Tag: Personal Values

How to Build a Legacy For Your Company You Can Be Proud Of | Entrepreneur

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When was the last time you took stock of what your business has accomplished and what its legacy will be after you’re gone?

Understandably, most of us are caught up in the day-to-day demands and challenges of running our company or organization while trying to manage our personal lives. Few of us ever take the time to consider what we are working towards in the long term. Where will your business be in 10 years? In 20 years? And what if, through some unforeseen tragedy, you died today and your enterprise was forced to close – what would your obituary say, and what would be written about your business?

The “obituary test” or “eulogy test” is an exercise often used by individuals to assess their personal lives. It helps ensure they’re living in a way they’ll be proud of when they look back on their lives.

It may seem like a morbid process, but it can be a powerful tool for determining whether or not you and the organization you’ve invested so much time, effort and energy into are aligned with your personal values in a way that will endure after you’re gone. Clearly, there are many business metrics for determining the material value of what you’ve built: stock price, dividends paid out and market cap, among dozens of others.

Related: 5 Factors for Planning Your Entrepreneurial Legacy

But what if you had to answer the following questions: What is your business’ legacy? What will people say about you and your business after you’re gone? Are you happy with what they will say? There are plenty of examples of companies that have left behind terrible legacies. Think of the energy company Enron, which defrauded investors, price-gouged customers and evaporated its employees’ pensions due to its corporate greed and illegal accounting practices.

Or consider Lehman Brothers, the investment bank that was revered for over a century before its reputation was swiftly erased in a few weeks during the early days of the 2008 financial crisis. Initially, Lehman’s heavy investment in subprime mortgages helped them record astronomical profits, but when the market crashed, Lehman’s downfall was rapid and brutal. Lehman’s demise led to the biggest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history — $619 billion, with investors and U.S. taxpayers left holding the bill.

Legacy is not just about how you hope you and your business will be viewed 20 or 30 years from now. It’s about creating a business culture now in which every decision, big or small, is aligned with the ultimate legacy you hope to leave. It’s about living your legacy today and every day.

For years, the corporate model was based on maximizing profits at all costs while doing damage/reputation control through charitable donations. That’s exactly how companies like Purdue Pharmaceuticals operated. They made billions by misrepresenting the data on their highly addictive drug, OxyContin, which greatly contributed to the opioid crisis that continues to haunt America today. At the same time, the Sackler family, which ran Purdue, donated millions to the arts, charities and universities. Today, with the family’s legacy in tatters, most charities and institutions refuse to deal with the Sacklers or their trust.

What these examples illustrate is that both your personal and business legacy are determined by your actions throughout the history of their existence. It’s not just the end output of profits for shareholders or a big donation to a charity after years of unscrupulous business conduct.

Consumers want companies that are committed to more than just the bottom line of profit. They want authentic companies that walk the talk. That’s why companies like Costco are both profitable and trusted. The Reputation Management Company says that Costco has “a legacy of excellence and member satisfaction,” which is one of the reasons they are the second “most trusted company in America” (behind only Patagonia), according to a 2023 Axios survey.

They offer low prices, quality products, treat their employees well and support their local communities through charitable donations, partnerships and they pay employees to “volunteer” in the community. They walk the talk and are living their brand’s legacy from CEO to frontline employee.

Related: Leaving A Legacy: Your Business’ Success Requires A Sustainable-First Approach

So, what does the obituary test tell you about you and your company? Is your company or organization creating a legacy you can be proud of that aligns with your values? If not, here are a few ideas to get you started:

Create a legacy statement: We all know about mission statements, but consider also creating a legacy statement that articulates the impact you want your business to have in the long term – whether in your community, country or the world.

It should reflect the values you want your company to uphold and the kind of legacy you want it to leave behind. Work with your team to develop the legacy statement and incorporate it into your strategic and long-term planning to ensure your company is working towards it daily.

Carry out a legacy audit: Just as you might conduct a financial audit to assess your company’s fiscal health, a legacy audit can help evaluate the level of alignment between your operations and your values. The legacy audit should cover a thorough review of your company’s values, practices, products and culture. Identify areas where you’re on track and where you’re falling short so you can create a plan to address the gaps.

