Personal Values vs. Business Values

[00:00:00] Emily Thompson: Welcome to Being Boss, a podcast for creatives, business owners and entrepreneurs who want to take control of their work and live life on their own terms. I'm your host, Emily Thompson, and in this episode I'm exploring the differences in personal and business values for the purpose of defining who you are, the impact your business is here to create and guiding how you make decisions.

[00:00:22] You can find all the tools, books, and links I reference on the show notes at www.beingboss.club. And if you like this episode, be sure to subscribe to this show and share us with a friend.

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[00:01:13] First of all, I'd like to say happy New Year. It is the beginning of the year as of you listening to this, the way these internet timey, wimey things work. It is not New Year for me, and when I'm sitting here and recording this for you, but for you listening to this because that's the magic of this world. It is New Year, so happy New Year.

[00:01:36] It's a fresh start for you where you are right now. Usually this first episode of the year, I'm talking about intentions, in some capacity, maybe a word of the year, maybe goal setting. That's often a, a hot topic for one of these first episodes of the year. This year, I'm doing something a little bit different whenever I've always talked about intentions.

[00:02:00] It's always paired with values. Values and intentions. Intentions and values. They go hand in hand. They're, there's, they're siblings. Sisters, perhaps. I don't know. Genderless, they're just words. So I'm always talking about intentions this time of year, but I'm going to take it to the other sibling. We're going to talk values.

[00:02:22] If you're new around Being Boss, you don't know that values are really important to what it is that we do. If you've been here for a while, you know that I'm always talking about values. Identifying your values as a business owner, as a human being is at the core of Being Boss. It's something that I talk about every year in some capacity and a number of episodes on this show.

[00:02:47] And it's something that is a part of every major offering that Being Boss has. Whether it's CEO Day Kit, it has its own section in the Being Boss book. It is a huge part of our Boss Owned Business Group Coaching. It's a yearly theme that we do in the Being Boss community. It has its own page, on our website beingboss.club/values.

[00:03:12] There are actually very few things that have their own page on our website. Values being maybe the one, maybe the one. It is that big of a part of what it is that we. Values are the things that center you in who you are. And from that space, are you able to show up and do the work that you were here to do, either as an individual or as a business.

[00:03:40] In the Being Boss book, we define values as the guiding principles that direct you through life, helping you prioritize what's important to you and stay true to who you are. So whenever I talk about you taking control of your work and living life on your own terms. Your own terms are you expressing your values.

[00:04:05] It's an imperative part of what we do. If I haven't gotten that across, I literally, I wish you could see my hands floating around in space in this very moment. You would understand the levity of this topic for what it is that I am here to do with you and what you are here to do as you listen to me. So I'm gonna be breaking down something really interesting today as I have gone through, oh my God, I didn't even think about this.

[00:04:30] As of publishing this episode, I embark on, hold on 8, 15, math real quick. Uh, eight the eighth year of the Being Boss Podcast. Holy cow. We published our first episode of Being Boss on the first Tuesday of 2015, 8 years ago, as of the release of this episode, that is huge. So for eight years, for eight years, we have talked about values, and over that time I've had some really interesting conversations about values for creative business owners.

[00:05:12] I've shared many of those conversations here. There's some things in the Being Boss book that you can check out as well if you haven't checked that out already. But there's one big piece, one topic that I, or one piece of this topic that I have a conversation about a couple of times a year that I haven't shared yet on this show, and I'm excited to sort of create the episode that I can refer people to when this topic comes up.

[00:05:37] And that is what is the difference between your personal and your business values? I have taken hundreds, over a thousand, bosses like very closely in close conversation through the exercise of defining values either for themselves and or for their businesses and your values are really important because they motivate you.

[00:06:01] They guide your decision making. They keep you on a path that feels aligned and moves you closer to the version of yourself and or your business that you are here to create. And so the question that comes up very often is, should my business and personal values be the same? Should they be different?

[00:06:20] Should there be some overlap? And as I've navigated this conversation so many times over the past several years, I'm excited to bring to you in this episode a bit of a breakdown of my thoughts around this sort of lending to all sides, um, or all of the options that are available to you so that you can answer this question for yourself and define for yourself, your business and personal values and whatever capacity those may show up..

