Company Culture: Why Core Values | EP 503

Company Culture: Why Core Values

Core values support the company’s vision, shape the culture, and reflect the company’s identify. There are no universal core values; instead a company must decide what principles it holds most important.

Read the full episode transcript below:

00:26 David Blackmon: Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of WP The Podcast. I’m David Blackmon.

00:33 Tim Strifler: And I’m Tim Strifler.

00:34 David Blackmon: Brought to you by WP Gears. Don’t let me forget that, Tim. Sometimes I mess that up and that’s okay. That just goes to show you that we’re recording this and it’s not a recording that you’re hearing every time.

00:46 Tim Strifler: Yeah.

00:46 David Blackmon: We actually say that stuff before every episode we record. Today, we’ve got a great topic that I really think is important, and I’m going to let Tim share his experience and stuff with what he feels about this topic, but we’re going to talk about company culture and why it’s important to have core values and stuff.

01:07 David Blackmon: Obviously, our team is 100% dispersed. It’s global. Our staff and team members live in different countries and stuff. So when you’re working locally, you can kind of be on top of and manage things a little bit differently, and core values and company culture may or may not be as important, but when you work remotely and stuff, it’s really important that you guys are all on the same page and stuff, that you have the same vision, because if you bring in people that don’t fit well with your team and stuff and you’re working remotely, it can cause a big problem and stuff. So I just think it’s super duper, duper important.

01:55 David Blackmon: And I’m going to tell you, when we hire someone and bring them in to our company, I don’t care how good you are or how great you are. You’re going through a 90 day probationary period, and the good news is, is that not only are they being evaluated, I always let them know to please evaluate us. It’s important to me that it’s a good fit not only for us, but it’s a really good fit for you too, and hopefully, our core values align with our company, honestly, integrity, whatever your core values are with your company, and I kind of share with them what our company culture’s like and what’s important to us, because it is different in different countries, and their work ethic and work values are different than the U.S.

02:43 David Blackmon: I found out that a lot of the other countries in the world have different, they do things differently, and we need to respect their culture and stuff if you’re bringing them in to the company and stuff. So I just think it’s really important. I’m going to stop talking right now. I’m going to let Tim Share a little bit, and then we may even circle back. I might have something else to say.

03:01 Tim Strifler: No, I couldn’t agree more. That was great, and I think it’s important to be intentional about what those core values are, and you, as the founder, or the team, come up with those together of what you want the values of the company to be and what the company stands for, so that you can, as David mentioned, communicate that during the interview process to make sure people mesh, because otherwise, what your company is about is going to be influenced by the people. So if there’s no intentional, here’s what we stand for, here’s what we believe, here’s how we want to run business and interact with customers, and all that, then those things are just going to be defined by the people you bring in based off of how they are normally.

03:47 Tim Strifler: And so you’re not telling them how to act and how to respect customers and stuff like that, then they’re just going to do whatever they naturally do, which may or may not be a good thing, and so, if you don’t define those things, then the people you will bring in will define it for you, just naturally, over time, which could end up biting you in the butt.

04:06 David Blackmon: Tim, guess what? I don’t think I have anything to circle back on. That was pretty good. I think it’s short, sweet, and super important, and I think we covered all the points. Tomorrow, we’ve got another great topic, how to create high converting signup forms. Tim, until tomorrow, we’ll see you then.

04:25 Tim Strifler: Take care. Bye, bye.