You may have heard of public speaker and author Simon Sinek (I first heard of him years ago during his Start with Why Ted Talk). This spring, I attended a talk he gave focusing on company values: how companies define and communicate values, how we can use values to inspire others, and the power values possess in forming a lasting legacy. In the meeting, Sinek said "an organization is formed in the image of its founder."
If you think about the CEO of your company, it's probably obvious that leadership defines company culture. A person's upbringing, values, and even perhaps their personality and personal style will work in concert to personify this living, breathing entity that is an organization. Other employees at the company will likely be compatible with this, and often gradually assimilate to take on increasingly shared perspectives. Our values enable us to see ourselves in service to something greater than ourselves. We bond with others because our "why's" go together.
Values are the skeletal structure of identity. We trust a person with integrity in business because we trust a person with integrity. Values are a code of conduct, immune to changing when difficulty arises. In fact, values exist precisely because of difficulty. They define us in moments where the right thing to do ≠ the easy thing to do.
"The work we do is a reflection of who we are. If we are sloppy at it, it's because we're sloppy inside. If we are late at it, it's because we're late inside. If we're bored by it, it's because we're bored inside, with ourselves, not with the work. The most menial work can be a piece of art when done by an artist. So the job here is not outside of ourselves, but inside ourselves. How we do our work becomes a mirror of how we are inside.
Work is passive without you. It can't do anything. Work is only an idea before a person does it. But the moment a person does it, the impact of the work on the world becomes a reflection of that idea – the idea behind the work – as well as the person doing it.
There is no such thing as undesirable work. There are only people who see certain kinds of work undesirable. People who use every excuse in the world to justify why they have to do work they hate to do. People who look upon their work as a punishment for who they are and where they stand in the world, rather than as an opportunity to see themselves as they really are. People like that don't bring life to the idea of the work they do; they bring death to it." - excerpt from The e-myth
Values matter because their impact is far-reaching. If you're lucky enough to identify something you want to create in the world, you can build it not only for yourself but for others. You can invite them into this microcosm that links them to something far greater than yourself - something idealistic, eternal, and inherently valuable. When individuals bring life to their work, the work will be excellent.
- I value high quality craftsmanship, even though my slower pace of producing sometimes frustrates me.
- I value 1:1 interactions over groups because I find the conversation can get deeper and more authentic, even though that comes at a cost of not connecting with more people.
- I value making things with my hands in a world that is mass produced and hyper materialistic.
- I value taking my time and enjoying balance in life, which stands in stark contrast to the grind of hustle culture.
- Most of all, I value creating. Nothing I've said here is new, but it is my interpretation, and a drop in the same ocean as all who've come before me and will go after me.
