“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” —Roy Disney
Core values: Why do we need them? They are our guiding compass. They help us make decisions. Core values are intrinsic beliefs that affect how we interact with the world around us. This is true not only for companies, but also of ourselves.
There has been lots of talk around core values at the office as we continue to define them. It is not an easy task—it takes deep soul searching. Core values can as be simple or as complicated as we choose them to be. Many people believe that core values are just what companies put out to the outside world and don’t live by them. Sanjay and I want ours to mean something. We want them to be what the company stands for and how we conduct ourselves. This should be true not for a day, a week, a month… but it should withstand the test of time. They should guide us in whatever we do.
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice seeks advice from the Cheshire Cat on where she should go next:
The Cheshire Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.
With our core values defined, we know where we are going and how we act as we get there.
Core values should be defined not for just companies, but also personally. We all know what we stand for, but many of us don’t write it down. Imagine how much richer our lives would be if we all define our values. A speaker in London defined hers: authenticity and integrity. Two very simple and powerful words that she lives by every day.
As we define our corporate values, I challenge all of you to define your core personal core values, write them down, and live by them.
“The secret to achieving inner peace lies in understanding our inner core values – those things in our lives that are most important to us – and then seeing that they are reflected in the daily events of our lives.” —Hyrum W. Smith, 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management
Have a great weekend.
—Vijay
About Friday Food for Thought (FFfT)
I frequently attend conferences and retreats on entrepreneurship and leadership and while I am away, the J2 team picks up the slack, allowing me to learn to be better at what I do. I wanted to share what I was learning with my team, so I created the weekly FFfT emails in November of 2015 and have been writing them ever since.
Before long, the J2 staff began sharing the FFfT emails with their friends and family and now other leaders have asked to be included, which led to the creation of this newsletter. I hope you enjoy!