How Your Business Core Values Determine the Success of Your Mission

The business core values of the future will deemphasize the traditional idea of "boss/employee" and encourage more mutually beneficial partnerships. Still most companies manage their employees with a traditional sense of coercion and control.

These partnerships are not bond by the traditional hierarchical definitions of status, rank, and location, but rooted in values and goals.

If you're a small business owner you must harness these types of partnerships in your business now. They must become a main piece of your business core values if you want to differentiate yourself and expand within your marketplace.

Differentiation Vs. Your Core Values

"Every great organization is characterized by dual actions; preserve the core and stimulate progress." Jim Collins

Understanding what you can be best in the world at, what your team or business can be best in the world at is key to getting to the core of your business.

Most businesses try to win by competing with other similar businesses by being better than them in the same arena. Great businesses don't compete like this, they choose a specific trait that differentiates them and they can be "best at" then they operate from this "core" business characteristic.

You must stake your claim on how you are different, then back it up. This will give you the solid bedrock you need to compete.

Having core values like this will also allow you team the flexibility to act within both a rigid and a fluid environment; as long as you're not breaking the core values of the business you can adapt to any situation.

The Value of Letting Go

Most leaders (most people for that matter) want to believe they are indispensable. The best leaders and the best teams, put mechanisms in place so they can thrive without a specific person.

If you're seeking greatness in your business, that is a core value to strive for.

People need something to be a part of, knowing this can be beneficial to you as a leader. By aligning the business core values of your team with the values of the people you populate it with, their decision to belong and contribute becomes much simpler. Really not a decision at all.

Mechanisms of Success

Meaning trust and accountability become the core ingredients to building a unified group of people that is self-sufficient, inter-dependent, and self-directed.

Your business core values become the binding force behind your organization's consistent growth, and continue to expand without outgrowing it's foundation.

Here are some important questions to ask yourself as you get moving building or rebuilding your team with your core values in place:

• What core values do you have right now that define you?
• What experiences have led you to owning those values?
• Are these values working in your life or are they ineffective?
• Do your values conflict with your marketplace or the team you have in place right now?

Answering these questions (in writing) about your business core values becomes a valuable exercise to establish clarity and alignment in your business, your team, and in your life.