Values – my view or other peoples?

I've been spending time lately developing the values of our company, with the usual asking people and customers what words they think sum us up, gathering my own thoughts together, and really importantly asking the team at Re:Work. One of my questions was, should I (as captain of the vessel), set the values of the company, or should we go with what our brand means to other people? Why even have values at all?

I’ve always been a very values driven person, I believe in doing the right thing ….. karma…. and all that jazz.  Some might call that being brought up right (or correct if you’re not from Yorkshire!). My family have always been hard workers, teaching me the value of an honest days’ work and to treat people as you would like to be treated – I mean that’s the same for everyone….. right?  It appears not – but in my world treating people well and doing the right thing (or striving to) is where I set the benchmark.

So because it’s clear that all the above is very important to me – should I thrust these onto the company I own and run and all those who work in my business? Is this what I expect as the ‘minimum’ standard from my colleagues and staff? Are these the type of customers we want to work with – well hell yes! We want to help people find the right products and services for them, and do things the right way, by being honest and straightforward, always adding value in both our products and customer service.

In my quest to develop our values I asked a bunch of people to describe in a single word what describes Re:Work as a company to them. When we gathered them all together, we made a ‘Wordle’, which is this cool little app that puts them in size order, cool huh?