of failure? Do you accept it, and why?
- What is your tolerance for risk-taking?
- Are you and your company open to ideas from outside your company?
Re- or Start. Whether you’re starting a new venture or re-launching an existing one, there are two things you need to do before you can move forward:
- 1) define your business’s Core Values.
- 2) figure out if your current model fits within those Values.
If you don’t know where you want to go or why you are going there, your journey will become a long and unfulfilling road.
Do you Have?
- 1) Do you have formal or informal Core Values for your company that you follow and base your decisions on them?
- 2) Do you have something that leads you whenever you must decide on something important for your small business?
- 3) Do you have something that serves you as a referring point on your path to success?
If your answers to questions are yes, you have established your Core business Values. One of the most complex parts of starting a new business is figuring out your Core Values. This article helps you identify your business Values, answering 15 simple questions.
What are Core Values?
Business Core Values are
- 1) the core beliefs of an organization. You may express these beliefs verbally, or they may be written down. They are the Values of the company, and they form the basis of the culture of the company.
- 2) what your business stands for, what your principles or philosophy are, and the reason for your company’s existence. These values can guide your business, management, and employees in the right direction.
They are something that can make your entrepreneurial life much easier. They define what you need to do and what you need not do. They determine what is acceptable and what is not for you and your company and will tell you when you must stop and accelerate.
A business’s Core Values define what it means to work for your company. Understanding your company’s Core Values is important because when your business values align with your employees, you create a culture that people want to be part of. If your business values conflict with your employees, however, you’ll end up with a workforce that isn’t performing.
Why do you need Core Values?
You need Core Values, and that’s a fact. But, the question is why? Here we will try to answer this question.
1) Core Values enable Common Language for Employees
Your company’s Values help create a common language for your employees. They provide a reference point for your employees to understand the purpose behind every action. Without clear, defined Values, people are left to interpret every new decision as a change in the status quo.
2) Guide you & your Employees on the Way to Act within a Company
When you talk about “Values,” you’re talking about Values in a business sense. You can think of these as beliefs and assumptions that guide how you act within a company and with customers. Values are similar to guiding principles, but they tend to be more specific and less abstract than principles. For example, a company might have a value that says, “We believe in the importance of our customers.” That’s a guiding principle. A value is, “We believe it is important always to treat our customers with respect.”
3) Core Values help you & your Employees to make Decisions on an everyday basis
Your company’s Core Values guide you through every decision you make and help you determine what actions to take. Without your company’s Core Values, you may start with great intentions but get lost in a maze. It’s essential to recognize that company Values are not set in stone. In fact, they can change over time. But if you don’t set them, you won’t be able to make decisions based on how they affect the lives of others. You may think you already have company Values, but you don’t. This is because most companies and their leaders focus on business goals rather than those working there.
4) Core Values improve your Employee’s motivation
To effectively motivate employees to work hard and deliver quality results, a business must possess a set of Core Values. These Values help create a culture that is key to long-term success. When employees see their efforts contributing to the organization’s larger purpose, they feel more valued and invested in the mission. If they don’t know how their work is connected to the organization’s overarching vision and purpose, they begin to feel less committed and engaged in their work.
5) Core Values help your Company to Get Things Done !!!
Core Values can often get in the way of your ability to get things done. When everyone inside the company knows the values, they will get things done much easier. This is because your Core Values are the reasons why you do what you do. They are the goals you are trying to achieve as a company and individual. It is essential to keep these in mind while designing your product, developing it, selling it, and supporting it. Simply, your Core Values will help you to manage your company on the path to success that’s not a straight line.
How to define your Business’s Core Values?
Instead of developing a process, I would like to share 15 questions you can use to develop your Core Values.
1. What does my Business stand for?
The key to finding and sharing what your business stands for is to take the time to understand your brand. After all, if you don’t know what your business stands for, how can you be sure you’re representing it well to customers? When people talk about your company, what words come to mind? What do they say about your business and its Values? How can you use those words to create and shape your brand and maintain consistency throughout every aspect of your business?
2. What are the Success Goals for you?
This is a crucial question to ask yourself. Once you know your end goal, you’ll better understand how to set up your goals & strategy. Success has many faces. The most common definition is: achieving our Goals. But it can also mean making a difference in the world or being happy and successful. The key is to understand what you want to achieve. Why do you want to be successful? What are the reasons for wanting to make a difference in the world?
3. How will you satisfy your Customers?
You must demonstrate that you care about the customer’s problems and concerns and will solve them. The better you can show your customers that you care about them + understand their problems & challenges, the better your chance of doing business with them. Once you’ve defined their problem to identify your customers, you need to figure out what you need to do to solve their problem/s. Your product or service needs to be of a better value than anything else currently available to your customers.
4. Why would your Customers choose you over your Competition?
If you want to know why someone is interested in working with you, ask them questions about what they’re trying to do or what problems they’re trying to solve. Ask them about their goals, challenges, & obstacles. This allows you to understand how they feel about their current situation and how they plan to improve it. This is how you’ll uncover insights into why they would choose to work with you – instead of someone else. Once you have this information, you can develop compelling reasons why they should work with you instead of the competition.