Implement a values-based decision-making matrix: To ensure that your business decisions consistently reflect your legacy statement, consider implementing a values-based decision-making framework. This framework should include a set of guiding questions or criteria that you and your team can use to evaluate key decisions. For example, “Does this decision align with our company values?” or “How will this decision impact our long-term legacy?” This approach ensures that your legacy remains front and center in your day-to-day operations.

We all want to be proud of the legacy that we leave behind. If you don’t like what you see, get to work on creating the legacy you want.

Marc Kielburger

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October 1, 2024
What to Do When Personal Values Clash With Business Decisions | Entrepreneur

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Do you remember the times you were at a crossroads, debating with yourself about a choice that challenged your personal values and your business objectives? You’re not alone. Most entrepreneurs experience this kind of strife, but not every entrepreneur will verbalize all of the conflicts.

It is a sophisticated battleground with the lines between correct and wrong so fuzzy, and the choices you make can shape your history. In this article, I’ll share a few valuable tips you can use to navigate these situations.

Related: How to Become the Leader You Envision Without Sacrificing Your Values

1. Establish your core values

Determining your core values is a prerequisite in facing ethical obstacles. As a leader, values like integrity, transparency and sustainability can be your guiding principles, which you set not only for yourself but also for your company. When these values are clear and communicated correctly, they become a beacon, helping decision-making processes to be simpler and well-managed. The unambiguousness of those values serves as a yardstick to which all company actions are compared, and thus, everybody in the organization knows what is expected of them.

2. Understand the baggage right away

One of the most important skills for any leader is to be able to tell when his/her personal beliefs are at odds with business decisions. A lot of times, the first indication of an ethical challenge is a feeling of discomfort. This unease is not just a matter of emotion; it is a sign of your conscience, which is telling you that your values are being compromised. Acknowledging it early on is a must for you because it gives you the time to analyze the situation carefully, and you won’t make any rash decisions. It gives you an opportunity to form a strategy that is in line with your moral values.

3. Seek multiple perspectives

Ethical problems frequently do not yield simple responses, and what looks right one way around may not appear to be so from another point of view. Therefore, seeking several points of view is necessary. Connect with mentors, friends or any group with different perceptions to have more diverse opinions. Such a process can disclose new insights and may even bring in solutions that you would have never thought of. Another key advantage is that it makes sure the decision-making process is not only based on one set of experiences and backgrounds, which helps prevent the risk of bias.

4. Evaluate long-term impact

It may be tempting for a moment, but these shortcuts have long-term effects. When faced with a decision, it’s important to ask yourself about the long-term impacts: What is the consequence of this choice on my business in the next five, ten and twenty years? Would it hurt my reputation or my relationship with other people? Such aspects are crucial because they facilitate the drive toward sustainable growth and the observance of ethical standards, which are usually the pillars of longevity.

5. Create ethical safeguards

To avoid ethical conflicts and have your decisions a posteriori, that is, consistent with your business ethics, put in place robust ethical safeguards in your business operations. This could be a part of the process of creating an ethics committee or establishing a decision framework that focuses on your core values. This way, ethical principles are practically accessible to everyone through the organization’s hierarchy, and every decision is subjected to ethical scrutiny.

Related: Holding True to Your Values Is an Essential Decision-Making Metric

6. Be honest and open with your team

Transparency forms the basis for the establishment and strengthening of trust among team members. When an ethical crisis emerges, admitting the difficulties and how they might affect both personal and business values establishes a precedent of transparency and openness. Such honesty and openness will become a criterion for your enterprise culture. This is not just about trust building but also helping to develop a more engaged and ethically aware employee.

7. Integrate ethics into your brand

Nowadays, consumers are more and more inclined to buy from companies that have a code of ethics. Incorporating ethics into your brand’s storyline will make your business stand out and increase consumer confidence. This synergy builds a deeper connection with the audience because they believe that they are interacting with a brand that reflects their virtues.

8. Get ready to make tough decisions

Balancing personal ethics with business decisions sometimes demands making tough decisions. This might imply declining attractive chances or dissolving cooperation with efficient associates. These decisions are always hard, but they usually have to be done to preserve one’s integrity. The respect and loyalty gained from customers and employees in making these decisions can often far exceed the costs involved.

