The Currency of Authenticity: Real Company Values Come with a Price

The startup ecosystem is well-known to promote values, not just product features or revenue figures, to signify what makes a startup distinctive. Values that essentially mean ‘happiness’ or ‘hard work’ are on the “about us” pages of dozens of startups. But do they survive the scrutiny of testing for how deeply those values truly reside within the company? After working at IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, three startups, two mid-caps, and more, I have seen a full spectrum of company values, ranging from absent, pretend to genuine.

The leadership author Greg Satell recently wrote eloquently of a way to scrutinize how genuine a value is. I’ll get to that shortly. Knowing a company’s values helps leaders and staff make decisions with consistency, particularly around prioritization of effort, hiring, collaboration, and the definition of success beyond revenue. The true values within a company should be aligned with its mission. Good examples include the Red Cross with its values of humanity and impartiality, INSEAD with rigour and independence, and NASA’s safety and excellence.

To test for the truth of a value is that real values will always cost you something. Greg says values “are what guides you when you need to make hard calls instead of taking the easy path. They are what makes the difference between looking back with pride or regret. Perhaps most importantly, they are what allows others to trust you.”

One of Tadaweb’s core values is Family First, and I can say for sure that it’s a real, true value that incurs costs that we’re happy to pay. We have dozens of examples of when the company has allowed employees, without question, to do the right thing for their families even though there was a disadvantage, burden, or inconvenience to Tadaweb. We had a newly hired person find that one of their children was terribly ill and had to take time away from work before really having their feet under the desk. No problems. Similarly, when others travel to their home country to take care of a sick relative or to grieve, our commitment to Family First prevails.

The Family First value was born out of the founders’ own personal experience, as parents who wanted to balance the priorities of being hard-working entrepreneurs with the opposite demand of not working, and instead being available for family. Consequently, this value has existed for several years and has become deeply embedded as a priority for all new leaders to embrace.

Any leader who is considering their 2024 priorities would be well-served by reflecting on their company values and pausing to ask how they can define, strengthen, or refine them to be truly helpful guideposts for their own leaders.

By Giri Fox, VP of Revenue Operations at Tadaweb.

References: Greg Satell’s thoughts on values.