At hosting.com, we’re working on our first version of our core values, along with our vision and mission. And I’m honored and thankful to be contributing to this work for us.
But I put a HUGE emphasis on our values and this work. They aren’t just another checkbox for me and I take them very seriously as you’ll see.
I believe in real, lived, share values. I’ve seen them work powerfully, where everyone knows what’s expected of them, what success is for them and us and we do great things together.
But I think too often vision and goals seem to come easier for me and other leaders …however, the values work is where the real magic is.
It’s the HOW for the WHERE.
Here’s my central thesis for this post:
- Vision gives the destination.
- Values show us the way.
A QUICK WORD ON VISION
I don’t want to undermine the importance of a compelling vision. It’s absolutely essential and foundational.
Vision give us the destination.
But values show us the way.
And vision and values are two parts of a whole, working together and when they do the results are incredible. I’ve seen it.
When the two align … that’s the magic.
But for now, I just want to focus on values.
BACK TO VALUES ….
So I want to share my thoughts, beliefs, ideas around values — what they are to me, and why they are critically important for the success of an organization and everyone in it, served by it.
Simply put, it’s the answer to ….
What’s REALLY important to us?
Every company HAS core values … but often they aren’t the ones posted on the website or company walls.
In fact, when I started over a year ago at A2 Hosting, I tried hard NOT to look at our core values statements even though they were front and center.
Because I wanted to see what the real values were.
And too often there is a huge mismatch of the stated ones and the real, actual ones.
Thankfully and inspirationally, over time …. I realized they were right on.
But case in point, a couple years ago, I was doing coaching and consulting for a big organization (5K+ people). On the first day, I walked into their executive hallway and saw every door had a wrap of their 12-15 core values on it. So being curious, I stopped, started reading through them and go ….. This is a memo, a detailed oath. And it doesn’t resonate with me, and I bet it doesn’t with their team (who can remember all those let alone, live by them?!) … and in a sense it was a version of the 10 Commandments … and so, I thought: “OK, now it’s time to see what the real values are here.”
Too often I think we have a big mismatch with what we put on a wall, or a door, or a poster or a website to what’s actually reflected in daily work.
Real values are alive …. they are LIVED, experienced, active on a daily basis. In fact the real ones are LIVED and seen … but likely they aren’t the ones on the door.
The real values show up in practice, in the work every day. They revealed themselves over time fairly quickly.
It’s HOW we do the daily work and conversations that happen internally and gauge by the quality and output of our work.
THOSE are the real values for any organization.
Are yours laminated or lived?
VALUES SHOULD BE CULTURAL MIRRORS
Those values are seen and felt in the environment, the atmosphere we’re seeking to create, build, foster, lead and grow to hit our vision and goals.
And reflected in the work and output.
That’s the definition of culture to me.
Values equal Culture. And they should be a reflection of the culture.
And of course, they are critically dependent for hitting the goals and accomplishing the vision and mission of the org.
But values should help answer the question:
Who do we need to be and how do we need to show up in our work, on our teams, with each other, for our customers to achieve our vision and goals?
That’s not an easy task at all. It takes loads of time, effort and a lot of listening and reflection and refinement.
To me, it’s more discovery than an edict.
But once you know the goal and vision of what you’re trying to do, then it’s the values that really do the work and why it’s so critical.
Goals and vision are essential.
But HOW we do our work, day to day, is THE key to progress to get to those goals.
And that’s some of the reasons why I really love doing and contributing to values work. And why it’s some of my favorite work to do.
VISION AND VALUES ARE PARTNERS
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
A group of humans, working together, on the same path, with shared values DO change the world, and our organizations.
And when the compelling vision of our future together, plus the clear navigation to get there (values), amazing things happen when you light hearts on fire and together … and show them the way there.
Get vision and values right and you’re going to be light years ahead of the competition. You’re going to hit your goals and achieve what you need ….. Because your team is going to be energized and inspired by them.
DEEP VALUES ARE DISCOVERED & UNEARTHED OVER TIME
Values should be guided and modeled by leadership, but truly defined and developed and deepened from and BY the teams, and in particular the best members of the teams that model what is needed and expected from each other.
Right now, we’re rolling out an Employee Recognition pilot – where we’re asking team members to nominate others according to some of our initial core values.
