Six Tools For Growth #2: Core Values

There's no pint putting time and effort into something unless you truly believe it's worth it. If you're a small company with great alignment within your team, you probably don't need to worry. Communication channels are good, everyone knows what's expected, there's nowhere to hide and you're wll aware of people's strengths and weaknesses.

However, as your company grows and your culture evolves, you'll start to need a framework to retain control over your core beliefs. And this is where values come in. Values are the definition of your company's culture. They're a shorthand way of capturing behaviors you see as crucial in your business.

Values only work if you can hire, promote and fire within them. If you can't do this, chances are they're not right, and you need to revisit them.

My first experience of defining company values came when I was MD at Rackspace. We'd grown to 12 people in the UK, and one day, a team member came to me and said, 'You know Jo Bloggs?' 'Well, he's useless. He's just not one of us.'

This got me thinking - what constituted 'one of us'?

I got the whole team together and told them that I wanted all the positives instead of the negatives. What were the behaviours that we valued at Rackspace? We came up with a list of 14 traits that we wanted to encourage and, from these, whittled down to set of six company values. Whilst they've evolved over time, the values of Rackspace now are still consistent with these founding principles.

1. Treating Rackers Like Friends and Family
2. Passion For Our Work
3. Committed To Greatness
4. Full Disclosure & Transparency
5. Substance Over Flash
6. Fanatical Support In All We Do

When coaching clients, I use Jim Collins' 'Mission to Mars framework' - an excellent approach for defining values. Depending on the company's size, I start with the executive  team and then broaden out to management and sometimes the whole staff, taking everyone through the same exercise. I get them to imagine we're building an outpost of their company on Mars. But there are only five seats on the rocket ship.

Who would they send?

Who best represents the DNAs of their company?

Who has the highest level of competence and credibility with their peers?

Everyone writes down the names of their five nominations. Once we've reached an agreement, we discuss why they've been chosen. What are the behaviours they exhibit? Having pinpointed this list, we boil them down, defining the core values at the heart of these traits.

Incorporating your values deeply within your organisation is essential. Beyond mere mentions in marketing, display them prominently around your workspace and in all documentation to constantly reinforce their significance. Actively celebrate instances of values being demonstrated.

At Rackspace, we celebrated value-aligned actions with public acknowledgements and tangible rewarDs, like posting appreciative notes on a value wall and giving champagne in monthly meetings to those exemplifying our values. Employee recognitions were based on peer nominations, focusing entirely on their embodiment of our core values.

At Peer 1, I placed our values at the core of our performance development, categorising staff as 'player, coach, master, or guru' based on how they lived these values. Being a 'player' meant you aligned with our values but had room for improvement, guiding personal development.

Quarterly, we assessed everyone's adherence to our values at Rackspace. The top scorer was named employee of the quarter. I'd personally address any low scores, offering direct feedback for improvement.

I still remember the case of David. The feedback I gave him was. 'Really sorry you're at the bottom, but you didn't pick the phone up quicly enough, that's really annoying everyone on your team.' After receving straightforward feedback, he made a remarkable turnaround, securing the top spot the following quarter. This highlighted the power of clear, actionable feedback.

A good set of values can help with workforce planning. Every quarter, rank everyone in your organisation against them. Decide whether they are

A) exceeding your values

B) meeting them or,

C) failing short.

You need to get everyone up to an A.

Your aim must only employ A Players - the top 5-10% of available talent for a given salary, in your location, for that particular job. Remember, A Players are going to give you 10x or even 20x more for roughly the same salary. Only keep B Players if you think they have the potential to be A Players. The C players or those who don't live the values need some candid feedback and a narrower or new role. Or they need to leave.

Remember, your values can evolve. Regularly evaluate their effectiveness and alignment with your company's direction.

Your values should act as a guiding light for all aspects of your business, from recruitment to performance development.