Step-By-Step Guide: How to Determine Your Core Business Values

Each organization is founded upon strong values. When you’re doing your best to create lasting relationships with your target audience, you must build a positive public image for your business. The core values are extremely important in that aspect.

Business owners are aware of the importance of their leadership values, but they must also pay attention to the organization’s values. How do you determine them? This step-by-step guide will help you set that foundation for your organization.

1. Evaluate the Current Situation

When you’re trying to make any progress, evaluating and understanding the current situation is the first step you take. What values does your company represent at this moment?

There are few ways to get that information:

• Ask your customers. Surveys can give you valuable insights regarding the way your audience perceives your company’s values. You could even offer a discount code as an incentive for completing the survey.
• Ask your employees. What core business can they identify at this point?

You might be surprised to find out that people’s perception of the organization’s core values may not align with your own. From this point on, you’ll be able to work towards improvement.

2. Check Out the Business Strategy

Like any other organization, your business also has a strategic plan to follow. This plan shows where you intend to take your company in the future and it should also include the core values it represents.

Where does your business stand at this very moment? How does this situation compare with the strategic plan?

This has a lot to do with the core values. If all employees are aware of them, they should be inspired enough to work towards the achievement of the strategic goals. If they are not completely aware of the values, you should provide additional training and motivation for them.

3. Analyze the Company’s Culture

If you’re still not aware of the precise business values of your organization, then the culture in the offices will help you determine them. Observe the way the employees act at the workplace. Are they friendly and open for communication with the customers and colleagues?

When evaluating your company’s culture, think about what your ideal situation would look like. How can you get your team closer to that vision?

• Maybe you can connect everyone on social media. You can also use a specialized communication tool for your internal team. When the team is connected, it functions better.
• Organize team building sessions. They boost the friendly spirit within your organization, and that’s one core business value you should maintain.
• Start a blog and feature your employees as guest bloggers. Of course, this will be on a voluntary basis. This activity will showcase the organizational culture to a wider audience. You could also get professional writers to provide guides that will help your employees cope with work-related stress, if this is an issue your company is facing.

4. The Crucial Step: Set Your Core Business Values

After all these steps, you’re ready for the main one. You’re ready to set your organization’s core values. Here are a few tips that will help you with that:

• All your values should have a purpose. Reliability, for example, can be one of your core values. What purpose does it serve? It helps you make a great impression with your audience and attract returning buyers towards your business.
• You should translate all values to actions. How will you achieve the value of reliability? You could set up a great customer support team so you will be available for your audience through several channels. You could make a policy to always respond to criticism or provide refunds or replacements for customers who have troubles with your products.
• You should take the company’s culture as a basis of the values you develop. That’s why you were so interested in the culture in the first place.

5. Final Step: Implementation

You made all this effort for a reason. Now that you know what the values are, you must bring them to action. Develop an action plan which will help you integrate the core values into all processes of the organization. From sales to marketing to customer support to management – all departments should do business in accordance with the values. No exceptions!

There’s nothing abstract about core business values. This is a practical principle that delivers realistic results. Are you ready to work on this aspect of your business? You shouldn’t waste any time!

About author: Olivia Ryan is a passionate blogger who writes on topics of digital marketing, career, and self-development. She constantly tries to learn something new and share this experience on different websites.