I had the opportunity to review over 160 nominations (over 10% of our company was nominated for this first version. And by the way, we have some real rockstars.)
But what I found most insightful and impactful as we roll out our set of v1 Core Values were the reasons another teammate would nominate another person.
The words they used to talk about their great teammates.
It’s like a customer making an uncoached testimonial about your product … in their own WORDS.
Just like a glowing testimonial, those reasons why they nominated are a cultural values GOLDMINE to use and repeat and share.
And we’re using those people and comments to clarify and crystalize our own values as a global team.
Which of course flows into hiring …. And helping our teams be successful in what they do for us, which leads me to:
VALUES SHOULD BE THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
Values can and should be a recipe of work success for every team member.
One of the first things I asked my lead, Daphne, when we were acquired was, “What is success here?” She had outstanding wisdom for us and I took copious notes but one was very simple yet profound: Own it and Deliver.
And she shared how that looks like on our team and was packed with meaning for me.
And so …. THAT was my clear formula for success (and safety). And I loved it and so thankful for it.
That’s why ever leader I work with, I ask for their stories — of the highs and the lows. Of the people and experiences. The moments of their truth.
When you get someone truly sharing a past story like that … that’s where you find the real gold … that can then be shared often and become part of the magic that lights teams on fire — of how we do things, of who we hire, of what we expect, and what success is.
The more and better stories you have like this … the more you’ll find your own values and resonance and powerful culture.
- What was the best experience you had with XYZ? Name a person, give the story. And why that’s important to you.
- What was the worst experience you have with XYZ? Same thing. Name, story, context, and why it’s important to you.
That’s a killer start to resonating values for your team and company as a leader.
And a formula for success for your teams ….. in your stories.
And if you’ve worked on teams for long, you have plenty of them to get you started. Your “core” values are right there waiting for you, as a leader.
VALUES ARE A PLEDGE TO EACH OTHER
Most importantly, values should be a shared commitment for leadership and teams to each other and to customers.
Up and down the org and to customers and back.
Mutual. Shared.
By everyone. To each other.
And they should also be real, and reality, and authentic and HONEST.
Because us humans know when things aren’t right or real. We can smell BS fairly quickly.
STORIES ILLUMINATE VALUES FOR THE DEEPEST RESONANCE & IMPACT
Stories are by far the best to impart values.
Ever.
I think the words we use are good and important, but it’s more powerful when illustrated by the STORIES we share and talk about often.
So much of our values are embedded powerfully in the stories we tell. And I use those stories, work to discover and share those stories of “how we do” over and over wherever I am.
I’ll give an example …
At iThemes, one day a customer was belligerent, cussing, berating one of our support team members and I got wind of it.
So I told the team member, that’s not how anyone should talk to you. And said I would respond personally ….and in response to this customer, I basically said, no. In fact, never. Not gonna happen. Ever. Here. You’re banned until you come back and show basic respect to our team. Otherwise, they would be banned forever. No refund either. Just go. Be gone. Unless they came back and apologized and were respectful moving forward.
To my atonishment, they did!
However, that’s not the point of this story.
But I should ask you, dear reader, what would you glean about my values from that story if you were on my team?
[Take a moment and think about what you got from it]
OK, I hope … it’s one of basic respect and care for humans, in particular our team.
I wanted to send a message to our team of a value — aka what’s most important to us …. we CARE about YOU as a human being here.
That we hold a basic respect for everyone and that starts with our team. And no one will do that without consequences here to each other and yes, even for customers. Even if it costs us reputation, or money, or whatever. It’s worth the cost to protect our team from that kind of abuse.
That story was told a bunch of times (by me and others) … over and over. Because I wanted our team to know, to see, to feel — here, we care about people, we treat people respectfully and kindly as best we can.
There are many more.
But I never waste a crisis – a moment of opportunity – for a story that is packed with what’s most important to us. And to tell it and share it often.
And the stories we tell over and over become legends … and those legends are the most powerful way to impact culture across teams.
FIND AND SHARE THE MANTRAS OFTEN
Alongside stories, and directly after, are the mantras, the slogans, the sayings that come out of it all.
Every org has its own language. And finding and repeating those little mantras over and over and over – backed by stories – are the ways not just to get people to remember them …. But LIVE them.
I’m always looking and trying to find those little mantras that exemplify what we’re trying to do, the atmosphere and expectations of our team, that can be repeated often.