5. What is the best attributes that your company values in your Employee?
This is a question to determine if you have a culture that values certain traits. How do you make your people feel valued? I’ve learned over the years of working with many kinds of people and in many different jobs, that people need to be appreciated, recognized, & rewarded for their efforts. If you don’t take the time to acknowledge the people who help you succeed, it’s very easy to forget that they’re worth anything. Showing appreciation for what people do goes a long way.
6. What are the Habits your business Values the most?
You need to have habits that support your Core Business Values. These include: 1) treating people with respect, 2) maintaining the highest quality in your products & services,3) keeping your promises, & 4) treating others the same way you want to be treated. If you don’t have any of these habits, it’s time to work on them. Your Core Values should be something you do every day. If they are, you’ll never forget them, and they’ll become part of your routine. That’s what makes them so important.
7. What types of Relationships does your company values the most?
When building a strong team, the people you work with can make or break your company.
1) Who are the people in your company that are critical to its success? 2) Who are the people who make decisions, influence others, or have the most influence in your company? 3) What are their strengths & weaknesses? (do a SWOT Analysis) 4. How will they impact your company?
The answer to these questions will help you determine your company’s most valuable relationships, what kinds of connections you want to nurture, and what relationships you want to improve upon.
8. What is the Type of People that your business values the most?
This is the question we ask ourselves when considering our next move. It’s not just a question of location or physical space, but it’s about people, culture, and vibe as well. This is the most important element of any brand; it is the glue that holds it together. What are the core beliefs that your brand stands for? What is the Mission Statement of your brand? Who is your target audience? What are the Core Values that you embody that pertain to this?
9. What are the Competencies that your company needs the most?
The answer to this question can help you better understand your company’s skills, how to evaluate candidates, and what kind of company culture you should foster in the workplace. To answer this question, start with the premise that you’re trying to grow your business. Think about what you don’t have and what you’d like to see in your company, and then you’ll be able to figure out what competencies you need to hire. Companies are becoming increasingly complex, meaning they need to hire people who can solve problems effectively, regardless of what those problems are. They must possess management skills to run their company smoothly & efficiently.
10. What Responsibilities are most important for your company?
This question is designed to get you thinking about what your company does. You’re probably already aware of the fact that your business has a certain set of responsibilities. But, if you’re unsure where to start, this question will help you create a clear picture of how your business operates and how it contributes to your Employees & Customers’ lives. If you’re unsure how to answer this question, start by listing your major tasks & responsibilities. Ask yourself:
- 1) Do I know everything that is required to do my job well?
- 2) Are there some things that are harder than others?
- 3) Do I know all the different ways that my work affects the customer?
When your organization is small, there’s no need to focus on many different responsibilities because you can usually handle just about everything yourself. But once your company starts to grow, it can become increasingly difficult to keep track of all the details and hire the people that will meet these needs.
11. What type of Decisions are most important for your company?
What matters most to you when you think about your business decisions and how they could affect you? What is the decision that makes all of your other decisions easier to make or more difficult? We’re all guilty of making decisions based solely on emotion, instinct, or even the easy way. The reality is that there is no substitute for critical thinking. So, when it comes to decision-making, you can’t afford to ignore what you know vs. what you feel.
12. What do you think about Respect for your Employees & Customers?
We all know that we should “Treat others as we want to be treated” and not act in a manner inconsistent with how we feel we should be treated. This means not treating people differently based on their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other reason that has nothing to do with the actual person. Respect for individuals is very important, particularly within the workplace. I don’t necessarily agree with everything, but if I voice an opinion, it’s because I’m genuinely interested in finding out the other side of the argument. If there is a better alternative, I will always try to work towards that.
13. What about Tolerance of Failure?
Do you accept failure? The answer is easy: if we don’t accept failure, we never learn anything, and if we don’t learn anything, we end up failing even more often. We must accept that there will always be something that fails. Some of those failures might be big, but most will be small. Accepting failure is a sign of a strong character. We’re willing to keep trying until we get hit on the right idea.
14. What is your Tolerance for Risk-taking?
I’ve noticed that successful people tend to be Risk–takers, even if they don’t realize it. When looking at your situation, ask yourself the following questions.
- 1) What is my personal tolerance for risk-taking?
- 2) 2) What am I willing to risk, and
- 3) 3)what am I not willing to risk? If you’re not ready to risk a little, you’ll never do anything truly great.
But if you’re willing to take risks, what could you do with some risk? (see Post on Risks & Rewards
15. Are you & your Staff open to ideas from outside your Company?
If not, you limit yourself to one perspective – the one inside your head or your organization. We’re not suggesting that you should take every idea that comes your way. But if you’re open to new ideas, you’ll benefit from taking advantage of new opportunities. Evaluate it, to determine if it might work for you company. We all get stuck in our ways, and it can be hard to see something new. But when new ideas come your way, it’s a sign of an opportunity to explore and expand your business.(do SWOT and/or Risk & Rewards analysis to explore the Opportunity)
Conclusion
This is not the final list of questions. You can add as much as possible related to your company, industry, or market. I hope that you will have clear Core Values after this exercise.
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Comments: Do you know any other Q&A?
fm Entre-in-a-Box 12/22 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz
For similar Info, click on Core Values.
