Prioritize Your Core Values

Then God gave the people all these instructions. . . . Exodus 20:1

What is most important in your organization?

Is quality more important than innovation? Does customer service take precedence over quality? Are profits a higher priority than integrity?

Every organization needs a set of core values to give employees a filter through which they can pass critical decisions.

If customer service is more highly valued than quality, an employee might decide to release a product that is slightly imperfect in order to fill a customer’s need on time. Of course, integrity should be the highest value, so in this example, the employee would be up-front with the customer about the quality issue.

It’s not enough to have a list of core values. They need to be prioritized so there’s no question about which has a higher value when push comes to shove.

Have you given your team a list of “commandments” to help them make decisions when you’re not there to make the call?