“Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ‘em all over everything you do.”
– Elvis Presley
Company culture isn’t always tangible. It’s seen in the intangible—the feeling visitors get when they first walk in the building, the motivation and enthusiasm employees have to come into work each day. How do you capture your culture? By defining your company values. These are the hands and feet of your company culture.
What do you hope to accomplish as a brand? Why do you exist? What is your WHY?
The answers to these questions comprise the bones of your values statement. Unfortunately, many organizations find that accurately capturing their values in a simple statement can be elusive.
Why do company values matter to an organization?
Defining your company’s core values creates a level of internal accountability for you and your people. Your values should be ingrained in every decision, in every day-to-day aspect of your business. They should seamlessly integrate into your mission, strategy and goals.
One study found that brands with purpose—with a defined set of values—grow two times faster than other companies. But values must be turned into action, or they carry little weight. They should be tied to measurable activities and behaviors.
Defining—and practicing—your values as core to your company culture can come with a payoff. According to one study, more than 50 percent of executives believe corporate culture influences productivity, creativity, profitability, firm value and growth rates.
This also comes with a note of caution: If you don’t plan to stand by your values and truly put them into practice, then don’t bother writing them. It isn’t enough to just talk about your values—you must live by them.
What are our company values?
Helping our clients understand their “why” is a huge part of what we do at Fuse Associates. We’ll go to great lengths to help you define your company mission and value proposition—all elements that are rooted in your core values.
As our own company has grown recently, we decided it was time to put this exercise into practice for ourselves. We spent some serious time digging deep into who we are (both as individuals and as a team) and why we do what we do. So, without further ado, here are our own core values, put into words.
- We create connection; connections for our clients, our company, and each other.
- We live by the golden rule, striving to show a deep respect for human beings inside and outside our company, and for the communities in which they live.
- We pay it forward by supporting charities that are meaningful to us and our clients.
- We have a constant desire for renewal; we grow through our experiences to improve our results.
- We leverage our collective genius to think big, have fun and do amazing work.
- We grow our business in a way that makes us proud.
- We stand by our work and our word. Delivering what we say we will and recognizing that the only way to make an impact is to put our work into the world.
Do you find it easy to describe what your company does—the products and/or services you provide—but hit a roadblock when trying to describe your culture? Your organization’s values are the foundation of your company’s culture. And it is this culture that has the power to turn prospects into customers and to attract top talent to your team. If you need help defining your values, Fuse can help, so give us a call!
