3 Keys to Making Core Values Count Establish the Guiding Heart of Your Business
powerful ideas. Ensure that each of the members of your think tank embodies the qualities you want to see throughout your organization. Next, get everyone in a room to start brainstorming. Set a date for a meeting and encourage everyone to come prepared with a list of values they feel are the most important for your business. Ask your think tank which values are central to them as individuals and expand that to include values that are vital to your entire company. After you’ve got a healthy list of good ideas, combine and define them. Look for commonalities. It’s likely that many of them will orbit just a few key principles. After a bit of pruning and rewording, these principles become your core values. Once you’ve got your set of 5–10 main ideas, outline exactly what each of them means in a few sentences or a paragraph. You may want a skilled writer on board during this step to nail down a set of clear and compelling definitions. The process may be difficult, but once you’re done, you and your team will have a set of powerful, unifying core values. These will state your company’s purpose and drive your team to excellence. Core values may seem like a small consideration in the midst of day-to-day operations, but they can make an enormous difference.
A cohesive vision for the future is central to any thriving company; it’s the road map by which you and your team steer the business to success. But a set of lofty goals isn’t quite enough to motivate and unify an organization. It’s important to have an overarching aim for the coming years, but you also need to provide some guidance on how your business should conduct itself today. You need core values that encourage a certain spirit for your team and hold them to a high standard of excellence. To build a set of core values that’s unique and valuable to your business, you must first decide whose input you want during the process. This should be a panel of the key players in your business and employees skilled at providing new and
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1. “What really matters?” In other words, of all the things we could do or need to do, what are the top two or three things ( at most ) you want or need us to do with your practice and patients?
2. We all know the dentist can’t do this alone. “How do you want the team to make decisions so they can help take some of this off your shoulders?”
There are a few ways dentists will react to this conversation. The smart dentists recognize the intention behind the conversation and see it as an opportunity to improve. Others try to sweep it under the rug. There are still others who are offended. (Frankly, they’re likely the ones who need this type of conversation most.) Regardless of the reaction, it’s a great conversation to have and a way to help solidify the weakest link — especially if it’s you!
P.S. If you’re the dentist and you think your team would never initiate this type of conversation, start it for them!
P.P.S. You may recently have heard Dr. Orent mention TOBI. No, TOBI isn’t a person … TOBI stands for “The One Big Idea!” Stay tuned for much more about how to stay focused on your TOBI and enjoy higher levels of success than you’ve ever dreamed possible.
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