Christmas is just around the corner and with it a few days in which there might be some time to think about 2023, about how your own company is going to continue and whether the values you want to project to the outside world are still coherent. Christmas is just around the corner and with it a few days in which there might be some time to think about 2023, about how your own company is going to continue and whether the values you want to project to the outside world are still coherent. They are the basis for decision-making and the driving force. But they change depending on the world and social situation. That is why it is good to check them from time to time.
Imagine you are leading a company XY and one of your personal leitmotifs is relationships. You are not aware of this, but you realise that as a boss you repeatedly come up against limits because you have difficulties in distancing yourself and daring confrontations. You want to be nice to everyone, maybe you’re even afraid of being shunned. In the long run, that can’t work. Why? Because you and your staff lack clarity. It can also happen the other way around: You find hierarchy-free companies great and found one, but your guiding principle is actually power or status. Here, too, the limit will soon be reached where conflicts – internal and external – arise. Those who live against their values cannot lead a fulfilled life in the long run.
Own values and corporate values
What applies to one’s own personality can also be applied to companies. Here, too, values that the company lives or does not live show customers where they stand. Perhaps the value profiles are not as clearly structured as those for individuals, but they are certainly based on them. If you want to check the values for yourself and your company, you can use Steven Reiss’ value scheme as a guide. With the help of studies, Reiss has extracted 16 life motives/values which, in his view, in their individual combination very accurately reflect a person’s needs and values.
The 16 life motives according to Reiss
The 16 values are:
Power – striving for success, achievement, leadership and influence
Independence – Striving for freedom, self-sufficiency
Curiosity – Pursuit of knowledge and truth
Recognition – Striving for social acceptance, belonging and positive self-estee
Order – Striving for stability, clarity and good organisation
Save money – Striving for the accumulation of material goods and property
Honour – Striving for loyalty and moral integrity of character
Idealism – Striving for social justice and fairness
Relationships – Striving for friendship, joy and humour
Family – Striving for a family life and especially to raise own children
Status – Striving for “social standing”, for wealth, titles and public attention
Revenge – Striving for competition, struggle, aggressiveness and retaliation
Romance – Striving for an erotic life, sexuality and beauty
Nutrition – Striving for food and nourishment
Physical activity – Striving for fitness and exercis
Rest – Striving for relaxation and emotional secu
Individual for people and companies
Every person has an individual value profile, a unique combination of essential guiding principles that are naturally shaped by upbringing, society and environment. And that is the exciting thing that makes a journey into one’s own values landscape so interesting. In the end, there is the question of who one actually is behind the imprints. If the value of saving money was at the top of the list in my own family, does that mean that I also necessarily carry it within me? Or is it a learned value that does not correspond to my nature at all? It can be the same with the company. Perhaps it is founded on a value that does not correspond to the essence of the founder at all. This often happens in takeovers, when a company is passed on from one generation to the next.
Values test
The Reiss test provides initial indications of the personal values profile. These are indications that should, however, be further scrutinised. Because what we live and perhaps answer as a given in the test does not necessarily show the very deeply anchored individual mission statement system. It is worth diving even deeper and examining each individual valu On whether it is essential – i.e. innate – or whether we have learned or adopted it. Because often it is precisely the learned (foreign) values that cause us problems and give us the feeling that we are running off track.
In coaching, there are some techniques that open the way to the true values profile. At .garage Berlin, we also attach great importance to preparing founders for their businesses according to their values.
Photo: ©Andrea Piacquadio by Pexels