[00:06:50] Every year as I have gone through CEO Day Live or as we recently launched our Boss-Owned Business Group Coaching, or just in conversations with bosses in the community or in person. This is a topic that comes up and what I really sort of want to start this conversation with, I'm, this conversation I'm having with myself while you listen in.

[00:07:12] Thank you very much for being here, is that there is no right or wrong. I don't think that there is a right or wrong answer to this question. I think your business and your personal values can be the same. I think they can be totally different. I think there can be some overlap in some situations if you so choose.

[00:07:32] There is no right or wrong. It's just what you choose for yourself and your business. As creatives, we are our businesses in a lot of cases, in which case there may be a lot of overlap or having you having completely the same values for yourself and your business. This might be true for a short time. Maybe you're just getting started in your business and so you haven't maybe defined your business values yet, and so you just sort of pick your own and you run with these values that you're already familiar with.

[00:08:07] Or if you have a very personal brand, if you're a coach or an influencer or you know your business name is your name, you are showing up to do the work one-on-one with your people. In those cases, oftentimes there is a complete overlap of business and personal values. I also just wanna asterisk here cause I don't think I've said this yet.

[00:08:25] If you don't know what your business or personal values are, and you do wanna do this exercise for yourself, head to that page beingboss.club/values, and you'll find so many resources. That will help you define what your values are for yourself and for your business. But in the case, when you are building something else, when you are creating an entity that you want to be separate from you.

[00:08:51] And it's funny, I don't think anyone thinks of it that way. I don't think anyone thinks this business is going to be separate from me, so I'm gonna give it a set of different values from myself. No one thinks of it that way, but there is this, this separation that comes whenever you define values for your business that are completely separate from your own.

[00:09:10] I also think this is a place where a good bit of forethought is a good idea. Do you plan on having a team? Do you want your team practicing the values that are your own values? Are you wanting to instill in your customers the values that you claim for yourself? I'm gonna be going through some more nitty gritty of this to help you really figure out what's going to work best for you.

[00:09:32] But these are the kinds of, uh, instances in which you'll find creatives and their businesses having completely different values. My personal preference is to have different ones. I think whenever you tie too much of yourself to this other business entity that you are creating, it's easy to tie too much of your self worth to the work that you do, and that is not something that we are trying to do here.

[00:10:01] Even with the best intentions, it can be really easy to show up when some, when things are going bad and you take that on yourself as a sign that you are doing things badly or that you are a bad person or whatever it may be. And I don't think that's true and I, but I do think that whenever you are tying the sort of soul of your business too closely to your soul, that overlap can just be a little too natural and easy to fall into.

[00:10:29] But again, I don't think there's a right or wrong. Do what you want. I love it when people are like, Emily, I heard you, but I'm gonna do something else. Love that for you. Completely open to you making that choice, but my preference is that you do create different values for your business. I'm gonna be diving into a bit of that as we go along to give you just sort of a broad difference as to what the difference is between business and personal values.

[00:10:57] I'm gonna give you a real, sort of quick, uh, quickie, if I may, um, on the differences. And then I will spend the rest of this episode really digging into how you define them differently and what it means for yourself and your business. While both sets of values are values and therefore act as a guiding set of principles, a big difference is that your personal values are ingrained in you as a person.

[00:11:26] Obviously, you don't know them when you're born, but as you grow, you sort of start picking up on the things that are obviously important to you. They're a reflection of your own lived experience. You develop them, you deepen them. I don't think that you can change them. You are who you are. And so you are born with these personal values that you grow into as you age, or the goal is that you grow into them as you align yourself with your values, which is one of the reasons why it's so important for you to define your values and not even define them in that you're picking them, but to

[00:12:06] uncover them to get in touch with what your values innately are. You're able to take aligned action that gets you further and further into expressing your values and living your values, and therefore existing in this really aligned space that has you feeling great about the things that you're doing and the places you're going and who you are becoming as you grow.

[00:12:32] Because that really is what you're doing with your personal values. You uncover them as you grow. I've talked about this a couple of times in past episodes where I don't think your, I don't think your values change as you grow. I think that once you sort of, get in tune with a set of personal values for yourself.

[00:12:52] Once you uncover them and you claim them as your values, then you can start living in alignment with them. But I do think as you grow and you gain more experiences, it's easy to uncover more as you grow. So I think I've shared in past episodes in a past episode how over the past couple of years, I've began to notice to recognize a value in my set of values that wasn't one that I recognized or resonated with previously.

