A Company’s Values Matter

Aug 20

3 min read

I often suggest to people before you join a company look at their culture. Company culture consists of many things including values. You can go to a company’s Web page and review their social channels (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) to see consistency between stated values and actions taken to realize those values.

Working at a start up allows you to help shape and form that culture. I love how my CEO says we are all cultural co-founders. It is through culture that we can have a better understanding of how to increase diversity, equity and inclusion.

One of my company’s values that resonates with me is think strategically, act scalably.

I look back over my career and I see areas where I have displayed this value. Big picture thinking and impacting the masses is the way I framed it.

You can ask yourself these questions to determine if you are actionable in this value:

Would someone be able to cover for me if I am not around for whatever reason? If the answer is no, start documenting your processes. Once documented, share it with the team so they know how to carry on. Remember sharing knowledge (another one of my company’s values) helps everyone. Get rid of the old school thinking of hoarding my knowledge equals job security!
Can this process be replicated? Sometimes we take short cuts to accomplish a task to reap the immediate benefits but our “short cut” actually had damaging long term effects. One thing we can do is understand the big picture, determine how our actions will impact not only ourselves but others and take responsibility for our decisions. I use a pro and cons list to do this. Too many of us have taken the phrase “it’s better to ask for forgiveness than to get permission”, out of context. We have used it to make decisions haphazardly and to circumvent leadership. When your leadership and team see you making sound decisions based on a thought out plan, they can trust you to make decisions in the tough times without permission. OK I just fell off my soapbox lol.
Do I have a Partnership mindset? I worked in Tech Sales for over 20yrs. The most successful sellers have been those that have a long-term partnership mindset. They knew how to create deal pipelines for tactical and strategical gains. Partnership mindset extends not only to our customers/clients but also with the internal teams we engage. Being transparent (another one of my company’s values) will help teams grow. It is through transparency that we build trust. This type of mindset goes beyond instantaneous gratification for myself but takes vested interest in everyone around me growing. I have been on some amazing teams and of course some not so amazing ones lol When each one of us had a clear vision of our roles and we came together to execute, we were unstoppable! We trusted each other, we knew each other’s strengthens and weaknesses. One other important element was knowing how to push each other to get out of our comfort zones to growth.

Well that is what happened this week in the land of adventures of working for a startup….OK I just had the image below in mind when I said that….yes I can be extra sometimes lol I stay doing the most lol

Remember SHARING KNOWLEDGE is POWER and KEEP Learning!

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Nicole Hargrove, Strategio Enterprise Simulation Leader - Cloud & DevOps