The Importance of Values (and Living up to Them)
February 4, 2021
By Connie Mercado
What are values? Families have them. Friends have them. Even companies have them. They are words that are so much more than words – they are the commitments that a person or organization make to themselves and each other. Your values are part of who you are, and studies have shown that shared or similar principles are essential to the employer/employee relationship. In short, employees who find meaningful values in their workplace, remain with their organizations longer and feel more fulfilled about their occupations.
In my immediate family of five – my four children and myself – our core values are:
Empathy
We are compassionate. We do our very best to understand that everyone is different and faces their own battles. We try to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes. Empathy goes a long way.
Gratitude
We are grateful for all that we have and all that we are given. We know that tomorrow is not promised, so we aim to be thankful every day.
Trust
We trust each other implicitly. We know that we will always be honest and we can rely on that honesty.
Respect
We respect each other to the utmost degree. There is no kindness in disrespect. There is no age limit to the respect given.
Love
We love like no one is watching because that is the foundation of family. When you have love, you have everything.
The words “empathy,” “gratitude,” “trust,” “respect” and “love” mean something to me, as well as my children. My mother laid this foundation for me when I was a child and I, in turn, laid that foundation for my children. And my hope is they will do the same for their children.
At Curley & Pynn (C&P), we take our values serious because we understand the importance of family. We view every person on our team as a family member, and as a family, we worked together to formally define and set our core values. Not knowing what would be around the corner in 2020, the importance of having these values in place grew tenfold when we faced what would become our most challenging year yet – proving the strength and supportive resiliency of our team as we overcame a crisis together. We placed trust in each other in the face of uncertainty. And, we were reminded that we can trust in the leadership shown to us by our president, Dan Ward, APR, CPRC.
Values are key to employee happiness and the overall good of any organization. Imperative, a peer coaching technology company, is known for its Workforce Purpose Index Study that measures the impact of having a “purpose mindset” (a focus on values, generosity and direction) on job fulfillment and satisfaction. In its most recent reports, Imperative found that:
- 66% of employees with a “purpose mindset” are likely to feel fulfilled at work, compared to 14% who are not purpose-oriented.
- 58% of companies with a clearly articulated and understood purpose experienced growth of more than 10%, compared to just 42% of companies that did not prioritize purpose.
C&P’s company values are:
Integrity
We do the right thing even when no one is watching and work only with teammates and clients who do the same.
Trust
We celebrate longstanding relationships with clients and teammates who know we always have their back.
Family
We are fiercely loyal to each other and passionate about our right to have fun in the office and lives outside of it.
Excellence
We employ the best and demand nothing but the best from ourselves.
Leadership
We lead by example in our profession, in our community and in the industries in which our clients do business.
As important as it is to set values, it is just as important to communicate them clearly to your team. This begins even before someone joins your company – during the interview process – so you can find people who model similar values, and will best fit and complement your company culture. And of course, this communication continues through example at work, weaving its way into all your interactions and decisions.
Values mean nothing unless you live up to them. The values we hold near and dear to our hearts guide us each and every day, and we know they will continue to guide us through 2021 and beyond.