Authenticity

Your corporate culture needs clear guidelines from which to make decisions and take action. You must know and define your core operating values for yourself as you build the company, cultivate relationships and set the foundation for your business.

Your core values do not come from your ego, which is a conglomeration of conscious and unconscious values and beliefs that represent your assumptions about how life is supposed to be… rather, your core values determine the choices you make, the actions you take and the life and business you create.

An interesting point of information about values is that we often live by the values we inherited from our parents, authority figures and childhood socialization. The irony is that we who have grown up in a culture where freedom is prized above all else are often operating from unconscious or assumed values from someone else. Very few people consciously choose their values, much less build a living for themselves and others based on them.

To know your values, look around you right now – what do you see in the choices you’ve made and the lifestyle you now live? Look at the people you work with, whom you’ve chosen to share a majority of your waking hours with. More importantly, is that what you want for your business or is this moment an invitation to go beyond where you’ve been to create something new?