October 12, 2020 Chris Woolman

Identify Your Core Values and Live by Them

What are core values? They are principles that guide all of your decisions or your company’s actions. They are the cultural cornerstones of you and your business. They are there to guide you when you go off track and help keep you on the straight and narrow.

Your core values create a living, breathing culture that is your company. They develop a culture among your employees and customers that make them proud to use your products and services. They also preserve the identity and mission of you and your business.

When you articulate your core values, list them on your website and hang them on your shop wall, they become daily reminders that will help give you a better sense of who you are and what you stand for personally and professionally. It’s usually recommended to create 6-10 core values. Our network of detailers, The Detail Mafia took it one step further and we have 11. Some are original, some have been borrowed by others, but all reflect our values as a group..

  1. Always do the right thing.
  2. Be committed to education, excellence and success.
  3. Be confident, but also be humble.
  4. Be loyal to your fellow Detail Mafia brothers and sisters.
  5. Be willing to do what it takes.
  6. Care about people and treat everyone with respect.
  7. Lead through actions, not words.
  8. Love helping people and pick them up when given the opportunity.
  9. Make a real positive impact on people’s lives.
  10. Share and teach the skills people need to succeed.
  11. Support those that support us.

Core values exist to not just help you run your business, but to guide you and your employees on how to live. For your core values to be effective and make a difference, you must hire and fire by them and you must live by them every day. If you don’t, you will lose the culture you’ve spent years creating.