BLOG: How you can continue to evolve in what you do? Capture your company values.

TAGS: WORK ON YOUR BUSINESS, PERSONAL GROWTH

Big companies think carefully about their corporate values and how they want to stand out in the world.  For example, on Patagonia's website (link) you can read these core values:

  • Build the best product

  • Cause no unnecessary harm

  • Use business to protect nature

  • Not bound by convention  

Very strong if you ask me.  Not only does it create an image for the outside world, but internally employees also work on the same wavelength, on the same mission. An inspiring corporate culture where people like to work.

 

So why not set your values as a one-person business?


That is the question and an exercise I often do with my clients. I like to challenge them in thinking of values for their business. I do this for example when they get stuck with the following difficulties:

- "I want to make visual work and this is what I can and want to do. I don't want to do it randomly but with a plan to fall back on."

- “How do I say and show what I do”?

- “I want a global plan for the future, a clear focus, how do I achieve all my dreams”?

- “I want insights on how to make important decisions like working with galleries."

- “How do I choose my projects?"

These questions occur when you feel uncertain. You think about how you can further evolve in what you do. You hesitate to make those choices or you don't dare to jump.

This exercise is instructive to go to the basis of your company. Seeing yourself as an organisation, even if you are "only" a one-man business, helps to see things in perspective. Who are you and what does your company stand for? Those are connected but you can look at them as 2 different entities.

Values help to

Setting your course makes clear what your business stands for and provides inspiration that can be translated into behaviour and action. It is a compass of "why" you do things the way you do, influence and define how you want to live.

  

What are good values Katrijn?

Good values are reality-based, socially constructed, verifiable and measurable.  Write them down (between 3 and 5 values).

The second step, think for a moment on a scale of 10, how much do you think, work and take actions according to that value already? Why is this at this moment this number? Where do you think it goes well and where is it difficult? If this value is so important to you, what can you effectively do to pull this number up?

The gap

In the previous paragraph, I assumed that you did not write down 10. Most probably not ;-). If you have written 6 out of 10, what can make you have 10 out of 10? Is this impossible? Absolutely not. I want to engage and encourage you that a 10 is achievable because you are the one who sets the course within your company.

If you want change to happen, you must:

First, be aware of "the gap".

Secondly, make the real changes necessary to narrow the gap between your stated values and your effective behaviour.

 

How can you do that?

Do you want to regain energy in the thing you love most? Do you want that someday or today? Start taking actions today and act according to your company values.

 So... you have written down your values. You have scaled them from 0 to 10. Now it's up to you to decide what will get you to a 10.

 

Let me think with you ;-)? This can be small changes like writing in your signature that you only read emails on Fridays, putting an out of office on Wednesday afternoon because you are playing with your kids, putting your phone on sleep mode in the weekend, not checking social media while you are having dinner with your loved one,... These are actions, but it is also important that you feel the WILL to do things this way and that you stick to it.

Or would you prefer bigger changes?  Do you want to walk a new path? Then think about what the new values of your switch might be.

 

Aim for a 10 for doing business according to YOUR company values. If you are not satisfied with how you work at the moment, delete your old values and embrace the new ones, so you can always keep your focus.

 

Show the outside world, your customers, the <values> you consider important. Don't just write them down, let them live.

 

And as a final tip, put a reminder in your agenda within a month and check whether your grade has increased and "the gap" has narrowed.

 

Will you let me know if this insight has helped you live a better creative life? Feel free to send me an email at hi@isupportcreatives.com. 

Extra information? Watch this ;-)

Say I Do And Do: Bridge the Intention-Action Gap - The Acumen Academy workshop (Access Password: SayIDo1!)

Determining values together is possible through a process. Plan your intro talk for a first meeting.