I always thought core values were gooey, superficial, and unnecessary. Every company has them. They’re usually plastered on the walls of their office for everyone to see, but their actions don’t always reflect these core values. Because of this, I always overlooked this component of building a business, always focusing on what was the best strategy we could use to make money in our industry rather than what standards we wanted to hold ourselves accountable to. The more I spent time around people more successful than me, joined mentorships of successful people, and read books on business, the more I began to understand and grasp how vital core values actually are. Without them, there are no standards. If leadership doesn’t set the example for the rest of the company, when that company tries to grow it becomes mass pandemonium and a free for all because everyone is adhering to their own moral compass. The more I grappled with this, the more I began to respect and appreciate the value core values could bring to the sustainable growth and alignment of our real estate company.
One Bad Apple
Last week, I was at The Results Driven 2 Day Event in Columbus Ohio. This is a business retreat geared for real estate wholesaling and fix and flip businesses looking to implement systems into their businesses for growth, scale, and predictability. One of the main focal points of this event was core values and the extreme impact they have on every facet of your company. From the people you hire, to the behavior they exude in and out of the workplace, to the way you and your people handle different situations, it all comes back to and stems from core values.
The hosts of the event, Josh and Tiffany High, live and breathe their core values. They firmly believe that one bad apple that doesn’t mesh with the core values of the company can cause a cancerous rot from the inside out. Other people will begin to ask themselves how serious you are about what you say you believe in when they see things you’re tolerating that don’t align with your core values.
Tiffany shared many examples of how this played out for them in real time in their business and the lessons they took from it. One of the most impactful examples she gave was of one of her highest performing closers at the time. She was bringing the company tons of revenue and clearing almost $300,000 herself a year in personal take home profit. You can only imagine what this meant in terms of revenue for the company. One of the core values of Heels Homes, Josh and Tiffany’s real estate company is selfless service. This individual by the end of her tenure was not embodying this core value and was affecting other people in the company with her behavior that defied this trait. This individual ended up leaving on her own, however, Tiffany shared that from this experience she learned that it is not always about how well performing someone is at their job if they aren’t in line with the core values of the company. Their attitude can spread like wildfire and affect the rest of the company and the people in it, especially those in immediate contact with this individual on a daily basis. Soon, everyone could begin to question what the company really stands for. This could very well create a gigantic rift in the company before you might even realize it. One bad apple can sink the whole ship!
Getting The Right People On The Bus
In the book Good To Great By Jim Collins, he speaks about getting the “right people on the bus” before you even know where to drive it. This shows just how much importance Collins places on the people in a business and their ability to buy into the core values of the company even more so than the product or service they are providing! In every example he provides in his book of companies that went from good to great, the right people were on the bus. This alignment helped create the greatness that ensued thereon after.
Making sure you get the “right people on the bus” was another focal point of the workshop I attended with Josh and Tiffany High. The interviewing process for bringing people onboard that they shared was as intimate as it gets. The biggest thing they are looking for is to hire people that would be a great core value match for their company. They go through great lengths to get to know their prospective hires intimately before bringing them on board by going through a series of different interviews and interview formats, asking lots of questions, and getting to know the person before they bring them on board in an informal environment.
One of the stories Tiffany shared was of someone she brought on to be the transaction coordinator of her company. This individual got through the interview with flying colors and impressed Tiffany with her skills and knowledge of the industry. However, the last and final stage of the interview process for Heels Homes is an informal one. Josh and Tiffany brought her out for lunch. This was a much more laid back environment where people can really let loose and be themselves. You find out a lot about a person when they are relaxed and comfortable rather than during a formal interview. During this last and final interview, the candidate raised several red flags about her personal life and how she went about handling the issues she was facing in it. Tiffany ignored these warning signs because of her technical expertise and extreme qualification for the position and hired her anyway. She began to bring all of her personal problems into work and then abruptly left 6 months later without notice.
This is the perfect illustration of what happens when someone isn’t a core value fit but is allowed into your company anyway. Now that we have some examples of how toxic it could be to bring someone on board who doesn’t share the company core values, let’s work through an exercise of how we could begin to process what our core values are and how they fit into our business.
Core Value Exercise
- List out 3 people you know and who know you. These should be people who would answer the phone for you if you called them.
- Write down 5 things you admire about these people each.
- Check for overlap as these are the things that are probably the most core to you.
- Let this be the framework for the beginning of your core values.
Once you start to begin to understand what is core to you, share this information with your business partners and see what is overlapping there. This is the beginning of a journey to a deeper understanding of who you are and what you want to stand for as an individual, leader, and a company. Don’t let the “gooeyness” of core values keep you from creating and implementing them. This one thing can truly make or break your business!