9. Consider and memorize every decision

Every decision is a learning experience. Analyzing the effectiveness of your choices — what worked, what didn’t and how you can improve — contributes to enhanced decision-making skills. Such a learning process is of utmost importance for more successful and confident dealings with future ethical issues.

10. Lead by example

Leadership is more about walking the talk than giving orders. Through constant decision-making that supports your ethical principles, you become an effective role model for your team. This leadership style not only cultivates an ethical positive climate but also inspires your team to uphold these standards in their own decision-making.

Related: Here’s Why Values Matter So Much in Business

It is not easy to navigate the dangerous waters where personal values and business decisions come together. Nonetheless, when you remain true to your core values, look for different opinions and consider making tough decisions, you can be assured that your business not only prospers but also contributes positively to the world around you.

Do not forget that the purpose of your business is not only to be successful but also to create a business that will speak for your values. This approach does not merely resolve clashes; it turns them into opportunities for growth. Rely on your ethics, and you will build a better business world with more ethical and prosperous firms.

Chris Kille

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July 4, 2024
3 Values That Empower Entrepreneurs Just Starting Their Journey | Entrepreneur

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Launching a new venture from the ground up can be a thrilling process. Selecting your first workplace, narrowing down your business model and defining a clear action plan are all common exciting experiences that entrepreneurs go through. But even these first steps can present challenges to surpass.

My first startup was an internet company called Joyo.com, which I co-founded in late 1999. This was in the early days when the internet was still very young and full of undiscovered potential. Joyo’s first three months saw many fierce debates within my team as we struggled to agree on what we wanted our startup to achieve — with so many possibilities available in the internet space at that time, from e-commerce and web portals to travel sites and games, it was tough to decide on the best course of action.

In such moments, a founder needs to trust in their ability to make hard decisions and stick to them. This kind of steadfast resilience can help guide entrepreneurs through the early stages of a company. So, I finally decided to build Joyo.com as China’s first B2C e-commerce platform at the end of February 2000. Joyo became the largest such site in China at the time and was acquired by Amazon in 2004 and rebranded as Amazon China.

Related: How to Tap into the U.S. Social Commerce Market Through Millennials and Gen Z

My second venture, DHgate, was a much more arduous challenge. As China’s first B2B e-commerce platform, it was extremely difficult to prove our business model and attract investment. I discovered how truly cold and heartless the business world can be when we almost ran out of funds just before we launched in 2004. An investor who had signed a contract to fund us suddenly reneged on his promise in the eleventh hour, which meant that I had to turn to my own savings to pay the remaining employees at DHgate, never knowing if that week might be our last.

Without sufficient funds, we surrendered the office and moved to a 20sqm conference room next to the toilet of a friend’s company. My office chair was broken, but my hope was strong. I was able to find a way to stay focused on the positives and possibilities. Most importantly, I looked inward for strength and confidence in my business.

Beyond a lack of funding, the biggest problem we faced in the early days was that nobody trusted us. This was back in the mid-2000s when traditional trade was still booming. Nobody believed the entire complex process of international trade could be achieved online. Validating our business model was like running a marathon — a long and challenging ordeal.

Most entrepreneurs experience win-or-go-home moments like these. Mentally, the early stages can be the most difficult period of building a company. Yet, we persevered, and today DHgate is one of the world’s leading B2B cross-border e-commerce platforms.

Related: Core Values: What They Are, Why They’re Important, and How to Implement Them Today

The hardest challenges give the greatest rewards

Keeping a young company afloat is a daily struggle. Challenges and obstacles come from all directions — you may have to deal with limited access to capital, an undersized and overstretched team, a lack of market recognition in a possibly overcrowded market, and a lack of mass understanding around the business or technology, among other factors.

Your staff and investors all have lofty expectations, and you must also set high standards for yourself. Maintaining high motivation and energy in the office is a constant challenge, especially when everyone knows you’re feeling exhausted and anxious. This builds an incredible amount of pressure and stress, which rides on the shoulders of founders who already battle self-doubt daily.

Yet, running your own business can also be incredibly rewarding. Every entrepreneurial journey has its ups and downs; if you can find the right path and persevere through obstacles, you can achieve things that nobody has ever done before, and your efforts can pay off a hundred-fold. These growing pains are worth it for your own personal development, too.

