The Value of Core Values
When done right, core values can completely transform a company. Not just internally, but externally too. But when core values miss the mark, they diminish credibility and brand trust — in the eyes of employees and customers.
Hoot didn’t always have core values (trust us, we’re not proud). But the minute we instated them, our culture and our work started to change for the better. And we want every business to experience the same transformation we had.
What are core values?
““Core values are the deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a company’s actions; they serve as its cultural cornerstones.” ”
Core values are the collection of words that clearly define a company’s belief system. They hold employees accountable in the eyes of the business, and they hold the business accountable in the eyes of consumers.
Core values are most often seen as sets of three words, which is a model we stick to. Any more and people may not remember them all, any less and you may be too restricted. And as entrepreneur Marc Lore says: “Picking three forces you to get to the root of who you really are and what you stand for.”
How do you choose core values?
A common mistake is selecting core values without much thought. The truth is, it’s better to have no core values than to choose three meaningless words that don’t resonate with your team or speak to your company. To avoid this, it’s best to derive core values from pain points your company has experienced.
Hoot’s core values are joy, candor, and collaboration. They sound great together, but that is far from the reason we chose them: Each and every one addresses a challenge we faced in the past.
Joy: Creative work is emotional, and emotional work can only be successful if the people behind it truly believe in it. We used to work with team members who weren’t passionate about branding, and not only did their work suffer, but they weren’t enjoyable to be around either. That experience showed us that we can only work with people who find real joy in their work — and who bring a positive energy to the office.
Candor: Our work requires feedback. A lot of feedback. And that can be hard to manage, especially if it’s not delivered correctly. In the past, we didn’t always communicate openly and honestly, which ended with hurt feelings and dissatisfaction at work. These instances taught us that clear is kind (thanks Brene Brown!), and speaking candidly with our team makes our work and our people better. And after we read Radical Candor, which defined the term as “caring personally and challenging directly,” we knew that ‘candor’ was a value that had the potential to transform our culture.
Collaboration: Nothing we produce is, or ever has been, a one-man show. It’s a group effort. We’ve had experiences in the past with people who defined success by their individual work, which resulted in misaligned motivations and prevented collaboration. This was a common struggle within our office until we flipped the script.
By selecting core values that addressed our particular challenges, the words automatically held weight. They also set the foundation for making meaningful change within our company — and building meaningful relationships with our clients. If a client doesn’t find joy in their work, is uncomfortable having hard conversations, or doesn’t believe in a collaborative process, they won’t be a good fit for us.
How do you implement core values?
The first step of instating core values is choosing the right ones. The second step is implementing them the right way. Here’s a guide for how to share your values with internal and external stakeholders.
Internally.
Obviously, you have to share your core values with your team. But don’t just send out an email: Make the introduction a powerful moment. Create a memorable presentation, clearly explain each value so that everyone has a unified understanding of what they mean and why you chose them, and give every employee a print with the values listed so that they can really start to internalize them.
That’s the easy part.
The hard part is using your values to drive change, but that’s where the growth really happens. At Hoot, we use our core values as the scaffolding for the hard work. We use them as the basis for difficult conversations, or even just conversations that deal with difficult topics. And of course, we use them to sing praises as well.
Some days at Hoot, this looks like “I’m going to be really candid” before sharing some challenging feedback. On others, it looks like “how can we make this project more collaborative?” And on many, many days, it looks like “this is a really joyful place to work.”
Using your core values frequently and in a variety of conversations is the best way to ingrain them in your team.
Externally.
We share our core values with all of our clients, and we recommend you do the same. Our core values are outlined in our contracts, and we hold our clients to our same standards of joy, candor, and collaboration. Sometimes this looks like having hard conversations in the name of candor or revamping a process to enable optimal collaboration. We’re open about our commitment to our core values from the start, which communicates the experience our clients will have with us right off the bat.
At many consumer-facing brands, core values take a different, but equally important, role. When they are explicitly shared, they give customers something to depend on. For example, Allbirds is committed to sustainability. This helps its environmentally conscious audience connect with the brand, and it ensures they can count on Allbirds to always do the right thing when it comes to respecting the planet.
Our core values made our work and our culture better. There’s no doubt in our mind that if it weren’t for our core values, our growth would have plateaued. And if you’d like to consult with us about your core values, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to help you evolve your company culture.
