Crafting your brand values shouldn't be a chore. With enough creativity and care, it's a chance to give employees a boost, and to differentiate in the marketplace.
Brand values matter to people and organizations—when they’re clear and compelling. But sometimes the way they’re expressed is just so damn boring. Flavorless. Cliché.
But it doesn't have to be that way! When it comes to communicating your values, a little extra effort goes a long way toward making people feel what makes you special.
(Of course, you need to determine what your values are before working on how to communicate them. That means first curating a short-list of valued principles, then assessing and strengthening them with brutal honestly. We recently wrote two great pieces on how to identify and stress-test values, be sure to check those out.)
So once you’ve agreed upon the essence of your values, don’t just type them up and call it a day. Here are a four ways you can bring them to life, with a flavor unique to your company culture and brand personality.
65% of large companies include “integrity” as a core value, according to a study from the MIT Sloan Management Review. “Collaboration” is cited by 53%. “Customer-centricity” by 48%. “Respect” by 35%. All noble aspirations that illustrate how generic and meaningless core values can become.
Getting beyond bland statements requires finding your unique brand voice, and not being afraid to use it. For instance, we worked with a company that identified “action-oriented" as a defining value. It was accurate, but the phrase was off-base for a group of innovators who roll their eyes at clichés. By speaking with employees, we helped the company channel a truer, more visceral expression: “make shit happen.” Not polite. And certainly not for every organization—but all part of why it was perfect for them.
How can you find your brand voice? Listen to your employees. As you mine their real-world experience for your brand values, listen for the specific words they use and the attitude they convey. Use that input to create a vocabulary all your own. When employees read or hear your internal communications, they’ll see and hear themselves.
2. Elaborate on your brand values in detail
Using a single word descriptor generally won’t cut it for conveying the depth and nuance of a brand value. Instead, create a short paragraph or list explaining what each value means and what it looks like in practice.
In quick hits, try to articulate: what does this look like at our company? What types of behaviors exemplify these brand values? And what is the opposite of each value—the sort of thing you don't want them to do? Gather a handful of these for each brand value, and share them with employees in ways that starts making them tangible.
Value descriptions should communicate complete thoughts and recommended behaviors, like in the examples here.
Remember that different people define words differently, so avoid ambiguity by being as specific in your wording as possible. This will help employees who need to communicate the values. For example, HR may infuse this language into job descriptions and performance reviews, while copywriters and sales associates can pick up key phrases for marketing content and customer conversations.
3. Connect values to real actions and stories
That same MIT study says 80% of large companies publish value statements on their websites. But are they the real deal? Simply publishing your values won’t inspire anyone to adopt them. That takes values-oriented actions, which rarely happen spontaneously.
Sometimes you need to spell it out for people. Start by sharing specific examples of what living the values looks like. One approach is to collect employee experiences and stories. Discover who’s doing it best at your company, recognize and reward them, and codify their best actions in the company culture.
For example, Bluegreen works with several fintech companies who commonly have some form of “simplicity" as a value. But reducing complexity is the price of entry to this field. So how can they make it their own, to show what makes their way special? Profile the sales associate who made a client’s life easier. Get an anecdote from the developer who made the UI a little simpler. Call out the assistant who made internal communications smoother. It's empowering to them, and it gives you the material you need to flesh out a real guide.
How do you get employees to share ideas and anecdotes on brand values? Ask them!
4. Live your brand values every day
Values only prove themselves as business assets when upheld and reinforced day after day. Sometimes that sort of thing can be loosely structured. But if you really want to instill brand values in your culture, consider an ongoing internal program with clear communications and incentives.
Here's a story: one of our clients wanted employees to more actively live their six values. So we created a monthly promotion to highlight employees who were demonstrating those principles. An app was developed so employees could easily recommend a peer (or themselves), describing the actions they’d observed or performed.
For example, one value was “Move Quickly,” so January became Moving Quickly Month. Dozens of employees globally nominated colleagues who were fast-acting when it helped. Top nominees were showcased in company-wide communications, and the month’s winner was featured in a video interview. Each month they promoted another brand value, recognized new top performers, and shared new stories. And at their internal year-end event, twelve winners went onstage to receive awards for their achievements.
Engagement programs don’t have to be extensive, or expensively produced. What’s important isn’t so much the level of investment, but the consistency of connecting lived values to employee recognition and rewards.
A little care (and character) goes a long way
It's easy to express brand values as basic platitudes rather than dig deeper for unique principles. But when you've narrowed down your values to a good list that everyone can get behind, take a few extra steps to write them in your own voice; elaborate in more detail; connect values to actions; and reward employees for living them out every day.
Because when you're a brand with a lot of heart, it's worth showing your values a little extra love.