Related: The 8 Biggest Challenges for New Entrepreneurs

Strong founders who make it through the initial stages of entrepreneurship tend to have certain key characteristics. New founders may benefit from embracing these three key values or standards to hold themselves to:

1. Talk to your heart to follow your passions

Your founding journey will be made all the easier when you are following a dream that you are truly passionate about. As a bonus, you’ll be able to make your team more passionate, too. When facing difficult decisions, talk to your heart for guidance. I have done this many times in my life to help me choose a path that excites my imagination and keeps my interest.

2. Be brave and dare to do difficult things

If you listen to your heart, you will hear an answer, and your next course of action will become clear. So, take action! Start looking for opportunities, and you will find them — it is practically inevitable if you look hard enough. As long as you know what your goal is, it doesn’t matter if you don’t see the path from the start. The important thing is to start walking down that road.

Related: The Top 5 Reasons Why Entrepreneurship is Difficult (and How to Overcome Them)

3. Be persistent

Eventually, you will stumble on your path. Everybody does. The key is to celebrate your failures, learn from them and keep moving on. Persistence just requires you to keep showing up daily to pursue your goals. If you listen to your heart and follow your passions, optimism, and confidence in your projects, come much easier. It may sound cliché, but I believe that while it’s not magic at first, steadfast persistence in any goal can create magic.

Diane Wang

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February 19, 2024
7 Reasons Why CEOs Need to Develop a Personal Brand — and How to Build One. | Entrepreneur

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

We all make purchasing decisions based on our connection to brands. One runner, for instance, may be dedicated to Asics running shoes, while another wouldn’t dream of buying anything but Nike.

These days, thanks to social media, choosing our favorite brands or which companies we give our money to heavily relies on who is heading that company. We want to do business with people that inspire us, people we like and trust. It’s for this very reason that CEOs must develop their own personal brand.

Over the years, I’ve had the honor of working with business leaders from around the world, enabling them to harness the power of compelling narratives to craft and communicate their brand’s unique origin story. I am excited to share with you the profound importance of CEO branding in today’s fiercely competitive business landscape and provide actionable insights on how you can effortlessly embark on your own CEO brand-building journey.

Related: The 3 Biggest Mistakes CEOs Make With Their Personal Brand (and How to Turn Those Mistakes Around)

The importance of CEO branding

Your own personal brand is what reflects your priorities and values. Branding helps you, your colleagues and the customers you serve define who you are and what value you offer as a leader. Without a powerful and visible brand, CEOs may find it hard to grow their business, become an influencer or take their career to the next level.

But, when you grow your brand, doors open and opportunities present themselves to you. People are more likely to listen to what you have to say, connections are made and those connections are apt to turn into paying customers and lifelong advocates.

Let’s dive in and take a look at some of the biggest benefits of CEO brand building.

1. Broaden your impact

Your personal brand not only reflects your work ethic but also how you interact with and relate to others. These “others” include the teams you manage, shareholders and consumers. Your brand is recognized in the real world in face-to-face interactions as well as in virtual interactions.

2. Stand out from the crowd

The entire world is online, and everyone is creating and sharing content. This creates a lot of noise.

Cut through that noise with your own unique vision. A personal brand helps you be an authentic voice in a sea of pandering. Always remember, people can smell phony from a mile away. When you develop your personal branding, every word you utter and the action you take is genuine to who you truly are.

3. Others seek you out

When your personal brand is authentic and attractive to others, opportunities come knocking. You’d be surprised at the number of new clients or customers that suddenly appear without any further effort on your part. Vendors may contact you, as well as the press, for interviews and event organizers about speaking engagements. Other companies may also get in touch with you, hoping to snag you for their operation.

Put the work in upfront to develop your brand and the opportunities almost effortlessly follow.

Related: 8 Strategies for Developing a Strong Personal Brand

4. Incredible networking opportunities

Networking events are important for doing business and moving your career forward. But let’s be honest — these things can be a nightmare to navigate. Who should you talk to? What should you say? Will others find you (dare I say it)… boring?

When you’ve taken the time to thoughtfully craft your own brand, you become one of the most interesting people in the room.

People walk up to you with hands outstretched. People ask you questions because they want to know even more. CEO branding turns a potentially awkward (but necessary) event into a simple and rewarding one.