[00:13:24] Whenever I first, several years ago, sat down and started getting in tune with what my personal values are. That value that has uncovered itself over the past couple of years is respect. It's something that I value. I value it in myself. I valued it in other people. I, between other people, interpersonal, separate from me, for the earth, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:13:47] Respect is something that I value that I've sort of added to my pocket as something I value, and it's something that I try to align myself with and, and I'm on the lookout for. All of those things. It's again, not something that I recognized in myself before, but as I have grown, I have uncovered more, and as I've uncovered it, I've been able to adjust myself as you should do with your personal values.

[00:14:13] Um, adjust my actions, adjust my mindsets as I go to grow more into the person that I am here to be. In your business, things work a little bit differently. As a business, there aren't innate values. Not really. I think there are surface things that are obvious for some industries or some types of businesses for sure.

[00:14:36] I mean, think about all of the, all of the businesses in the world who claim customer service as a value, right? Like obviously, but shouldn't we all, like why is that a a, an exclamated value when that should just be a standard, is the question that I ask. So your job is to get in there and define your business values from the outset of your company as much as you are able to.

[00:15:05] And that really is sort of the key difference between personal and business values. Personal values are innate. You can't make this shit up. It just is who you are. For your business, you actually get to pick them. And when you pick them, when you choose them and define them for this, this organization that you are creating, you then build your organization, your business around those values.

[00:15:31] It is similar to you aligning to them as a person, but it's sort of like a chicken and egg situation. Where in personal values, what comes first? The chicken or the egg? You can never solve that. In a business, what comes first is your values. You have to claim your values and then build your business around them.

[00:15:53] Now, one of the cool things about business values is that there is some level of evolution, or really, I think what I'd like to say is deepening. I doubt you're going to uncover many sort of future values as you go along. It could, if you change your business model, if you shift who it is that you're serving, those sorts of things, there could be a change in your values.

[00:16:17] But what I love about values in the business sense is, similar to the personal sense is that you really do deepen those definitions of those business values as you go along. But more or less, your values are what you claim for your business and you fit your business into them. And that I see is the biggest difference between personal and business values.

[00:16:44] Your personal values are innate. Your business values you define, and as such, you either align with your innate values and uncover more as you go. Whereas in your business, you are building your entire business around those values. So now let's get into the nitty gritty of it. When it comes to your personal values, these are a reflection of what is most important to you as an individual.

[00:17:11] It answers the simple question, or I guess fill in the blank of, I value blank. I value blank in myself, in my environment, and others. It's something that you're on the lookout for that's happening innately around you. Values also guide how it is that you make decisions in your life, both big and small, and oftentimes unconsciously.

[00:17:36] Which is that innate essence of values. If you look back at your life, or once you define your values, when you look back at your life, you're gonna see that you've been making decisions in alignment with your values off and on, at least throughout your entire life. Once you have uncovered your values, you are able to purposefully and consciously align your decisions and actions around your values.

[00:18:05] As such, your values are reflected in how it is that you show up and do the work and basically they are you. They are something where people who know you well or maybe even not so well, will recognize in who you are. The things that you enjoy, the way that you move throughout the world, they define very much so who you are.

[00:18:28] In your business and as a business owner, you might value other things. Here's an interesting example for you. Personally, I value adventure. It's something as one of the very first ones that I uncovered all those years ago when I first did this exercise for myself, it was one that resonated immediately, but not in the traditional sense.

[00:18:52] Like, I'm not mountaineering, I'm not whitewater rafting. I'm not jumping out of airplanes. Adventure is something that I want to be a constant part of my life. It is important to me, even if it's in a relatively small capacity compared to how other people define adventure. However, adventure is not necessarily something I want at the core of either of my companies.

[00:19:22] I don't think I want to manage a team that is all aligned with the value of adventure. That sounds a little tiresome to me. It's not something I necessarily am trying to instill in all of you. Though I'll get to that in a second. Or at Almanac though I'll get to that in a second. It is not at the core of either of those organizations, but I think that if you are familiar with Being Boss and or Almanac, you will see that there is a hint of adventure in both of those organizations because I am a part of, I birthed, to some extent each of those companies. So even though it is not a core value of those companies, it is an essence of it because I am there and my value of adventure is therefore present in a lot of the decision making that is being made. Or really a lot of the decision making that I am making in those companies because as a human being with values that I know, I am definitely making decisions even within the context of my companies, along the lines of my personal values as well, obviously as the values of those companies.