“Own It and Deliver” is one I gleaned from my leader. It resonated with me. And hope it continues to be shared as a mantra in our company (backed by stories of how our team does it).
I share it often with our teams.
Ted Lasso’s was “Believe.”
OK, that’s one word. But if you’ve watched, you likely feel the story behind that little scribbled poster. It came with a story. It came OUT of a story.
We had a couple at iThemes ….
- Learn and Grow, Teach and Share
- Make People’s Each Other’s Lives Awesome – updated this one
- Go Far Together – based on the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We’re the Three Musketeers — all for one, one for all
ITERATE ON VALUES LIKE SOFTWARE
Values are not a set it and forget it type of work. They need to be tended to and evolve and be constantly refined.
So that’s why we’re saying this is the first version of our mission, vision and values.
Just like software, they will and should be updated and big feature additions to our values continually.
On my past teams, every new person that came to our team added, shaped, changed, improved, exposed something we needed.
Along the way, it becomes clearer and clear. Until it really crystallizes, but I’m not sure that work is ever truly done.
The world is constantly changing – and that includes your market, customers, goals, business, competition, teams, skills, tools, etc …. everything … so too our core values should be evolving.
FINALLY …. LEADERS MODEL THE WAY
I initially wrote the subhead to be “Leaders MUST model the way,” but they already do — for positive or negative effect.
Leaders just DO model the way. You are modeling it now.
Even though I said above that most of the rich deep powerful ‘values’ work comes from teams … leaders are the living values in action.
It’s the first of the five practices of The Leadership Challenge, which I’ve used and applied for 20 years now.
Leaders model the way.
And in that, leaders are the mirror of culture.
So want a shortcut to find out what the real values are for any organization?
Just watch and listen to the leaders.
How they run and talk in meetings, what and how they share in Slack. Tone, words, actions. How they talk to people, how they talk about people, customers, teams, etc.
It’s all seen, witnessed … and in real-time shapes culture.
Leaders live the values. Every day. Right, wrong, bad, good, indifferent …. you’re always sharing values.
Now …please know …. I’m not trying to put more weight on an already heavy load for any leader here.
You carry A LOT.
Pressure. Stress. Goals. Conflict. Frustrations. All of it.
But I’d simply say … as a leader, how you show up are your team’s values.
Many of the answers you want and need …. are already sitting right there …. with you, in the mirror.
Peter Drucker’s Managing Oneself is a great start.
But also ….
Do your own work. For your own sake first.
And the others you lead.
Here’s four quick people who’ve helped me most over 20 years as a leader and entrepreneur:
- Get a coach. I’ve had a coach for 6 years now and she’s indispensable. At times, she’s just there to hear me out. But to help hone me and my craft for my maximum potential. And ask the really good questions I need to be thinking about. And if anything, someone to share what’s gone on in the last week (we meet weekly). This is more the forward facing.
- Get a counselor. This is the “do your own work” part. If you’re increasingly frustrated, angry, isolated, alone …. Start talking to someone who can help you. And most importantly, when (not if) the shit hits the fan … to be there, know your story, to help you work through whatever comes up. This is the backward looking and reflecting work we all likely need at some point.
- Get a peer group. You’re not alone. Every leader, entrepreneur deals with the same things … they just have different names attached. I had one for 14 years and in many ways, they saved me as they simply showed up and supported me and each other. This is the Go Far Together group because we get it and have tough stressful jobs. And need to be reminded – it’s not just me!
- And a truth-telling friend/sidekick. Someone that cares about you, wants your best, and is willing to tell you the hard truths you need to hear. The above three will help with blindspots and the obstacles you’re facing …. but some times you might just need someone to say, “Hey, maybe it’s you. And I still love you.” Most leaders are isolated, in an echo chamber that often becomes snowball of emotional pain we carry. And having someone in your corner, but willing to tell you the hard things …. It hurts in the moment, but ultimately it’s for your best and highest. And they are so critical. Truth in love.
You need it. For you. And your people.
I’ve lived it. The hard way.
OK, that’s all I have to say … so far … about values.
As always, take what you need and leave the rest.
WRAPPING UP
The vision tells us where we’re going. It’s the destination.
The values — lived, shared, and repeated — show us how to get there.
And when they work as partners …. that’s how we go far together.