5. Grow your bottom line

Do any of us really know what the economy will do from year to year? Heck, month to month? With so much economic uncertainty, it can be challenging, to say the least, to continue to grow your bottom line and meet shareholder expectations when consumers are tightening their wallets.

People are far more likely to give their hard-earned money to a company whose CEO is charismatic and vocal, no matter what the economy is doing. Case in point: Research by FTI Consulting found that those companies who had strong and vocal leaders during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic elicited stronger investor confidence. Numerically speaking, this translated into $260 billion in additional shareholder value during a time that was, for many, economically uncertain.

6. Gain confidence

In my experience, one of the biggest reasons leaders have confidence issues is because they don’t know who they are as a leader. They may know who they are as a husband or wife, mother or father, or friend, but when it comes to leadership, they don’t know their own beliefs, strengths, weaknesses or unique value proposition.

Developing your brand requires you to uncover your skills and values. The entire process allows you to see yourself in an entirely new way. And once you know who you really are as a leader, your confidence soars. And when this happens, those you have been leading recognize it and the entire dynamic in your organization shifts.

Related: How to Stop Your CEO’s Reputation From Damaging Your Business

7. Attract better clients

Having a powerful personal brand means you inevitably attract better-quality clients. Why is this? Because people will always seek out an expert to work with. Your brand will cut out the competitive process entirely.

Tips to begin building your CEO brand

Now that you know the benefits of CEO brand building, here are some ideas to help get you started:

1. Brainstorm

Self-evaluation plays a key role in developing an accurate and effective personal brand. So, spend a little time thinking and jotting down any ideas or insights. What is something you love about the work you do? What skills do you offer? What are you known for? How do you view your industry? What are compliments you often get from others? What do you know in your heart you could improve upon regarding your leadership style?

2. Ask for honest feedback

You need to know what others really think of you. Get feedback from friends and family, as well as colleagues and clients. Does this feedback align with how you want to be perceived by others? If not, what changes do you need to make to begin living your ideal brand?

3. Develop your elevator pitch

Now that you are starting to get a sense of what your brand is, it’s time to be sure you can articulate that brand to others quickly and easily. And this is where the elevator pitch comes in.

You most likely know people use an elevator pitch to introduce their fledgling company to prospective investors or to introduce themselves when looking for employment. However, CEOs can use this same exercise to encapsulate their personal brand in a few sentences. In no more than three sentences, how would you describe your unique leadership values and contribution?

Once you’ve got your pitch ready, you can use this as a daily reminder of who you want to be, as well as use it on your personal social media pages.

4. Audit your social media accounts

For many people who are new to your company, your social media presence will be their first introduction. Now that you’ve taken some time to brainstorm and think about what you want to project, it’s a good idea to audit your social media accounts to ensure someone’s first impression of you jives with your intended brand.

If you need help with this, take a look at some other leaders in your industry to see whose profile best fits the brand you are building. Don’t copy them, but feel free to emulate and take ideas from their profile.

5. Keep tweaking and adjusting

Building your CEO brand is a process. You won’t necessarily discover your authentic leadership self and be able to communicate your value right away. That’s okay. Just keep at it and tweak and adjust your brand and your content as you go.

Conclusion

I hope you now recognize the importance of CEO branding. Though it will take some time to build, your brand will ultimately help you connect with your audience in a deeper and more meaningful way. And, because people tend to align with brands that mimic their own values, your branding efforts will also help you to create loyal followers rather than customers.

LaQuita Cleare

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December 7, 2023
How to Activate and Align Your Values When Under Pressure

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In times of high pressure, aspirational core values can seem entirely impractical. Who has time for being “bold,” “innovative” or “connected” when they’re slammed by a barrage of emails and threatened by volatility or disruption?

In these situations, values are relegated to vinyl stickers on an office wall or words tucked away on the About Us page of a website. How many people can recall their company’s values, never mind using them as a blueprint for decision-making and the basis for team alignment and trust?

Related: Want Success? Define Your Company Values

How workplace values emerge

Values are what is important. Whether you can articulate them clearly or not, you have values. Your company has values and they are set by the executive — not the marketing — team.

