When we consider our core values in our personal life we can often feel that our business values need to be different…more professional or perhaps meet the expectations of our clients, peers or staff needs.
But in reality, like an apple core…our values need to have depth and have the ability to be sustainable…ie the seeds for re-planting new apples trees.
Whilst to some degree we need to meet clients, peers or staff needs…if we think deep enough about it we would see that our business values need to match our personal values otherwise we will battle with the differences and we lose our identity in our business.
For example if operating your business from ‘integrity’ is a key value for your personally yet you have taken on selling a product that doesn’t deliver on what it says it will then we have an imbalance between what your business is doing and what you believe personally.
At our last Business Group meeting we talked about the term ‘it’s nothing personal…just business’ and we all agreed that in reality people mainly buy through trust …and trust can only be built through personal relationships or a sense of personal trust. So how is it we have been accustomed to this negative term and not challenged others by saying…’In business we deal with real people and real situations…it needs to be personal for them to connect with us and deal with us long-term”.
With this point in mind let us consider this…
How much emphasis has your own core values had on your “Code of Ethics for your business? And…How has this impacted on the success of your business?
It is one thing to say that you are willing to HELP someone…but if you are putting them down by telling them “They are wrong” or insulting the decisions they have made because you want them to use your product/service instead…then what does this say about you and your business’ core values?
Surprisingly, I have had this very thing happen to me on numerous occasions this past year and even most recently last week. Needless to say I will not being dealing with this person OR the business they represent.
Please do not get tempted to do the same…insulting or disrespectfully commenting on someone’s situation to try and get them to buy off you isn’t the path to take.
I would like to hope for and believe in a business community that comes back to raw thinking and organic focused growth in business. What I mean by this is… as business people we treat each other and our customers with the highest level of respect and work to meeting customers’ needs regardless of our very own wants…or even needs. This to me would be sustaining business communities for a brighter future.
Stepping on others to get to the top, OR tricking someone into buying/using your product/service isn’t success in my opinion. That kind of stuff is easy to do and brings returns no doubt…are they sustainable long term results? I am not convinced they are.
I have had the privilege to have this very conversation with a person I consider to operate out of high integrity and has made a conscious choice to not be ‘hard-driven to succeed’ but more ‘people-driven’ to succeed. What a fantastic concept!
So as you come away from this blog I would like you to consider the following two questions and share one or two of your answers with us
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What are the core values for your business…and
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How does this impact on your success?
Please feel free to share – we would love to hear from you!