Revisiting Our Values
As I developed the initial structure of RENEWPR, I thought a lot about what kind of business I wanted to have and how I wanted to live my values and principles as a business owner. The opportunity to establish a firm based on them was a key driver in my decision to start the business. For me communications isn’t just a job, it’s a profession. And how I pursue that profession is rooted in my personal values and principles.
A month after launching the business, I wrote a blog post about the ten values that informed the development of RENEWPR. It was intended as a foundational piece outlining our vision and supporting our mission of restoring common sense to communications. I think it accomplished that purpose: I’ve referred to it multiple times in the past two years.
It is helpful to regularly revisit core business beliefs to make sure they still fit and to confirm that they’re still relevant. Looking at our values again with the benefit of two more years of experience, I’m happy to say that they do and they are. And that’s a good thing: core principles should be timeless. But they should also be clear: sometimes a little more explanation is helpful. So I’m annotating them now to provide a bit more perspective.
Here’s my original list from February 2015 with my May 2017 additions in italics below each value:
We believe focus is just as important as firepower.
Bigger is not always better, but smarter always is.
We believe attention to detail is a virtue.
Getting the “simple” small stuff right helps avoid mistakes and gives you more time to tackle the “challenging” big stuff.
We believe you can only be a good talker if you’re a good listener.
As the saying goes: you have two ears and one mouth, use them accordingly.
We believe good ideas can come from anywhere.
Inspiration should be open source. But you have to be receptive to it to benefit from it.
We believe in giving credit where credit is due.
Credit is like light: sharing it does not diminish your capacity to see or the ability of others to see you.
We believe that sometimes you have to take the long way.
The Dixie Chicks have a point: some good things can take a while to come to fruition.
We believe honesty and transparency always win out.
A good business is an ethical business.
We believe candor and clarity trump artifice and ambiguity.
People respect a difficult truth more than an easy lie.
We believe acknowledging and addressing weakness is a strength.
When you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to lose.
We believe AND is more powerful than either/or.
Addition yields more, division yields less.
As I wrote in my earlier blog post, “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” This is what we stand for – and it’s as true today as it was in 2015.
What do you stand for? What do you think of our list? Share your thoughts in the comments below or respond on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