Leadership values shape employee behavior. If leaders value financial performance over all else, employee well-being, environmental impact or social connectivity may be neglected. Values contagion is a real phenomenon, and no training initiative will shift your culture if leadership values are misaligned or inconsistent. Employees roll their eyes at what they perceive as phony company values when leaders don’t walk the talk.

Values in distress

Distress arises when there is a misalignment of values. For example, imagine that you’re working late nights and sacrificing family time. If a core value is family, you’ll start feeling resentful toward work. Or perhaps you’re spending too much time caring for your family when a core value is productivity. You might then resent your family. There is no right or wrong; your values profile is entirely unique.

In life’s journey, purpose is your North Star and values are the flame lighting your way. The terrain may be challenging, but knowing what is important and acting in alignment reduces ambiguity and increases fulfillment. You’ll have a reason “why” and a torch to guide your “how.” If the flame of your values burns low, you — and your team — may feel lost. In an environment of uncertainty, we activate ancient survival mechanisms, including our negativity bias, to secure our safety.

Are values purely cognitive?

The missing link in values alignment is our physiological state. When distressed, under threat or unwell, our values shift from aspirational and collaborative to primal and protective.

There’s an ancient part of the brain called the amygdala. It scans input arriving via our senses and triggers strong emotions to help protect us from perceived threats. This can save our life if a lion wanders into the office. It saved the lives of our ancestors who navigated challenging environments where direct threats to survival were the norm. Fast forward to modern life, where inboxes overflow, amplified by pressure to perform and conflicting demands. We are our worst enemies because to manage complexity, we need to be calm, present and energized — yet we’re sleeping less and worrying more than ever.

The flame of our values is reduced to embers under chronic distress. Our window of tolerance shrinks. We become a less human version of ourselves. Driven by basic survival emotions such as anger, sadness, fear, craving or disgust, the potential for creativity and collaboration is impaired. Our values downgrade to surviving rather than thriving.

Related: A Set of Core Values Is What Makes Company Culture a Real Thing

Find your baseline of calm

Values-based leadership requires deliberately shifting from fight, flight or freeze into a state of calm coherence: body, emotion and mind. How do you establish calm? Create space in your day. Schedule micro-breaks. Use breathing techniques, meditation, and time in nature to reboot your nervous system.

Train yourself out of habituated busyness by silencing your phone when it is not in use. Your phone is a tool, don’t mistake it for a friend. It is an extractive technology, and it is mining your attention.

Polyvagal theory suggests that our nervous system is capable of progressing from calm to playfulness, trust, and high performance. In high performance, you can purposefully ride the edge of fight-flight while in a deeply immersive flow state. Here lies the golden zone for values-based action — and a 500% productivity boost.

When you trust your environment, yourself and your team, you unlock psychological safety and a shift towards a values-driven culture.

Values as habits

Your values should be actionable. Instead of words describing desired traits, they should be an identity you believe in. For example, if you value kindness, your identity is: I am a kind person. Now, what does a kind person do? Simply, they treat others with respect, care and compassion.

So we proceed to build micro-habits around this identity. Start with what you can achieve in 60 seconds or less. Prepare your environment by leaving strategically positioned cues or reminders. As a kind person, I might choose gratitude as a micro-habit worth implementing. So I set a reminder at 4 p.m. every day to reach out to one person in appreciation, care or support. With repetition, this is embedded in my operating system as a habit. I consistently send positive ripples across my circle of influence. I’m becoming the person I aspire to be through targeted, decisive and practical action.

We are the sum of our habits. Even a company value like innovation requires a web of supporting practices, ranging from vitality to goal-setting. Leaders valuing innovation need to allocate space for it to emerge. Habits such as relaxation, which shifts us out of fight-flight mode, contemplation and play will support innovation.

Follow a phased approach, upscaling the habits that work. Build rhythm in your work and life.

Related: The 8 Values Every Company Should Live By

Conclusion

Instead of espousing aspirational values, lead with values-based behavior. You’ll transform yourself, your team and your business one micro-habit at a time.

Remember that the most significant risk to values is distress — so stay calm. Be the change you wish to see in your organization. Nurture your values flame so that you burn bright instead of burning out. Light the way, and your team and culture will follow.

Bradley Hook

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December 4, 2022