3 Ways Core Values Can Help Your Organization’s Bottom Line
By: Jeremy Hammel
Tags: Core Values, Mission Driven Companies, Community, Business Intelligence

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

I wrote a short article entitled, “What are Core Values and How Can They Help Your Organization?” that offered a bit of a “Core Values 101.”

While the title of that previous article and this one are similar, they do cover different aspects of the discussion. The “101” article covers some basics, shares data, and offers examples of core values from a few companies.

This article here offers a few more tangible examples of how determining and living by your organization’s core values can help your bottom line.

What Are Core Values

A definition I resonate with comes from the National Park Services website of all places. They define Core Values as:

“The core values of an organization are those values we hold which form the foundation on which we perform work and conduct ourselves.”

Core values can mean something else to you and be defined differently of course, but again, the above summed it up for me.

The first step in the process is to understand how others have defined core values. The second step is to determine how you (personally or your team) define core values. Step three is to be guided by those core values.

I’ll write about those three steps in a future article.

For now, let’s talk about how taking the time and care to figure out what your core values are can bring value to your business in a tangible way:

Motivate, Inspire, and Retain Your Team

As most people who run a business know, finding stellar employees, motivating them over the long term, and retaining them as part of your team is a difficult and time-consuming task. Involving your team in building your core values can reinvigorate folks within your organization by giving them a sense of ownership and mission beyond their daily tasks or even company mission.

By living up to your organizations core values, your team will see that their job and the company they work for is “about” something more than just the business of business.

A paycheck will only motivate folks to a point, humans need to work and strive for something more than that — A mission, a purpose, an idea bigger than themselves. Core values instilled in your organization can be the start of finding those “spirit driving” motivations.

An organization driven to succeed at least in part by purpose and guided by core values can lead to a happier, more focused, and more efficient workforce.

Guide Your Business Decisions

While running a business, folks are faced with any number of decisions, some simple, some difficult, some ambiguous, etc.

Regardless of what kinds of decisions folks have to make in business, knowing and operating by your core values can help make that process simpler and more defined. When faced with a decision, difficult or otherwise, you can start with measuring how that decision aligns with your stated core values.

Core values are guiding principles, they are what you stand for, and they can help guide you through the tough decisions that every company faces.

Differentiate Your Company in the Marketplace

Both from a branding/consumer-facing perspective and from a hiring perspective, your particular core values can help you stand out in the marketplace.

As long as you properly promote what they are and actually “live by them,” then prospective clients and future employees can better understand what you’re about or why they should choose your business over another.

People want to be involved with companies that inspire them and that share their values. Most products and services have competition that offer something similar, so the more you can connect emotionally with folks, the more your business will stand out.

That’s what I believe at least. What are your thoughts?

About the Author (and What I’m Selling)

If you’re seeking video production services, you can check out my work by clicking here.

In the future, I hope to sell you fancy eBooks and classes on indie film festival and video production Best Practices, but I need to write them first.

Jeremy Jed Hammel got his start working in TV production in the production offices for NBC Late Night, eventually doing some producing work for “Later” and talent research for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”. He also worked in the production offices of the drama “ER.”

In the independent film realm, he has produced or directed 15+ short films that screened at over 140 film festivals including one that won Best Film at Comic-Con San Diego’s Indie Film Festivall and has over 1 million views on Youtube.

On the commercial/corporate side of video production, Jeremy has produced, directed, or edited projects for clients such as Techstars Air Force Accelerator, Startup Institute, the Cambridge Innovation Center, UMASS-Lowell, and Alienware/Dell computer, among others.