Watching Simon Sinek’s TED talk entitled “Start with Why”, raised some interesting questions that made me step back and ask myself, “Why?”
People know what they do, and most know how they do it, but few know why they do what they do. Specifically, Sinek touched on “Why does your organization exist?” and “Why do you get out of bed in the morning?”
I asked myself those questions and, for me, it boils down to core values. There are fundamental beliefs that I and our company have that help dictate actions and behavior. As we grow as a company it has become more and more important to explicitly define the core values from which we develop our culture, brand, and business strategies.
Part of the AH interview process is to create awareness around our core values and ask how potential employees relate to each and, more importantly, how they feel they have lived these values. We need to be sure we are hiring people who believe in what we fundamentally do.
Once hired, we want our employees to answer questions such as, “Why do we exist as a company?” not only in words, but, more importantly, in their actions.
In addition, we include discussions around our core values at every monthly staff meeting. We acknowledge employees based on testimonials we received from clients around one or more of the company’s core values. In addition, our internal communications highlight core values and what they mean, so we create consistency and awareness.
To ensure that everyone within our organization can respond to “why do we do what we do as a company?” We have been able to build a team that is driven to exceed our client's expectations as the backbone of our company’s culture.
So, I ask you — why does your organization exist and why do you get out of bed in the morning?
