Core Values
How often do you think about your core values? Do they define who you are? Do you consider those values in how you treat your customers, clients, beneficiaries and those you serve? Do they mark the way you treat employees, board members, volunteers and fellow team members?
#Corevalues are non-negotiables. They are #mandates, #directives and #absolutes. If you are not paying attention to them EVERY DAY, they are NOT your core values -- they are a wish list. We #encourage #nonprofits and #smallbusinesses to define their core values. Lay them out, see them, own them but most importantly, BE THEM.
We help nonprofits do #strategicplanning. Defining core values is an important part of this work, but it is not JUST a task to be completed on the strategic-planning checklist. Core values are the #identity of your organization and should reflect your organization's #character. So how do you measure up? Consider this:
How would customers/clients/beneficiaries define your organization? Would it match who you SAY you are and who you are striving to be?
How would employees describe the culture of your organization? Would they say that what is written is what is true? Employees have an insider look behind the mask of perception and in many ways can most ably shed light on whether or not the organization lives up to its core values.
How would others in the community describe their interactions with you? Would they agree that the values you say you ascribe to are the values you hold to in interactions in public, in meetings with colleagues and in the way you do your work?
Most of us know the values we should hold but many times we fall short. Consider how you can integrate the organization's core values into your WHO:
1. Write them. See them. Do them.
2. Regularly assess how you're doing. Ask clients, employees and colleagues.
3. Adjust and begin again.-Mindy Muller, CFRE, President/CEO of CDP
#nonprofits #team #work #community #culture #corevalues #WHO #communitydevelopmentprofessionals #strategicplanning
