I have had an interesting journey over the past four months, the business has been taking shape for growth, and we’ve been working on making it future proof by doing a Values exercise for the business and with ALL our Business Consultants and Contractors, which is something that is nor done often in this industry, or any.
So how have I done this? Before I go into the how let’s look at why.
A value-based business is essential for its survival. By value, I mean the guiding principles of a business rather than the cost of the business or the value it provides. Knowing the guiding principals and keeping these at the top mind for business decision keeps us in check and true to who we are.
So what did I do? First, I sat down and wrote my values which I tend to yearly – so looking at values which resonated with me. Then I went through the values I would instil in the business, and they aligned very closely to my personal values:
My Personal values described are Honesty, Mindfulness, Loving, Accomplishment, Excitement, Spirituality, confidence and Prosperity.
The values of the business are “Love what we do, live by what we say we do and share what we do”
Knowing my personal values, and standing by them means anything I bring into our business is authentic, and I think our Business Values reflect this.
Next, I sat down with all the main Contractors and Consultants of our business that we intend to do long term business with and did the values exercise by asking them a series of questions. These questions are relationship-based and targeted to answer how a relationship can be built stronger.
My intention in the business is to build an alliance with the team whereby everybody wins and the intentions of my business are clear with the contractors and consultants. Nothing frustrates me more than looking for new Contractors or Consultants and building new relationships after each project. I have personally noticed in the construction sector that contractors and consultants tend to focus on the now rather than the long term relation and the vision of the business they are working with.
Outcomes from this exercise? One outcome that came out of this exercise was how key open and honest communication is. Open and honest communication has been key to my business from the start but over the past few months urgency and day to running of the project caused me to lose touch with communication with the team, this exercise reignited the open communication where feedback and challenge can be healthy without sounding threatening.
Another outcome, unfortunately, after doing this exercise was I came to a conclusion one of the contractors will not be proceeding with us and will need to be moved on after the project commitment is completed, and while this is not ideal again looking into the long term and how values line up is too important to us.
Our next step for the values exercise is to do this exercise with our investors to help build a stronger investor base as It’s not about taking just anyone on as an investor it’s about having each and every investor in the business’s values aligning – watch this space.
Have you done a personal, or business values exercise? I would highly recommend doing both – let me know how you go!
