Advantages of Leading Your Business with a Values-First Strategy

Businesses are built upon a vision, first to make money, and subsequently to exercise certain ethical principles, have cultural impact or to craft a legacy. Some of those values upon which businesses are founded include environmental responsibility/sustainability, diversity and inclusion, customer focus, employee welfare and social causes.

Once the day-in and day-out work of building that business begins, however, those noble goals are often shelved - or at least shoved to a back burner. That unfortunate fact could be holding your business back - especially now in the post-pandemic business culture when employees are more prone to look for deeper reasons than just a paycheck to remain at a particular company. In these times, any strategies for maximizing both employee satisfaction and profits would be good to hear.

Some good news is that harking back to those core values upon which you founded your business can be of significant benefit to your company’s earnings, employee engagement and retention. While on the surface, it seems adhering to a strict ethical code can cost you in the short term, over time, the goodwill and reputation such practices reap come back to you financially. Known as a values-first strategy, some reasons for its effectiveness include:

Leadership with vision inspires - When you share your passion, employees will have something more tangible to strive for on the job and more reason to remain loyal to the company. When your vision is at the forefront, the associated values guide decision-making throughout your company, making operations more tightly aligned and cohesive.

Your vision, clearly articulated and executed, is an attractive selling point, to both employees and customers - A business that shares a story of integrity and purpose beyond commerce is instantly more relatable; people like to be part of and contribute to something bigger than themselves.

Having a well-polished and executed values-first strategy makes it easier to promote your business - Marketing messages are more resonant when they are communicated in accordance with your company values. Copy almost writes itself because your principles are leading the charge.

Once you have connected with your company values, it’s important to keep them front and center, lest they wither and become forgotten. Make sure they remain top of mind with employees and customers alike by:

• Devising ways to incorporate your core values into every department, every process, every project so they’ll be hard-wired into the way your company works.
• Finding new ways of talking about your core values so the messaging stays fresh and interesting.
• Seeking out a variety of ways to implement your dedication to those values to keep the enthusiasm for them alive.
• Making a habit of reviewing your company values regularly and gathering feedback from employees so they take ownership of the mission, instead of feeling they’re merely following along.
• Including a metric in performance reviews that measures an employee’s ability to adhere to and promote company values.

A values-first strategy is good business, imbuing your company with a heartbeat and a mission beyond merely earning, which helps you stand out from the competition with both employees and customers.

On what core values does your business run?