In my previous blog, I noted that during our recent staff development day, we reviewed our current values and ended up adding a new one. It’s important to highlight that everyone – ranging from myself as the CEO to a new employee of two months – was involved in discussing and agreeing to our values. Organizational values should be something everyone agrees to and feels good about, not something imposed by management or boards.

I view values as one of the most important things for an organization to develop. In short, values clarify how the organization and its staff behave. They provide the framework for how things get done, and how staff interact with each other and the people they serve.

While we removed one of our values that no longer seemed to fit, we ended up adding flexibility as a value. We realized that we had developed a culture that expects everyone to jump in and help when needed. We reject the “that’s not-in-my-job-description” mentality. We are willing to help each other out on any task because we know it will help us with our mission.

Here are our five values:

Embody – We practice what we teach
Engaged – We care about our mission and each other
Flexible – We pitch in where needed
Productive – We get things done individually and collaboratively
Receptive – We are open to feedback and improvement

These are the five values that are fundamental to our identity. They are not just words written on a wall – they guide how and who we hire, how we do performance reviews, and, when needed, they anchor our disciplinary processes.

What are your organizational values? To what do you hold each other accountable?

In an upcoming book I’ve co-authored, we have a whole chapter dedicated to this topic. Pre-order your book now.