[00:20:36] The thing here is that I am in my business, but my business is not me. And that is a key distinction here whenever you think about having different personal and business values for your business. So I am constantly working to cultivate more adventure in my life, and I do that at work sometimes. There is definitely an essence of it in both of these companies.

[00:21:03] It's something that I, I mean y'all, what is entrepreneurship, if not a grand adventure, am I right? I am here because I am aligned with that sense of adventure. You are here because you are to though that is not a core value of Being Boss, that because I am here it is in there. Which is something to consider whenever you are thinking about defining the values for your business.

[00:21:31] As long as you are in your organization, you will be able to express yourself and your values within the context of that company without a doubt, as long as you are there living in alignment with what you value, making decisions through those lenses. Then you will be able to cultivate more of your values for yourself.

[00:21:55] So just because you may choose to have different values for your business and yourself does not mean that you are not going to find more fulfillment of your values in your business because you absolutely can. At Being Boss, I love to take Bosses to cool cities, mostly New Orleans, obviously. Actually, in a couple of weeks I'll be taking the C-Suite Mastermind group to New Orleans and we will be having an adventure.

[00:22:23] I get to do that within the context of this company, and I love that I get to do it. While we are there, we are gonna be cultivating the values of Being Boss in that space, but because I am leading the thing, there is gonna be plenty of me in it, and I find fulfillment in that aspect of navigating my values within an organization.

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[00:24:29] So next up I wanna talk about business values separate from personal values. Business values are a reflection of the impact your company is here to make on the world. And that I think is one of the most major distinctions between the two. I think of personal values as things that you are cultivating inwardly.

[00:24:50] I'm not trying to pull my family into every adventure that I'm on. I'm here for adventuring for myself, right? I'm not pushing my personal values on literally anyone. They are mine and mine alone. Is it a byproduct of me practicing my values that those around me are going to be experiencing them, absolutely.

[00:25:11] But I am cultivating them inwardly for myself. In your business, you are purposefully cultivating these values outwardly. You are defining values for an organization so that you can present those values to the world so that everyone who works for you and with will experience these values and so that every customer that you service in whichever way it is that you do that will also experience these values.

[00:25:43] Personal values are cultivated inwardly. Business values are cultivated outwardly. So your business values are a reflection of the impact your company will make in the world, and they also are going to guide how your company delivers your services or products. It's going to define what those services and products are.

[00:26:04] It's going to define how it is that you measure the success of delivering those services and products. Your business values are also going to guide your team in problem solving. It's going to guide everyone and how it is that they deal with customer service. It will guide how decisions are made, how things are carried through, the projects that you take on the projects you might say no to the people that you're hiring. It will also help you attract customers and employees because people will see your values at you as you put them out into the world and potentially resonate with them as well. Here at Almanac, I often get applications from people who talk about how it is that they came into the store and wanted to be a part of what it is that we're doing.

[00:26:56] That is essentially a level of aligning with their values. They don't understand that that's what, that's what is happening. But whenever I read that, I know to some extent if they recognize that if they are putting that into their application, then they are probably our kind of people. They were attracted to us.

[00:27:15] They liked the vibes, they, if they did their research, they are more in tune with what our values actually are and bother coming and putting in an application to join our team. Business values also impact your future goals, how it is that you plan, and what your future visions are for your company.

[00:27:35] There's a lot of really finite things that your business values will impact or will define or will dictate in some way or another. Your personal values are a little more ethereal. If I can use that very vague and weird word for this, because that is kind of what your personal values are or what they do for you, it's not something that anyone will really be able to totally pinpoint unless you are just like really very practically on the nose practicing those values in the wonderful way that you may be doing.

[00:28:13] But for most of us, they're a little nebulous around what it is that we are generally doing on the day-to-day basis. Your business values are very finitely defining key things in your business and are actually going to be voiced. Incredibly often on a level where you know, if, honestly, if I weren't here talking values with you all, all the time, as much as I am, I would never talk about my values.

[00:28:43] I would never tell anyone unless maybe I'm being interviewed or maybe on a date, though, I hope I never have to do that again. Only in those circumstances may I be asked what it is that I value. Only in those situations would I consider it and share those with others and make them as plain as giving a word to what my personal values are. In your business, you have to voice these often, put them on your website, talk about them to your customers.

