UNIT – 1 - Values: Definition and Principles
SESSION – 6
In essence, your company values are the beliefs, philosophies, and principles that drive your
business. They impact the employee experience you deliver as well as the relationship you
develop with your customers, partners, and shareholders.
Your company values are your company's DNA and they help you differentiate your business
from the competition. That's why you can't make any important business decisions without
having them in mind.
However, having company values doesn't mean having a polished communication plan around
nice values and principles.
You have to truly honor your company values in everything you do and set the right example for
your employees. It's the only way you can build trust in the workplace. Don't ask your employees
to follow the company values you've set for your business if you don't follow and integrate them
into your daily work in the first place.
7 Ways Company Values Drive Business Success
As mentioned above, your company values play an essential role in your business.
Without them, it's almost impossible to align your employees with your strategic goals, enhance
team collaboration, or empower your employees. And here's why
1. Your company values help your employees make the right decisions
Having a clear set of values helps your employees understand what you stand for. Your company
values also give them guidance for their work and a sense of security.
As a result, your employees are more likely to make the right decisions — the decisions that help
them achieve the company's vision and goals. And that's because they understand the company's
mission statement, share the values that you stand for, and believe in your brand.
But to help your employees make the right decisions, you need to set the right company values,
the ones that reflect what you stand for. That's why Simon Sinek explains in his book Start with
Why that you need to communicate with your employees why your company exists, what your
mission statement is, and what beliefs you stand for.
2. They help you improve your employee communications
Employee communication plays an extremely important role in building a better company
culture, improving employee satisfaction, and increasing employee engagement.
The thing is, when employers don't have clear company values, their communications with their
employees are usually inconsistent and unclear. This often leads to confusion in the workplace.
With clear company values, you can significantly improve employee communications at your
workplace, and help your employees live by those values.
3. They have a direct impact on employee motivation and engagement
When your employee communication is built around your core company values, it helps boost
employee motivation and engagement.
Indeed, if you explain your core values to your employees and the reasons why you stand for
these specific values, they will have a better understanding of the company goals and will work
harder to achieve them.
Engaged employees are the ones that have clear guidance for achieving their personal goals as
well as the company's goals. They have a good understanding of what is expected from them and
how to achieve the business goals.
But most importantly, engaged employees are the ones that share your company values and
strongly believe in them. If you want your employees to feel more engaged, you need to define
your company values and communicate them properly.
4. They help your clients understand what your company stands for
Besides helping your employees to live by your company values, it is extremely important to
make sure that your clients understand what your core values are.
Indeed, your company values help you clarify the identity of the brand and educate your clients
about what the company stands for.
Having a set of specific and unique core values can be a highly competitive advantage.
Think about it: if you manage to build a relationship with your clients based on the values you
share, you're most likely going to strengthen this relationship because it is built on common
beliefs and principles.
5. They help you attract and retain top talent
Company values are extremely important when it comes to talent attraction and retention.
Company values and talent retention, Think about it: most candidates complete extensive
research before applying to open roles. They check companies' websites, forums, discussions
going on on social media about the companies they are interested in, and they pay particular
attention to company reviews.
That's because they don't want to choose the "wrong" company and the same goes for you as an
employer — you want to hire the "right" talent.
Check out this short video where Simon Sinek explains why setting strong company values is
essential when it comes to attracting top talent.
Besides interviewing candidates about their skills and experience, you're going to ask them
questions about their values to make sure that they fit your company culture.
If you don't check whether the candidates are a cultural fit during the interview process, you may
end up seeing your employee turnover rates drastically increase in the next few months!
6. They help you attract customers that share the same values
In addition to your customers, potential new clients also care about what your company stands
for.
When a company finds out that your values are similar to theirs, you could have a much bigger
chance of being chosen over someone else.
For example, if one of your main company values is accountability, you can attract new
customers who appreciate accountability and transparency from their vendors. For that reason, it
is important to understand who your leads are and what their values are.
7. They make your marketing and internal comms teams' lives easier
To align their messages, your marketing and internal communications teams need to have a great
understanding of your company values.
To be credible, you’re internal and external communications have to be consistent. Companies
that haven't set clear company values usually struggle with their communications strategies.
Furthermore, marketing teams that know what the company stands for are much more successful
in attracting new qualified leads that convert.
Indeed, you need to make sure that you share the right message with the right audience. If your
messages include values that resonate with your target audience's values, you're much more
likely to catch their attention. It's all about delivering authentic messages and building trust with
your leads.
INSTRUMENTAL VALUES and TERMINAL VALUES
Values are of two types, both in the personal and organizational domains.
INSTRUMENTAL VALUES
Instrumental Values are core values, permanent in nature, comprise personal characteristics
and character traits.
Instrumental Values refer to preferable modes of behaviour and include values like honesty,
sincerity, ambition, independence, obedience, imaginativeness, courageousness, competitiveness,
and also some negative traits too.
Organisations also have Instrumental Values (which can be ascertained from the organizational
culture) and these are permanent in nature and difficult to change.
For example, the instrumental values of a PSU will differ from that of an MNC though both may
be in the same business.
Instrumental Values are difficult to change.
TERMINAL VALUES
In our personal lives, Terminal Values are those things that we can work towards or we think are
most important and we feel are most desirable – terminal values are desirable states of existence.
Terminal Values include things like happiness, self respect, family security, recognition,
freedom, inner harmony, comfortable life, professional excellence, etc
In a nutshell, Terminal Values signify the objectives of the life of a person – the ultimate things
the person wants to achieve through his or her behaviour (the destination he wants to reach in
life) whereas Instrumental Values indicate the methods an individual would like to adopt for
achieving his life’s aim (the path he would like to take to reach his destination).
This applies to organisations as well, and organizations too exhibit Terminal Values. However,
Terminal Values can be changed and this can be seen when there is a change of top management
or CEO.
SECULAR vs. SPIRITUAL VALUES
