Core Values: People—Friendly Relations
As part of the continual improvement of PFL, the executive leadership team and I recently settled on some new “Core Values” that represent our priorities as a company. It is important to understand that, for us, these aren’t just words or ideas—our Core Values will dictate how we make decisions and what decisions we make.
But make no mistake: Core Values will cause pain.
Yes, you read that correctly. We all must make hard choices from time to time, and values will guide what choices we make and why. Clear values will mean you will not say yes to everything. You will say yes to the right things that align with your values. What I propose here is that it’s possible to bring clarity to the values that are chosen and describe ways they can be put into action.
Our first value is “People.”
I took some time a while back to read the feedback from our employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey. In the recent survey, 19 percent of the comments mentioned “people” in some way. We consistently receive feedback from our teams that they “love the people they work with.” I imagine all of us value human life and would agree on the inherent value of people. But the inherent value of human life isn’t why “People” is one of our core values.
“People” are important to us because people build relationships.
The people we want in our company are those who build relationships with fellow employees, customers, and partners to create progress that delivers results. Results build value, grow profits, and attract the right kind of people that carry this positive cycle forward.
Build Relationships, Deliver Results
But “People” doesn’t mean anyone and everyone. We want the people who know how to build relationships that create progress. We want people who value relationships. We want people who are inspired by results and can deliver those results to inspire others. (“Core Values” foreshadowing there.)
It would be easy to consider any one of these people individually but doing so would be a mistake. Core values are individual parts of a whole. The interdependency of our core values brings clarity to how we will grow our company. As we grow, we will resource our values, starting with our people.
Core values are individual parts of a whole. The interdependency of our core values brings clarity to how we will grow our company.
Looking at our values from another angle, we can easily see that hiring the wrong people can destroy a company. The wrong people fracture relationships rather than build them. Everything unravels from there. It’s important to remember that:
- When businesses stop building relationships with one another, trust vanishes, and selfishness takes over.
- When businesses stop serving customers, they leave.
- When businesses stop building relationships with others, progress stops.
- When businesses stop looking at results, they stop inspiring people.
The right people make all the difference and can help companies avoid this kind of pain.
Reach Out and Create Progress
My encouragement to PFL employees is to reach out and build relationships that create progress. We need more relationship-builders who deliver progress to the business. This is true at every level of the company.
Are you or your team in need of training, tools, or clarity? How is your relationship with your manager? Are you stuck or feel stalled in your career? Seek out a mentor and build a relationship with someone who has walked the path that you’re on. Build a relationship with your manager, or someone in the company that can help. Not hitting quota? How are your relationships with your customers? Do you view them as a pain and a problem, or do you view them as people with hopes and goals that you can help them accomplish?
People build relationships to create progress that delivers results. Be a relationship builder!
This is the first part of a four-part series. Next up: “Relationships”
