What are your company values?

We were honoured to be invited to speak with Tracey Hudson in the recent ‘Preventing People Problems’ podcast from HR Dept. Tracey gave us a rare opportunity to talk about the desire we have to help people and businesses thrive. Tracey as mischievous as ever!

David and I attended the studios at 1 Mill Street in Leamington Spa.

A few months back Tracey attended one of our workshops designed to help people develop personal values. We were flattered that she said the workshop had changed how she talks to her team and calmed her in a few recent situations! You can listen to the podcast to find out why Tracy found the session so useful. You can also find out how Glued started up with a bit of potential ‘sabotage’ to win our first job (although David has no recollection of that at all!).

In the podcast we explain that our approach is broadly based some of Simon Sinek’s thinking (his famous book is called Start with Why). Sinek uses three concentric circles with “Why?” in the centre, then How? and “What?” on the outside. He argues that most people/companies say “What” they do, when it would be much more powerful to get to the “Why”.

“Why?” is a more difficult question to answer, but it is the emotive driver to a person or business – and it helps you explain the “How” and “What” with more power. We believe that whether you are the principal or a team member there should be a “Why” that connects you to the organisation. If you can find your “Why” it will help you achieve higher levels of motivation and retention, you can also use it to shape your marketing.

During the podcast Tracey probed us as to whether this was something smaller companies should be spending time on: “The language is quite corporate.” she commented. Our answer was “Why, How, What” are more accessible than “Mission, Vision and Values’’ – we believe that using your ‘why’ is a great basis to build your brand and create authentic themes for your marketing.