Do your business’ values hold up in a pandemic?
It’s officially a pandemic and we are all working diligently to figure out what that means for our personal and professional lives. There are so many questions to be answered. As a business owner, your questions may seem daunting. The challenge of maintaining business operations, keeping your employees safe and reassured about their future, meeting the needs of your customers, balancing all of that with your family’s health and safety.
As each day passes, you are making decisions. Likely difficult decisions. Decisions about retaining employees or not, delaying projects or product launches, or even staying open. Your decisions will significantly impact you, your employees, customers and every other stakeholder. You are monitoring cash flow and re-forecasting based on the changes you’ve seen over the past couple of weeks. You are building hypothetical projections based on the little information we have on how things will move forward. You are shifting your plans daily.
As you plan your shifts and evaluate each turn you need to make, where do your organization’s core values fit into the mix? Are they guiding your decisions? Are your employees still living by those values even as their anxiety grows? Are your stakeholders experiencing your values the same way they did prior to the pandemic?
Many organizations go through lengthy exercises to establish core values. Other organizations simply select words that sound like good values for their business but are not based on actual actions or behaviors. If values are truly core to the business, they should be present in all actions taken. Even during these challenging times.
If values are truly core to the business, they should be present in all actions taken. Even during these challenging times.
Core values are what differentiates you among competition for customers and employees. Patrick Lencioni wrote in Harvard Business Review, “Core values are the deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a company’s actions; they serve as its cultural cornerstones.”
Would you describe your organization’s core values as cultural cornerstones? Are they your guiding principles? As you move forward and evaluate how to proceed, here are three questions to ask yourself as you make decisions:
How does this decision demonstrate each core value? Walk through each value with respect to your anticipated course of action and evaluate how it is reflected.
If you can’t see how your value is present or addressed by your decision, it is likely not a core value.
Does it feel genuine to use the value as foundation for your decision? As you describe how a value is present or driving your decision, ensure you are not forcing it. Your core values should be authentic to how you operate.
Now is not the time to be disingenuous in how you do business. Your employees and customers will see right through that. If trying to tie your actions to your values feels like a stretch, it is likely not a core value to your business.
Will your customers and employees feel the decision is in line with how business has typically been done? All businesses are having to make hard choices, but that does not mean that the core of the business has changed. Your customers or employees may not like the decision or may be negatively impacted by the decision but executing in a manner aligned with your values should ensure your stakeholders continue to respect your business.
It is critical that the decision and your actions are seen in congruence with the other decisions you’ve made historically. If using a value to support a decision is different from all the other decisions you’ve made, it is likely not a core value.
Core values are more than words pulled out of a hat or hung up in every conference room. They are guiding principles that have meaning to everyone involved with your organization. If you were ever uncertain on whether the values driving your business are truly core, now is an ideal time to evaluate how your values can guide you through a pandemic.