Modeling Our Values, and Explaining Why

Even when we’ve done everything in our power to model the core values our business is built on, we can’t just assume that everyone who cares about those values will automatically connect our behaviors to the reputation we’re working to establish (or maintain). It’s up to us to explain why we’ve chosen our specific approach. As nice as it would be if everyone understood it all, they’re likely consumed with issues of their own and have little time left over for anything we may hope they’re paying attention to… I’ve often heard that most people don’t want to hear about our problems, and the ones who do are happy we have them! When it comes to taking the time to think about how any type of service we may provide our clients exemplifies our core company values, you can bet that client is far more interested in how we’re helping solve their problems than why we’re providing that service in a certain way.

During a recent conversation with a client (who’s also a very close friend), I suggested that they be very intentional in making sure folks in each of the companies they work with routinely are aware of a specific need they have within their firm. While this client’s company is already one of the best in their field, adding that extra bit of talent would help them provide all of their clients with more and better service; mentioning this need would in no way be perceived as a lack of capability for what they currently offer. My friend’s response was, “As close as we work with each of those other companies, I would think they’d naturally point someone with that skill set in my direction…” While I understood why they felt this way, I shared how many times someone Cindy and I had an existing business relationship with solicited support from another business simply because they had no idea we offered what they needed - and would could have easily delivered exponentially more return on their investment since we already know a lot about their team. In most cases, these clients (ours and my friend’s) are so busy keeping their own plates spinning that we’re just not at the top of their minds. This isn’t necessarily because they don’t care about the relationship we have with them, our needs - or how and why we’re working to model our core values - isn’t the first thing they think about. If we’re not intentional about staying on their radar, can we really blame them?

If we really want the values we hold most dear to be a solid part of the reputation we’re known for far and wide, we cannot leave any of that to chance. Not only will we need to talk about those values consistently, we’ll need to connect everything we do as an organization to those values and we’ll need to detail exactly why we do those things a certain way. All too often, individuals and organizations alike shy away from this out of concern that it will come across as self serving or manipulative. As I mentioned earlier when explaining the importance of defining exactly what our values mean, the only folks I’ve ever known to do this in a manipulative way were just plain manipulative in everything else they did, too. The example I’ve ever heard of was very intentional about making sure everyone knew exactly why he did what he did - so we’ll pick up there next time.