[00:29:14] Make sure if nothing else, your employees are incredibly aligned with what those values are so that they can show up and represent your business in the same resonance as you intend them to. So your values have a very set, um, or your business values have a very particular set of tasks that they need to do, whereas your personal values can be a little bit more internal and you know, not super obvious and not show up in a way that anyone may know except you do as you navigate through your life.

[00:29:52] So those are the big differences between your personal and your business values. They are vast in terms of what it is that you do with them. Really how concrete they should be and how it is that you express yourself. Right? And there are some very obvious differences between the two. Personal values are values that you're cultivating inwardly.

[00:30:14] Your business values are values that you're cultivating outwardly. And whenever it comes to deciding whether or not you wanna have completely separate and overlap or completely the same values between the two. There is no right or wrong answer. It's just what you choose to do for yourself, but I don't want you to make the choice to have an overlap or to have them be the same because you are afraid that you will not be able to cultivate your own personal values within the space of your company because you can.

[00:30:45] And I think that if you frame this for yourself, so that are my personal values, something I want to cultivate more in the world, and you answer that with yes, it is, that's the point when there is an overlap, when you are claiming a personal value for your business. I have another little story to share about, um, not really an overlap of values, but how you can maneuver your values to set a value in your business. Also, can we just turn values into a drinking game for this episode. Even I'm tired of saying the word at this point, but I'm gonna continue. We're not done yet, but also don't do that. You would be trashed by this point in the episode. Another one of my personal values is creativity.

[00:31:34] It's something that I value in everything. Everything from how it is that I'm spending my time. I wanna be doing creative things to what it is that that I value in other people. I love it when other people, like I love creatives. Obviously you are the people that I am here serving. I also love creative details.

[00:31:56] One of my very favorite places to go for just soaking in creativity is Disney World, because there are creative touches everywhere. They have thought about the finest little details for incorporating creativity and really like sinking you into the environment that I just love. Creativity is something that I value.

[00:32:20] Now, it would be really easy for me to just take that value and plug it into Being Boss. Would it not? You all are creatives. It's obviously something this company values, but the more I thought about it, creativity is innate to you and it's innate to me, and it's something that I want us all to cultivate, but we're already cultivating that ourselves, which I love for us.

[00:32:47] So how can I take creativity and morph it into something more aligned with what it is that I want you to cultivate as a boss. So I intentionally turned creativity into resourcefulness, which in itself is its own kind of creativity. Is it not? If you already have creativity to show up and be an artist or creatively problem solve or do something in a really different way, whatever that may be, you already have that piece.

[00:33:20] You are here because of that. What I want to instill in you, what we have created so many things around for supporting you on this journey is for you to take that creativity that you serve in that little sort of wedge of existence in your industry and your business that you were here to expel into the world, and transition that into a creative resourcefulness that allows you to show up, gain the knowledge that you need to craft this experience and journey for yourself because there are a million resources out there for you and honestly no reason that you shouldn't be here accomplishing exactly what it is that you are here to accomplish. So that for me was one way that I took a personal value, creativity that is obviously very naturally aligned with what it is that we are here doing in this space and shifted it into something that is separate from my personal value and honestly more aligned with what it is that I want to project into the world with this brand that we are building.

[00:34:34] So if you find yourself in a place where there is an overlap or where you are just claiming your personal values as your business values, I challenge you. I challenge you to look at these business values, these personal slash business values that you are claiming for your business. And see if there isn't a more true version of these words that more correctly define what it is that you are here to cultivate in the world, the impact that you are here to make.

[00:35:04] You might end up finding that you have the opportunity to drive ahead in a slightly different and more refined direction in your business. Or you might find that they really are just the same. And so there you go. As you do the work to uncover your personal and business values, know that as you navigate the business value side of this, you don't have to have them be the same, but you also can if you so choose, it's dealer's choice.

[00:35:37] You are crafting your own path here and you can choose, but with that, you get some ins and outs of having an overlap or having the same values or having different values, and also hopefully understanding truly the difference between your personal and your business values so that you can make a decision in your business values that really does send you down the path that you are most here to take.

[00:36:01] And as I said before, if you need any support and discovering your values for yourself or your business, there's a multitude of resources for you. beingboss.club/values is the place where you can find most of these things. You can also check out the Being Boss book, and if you'd like to work with me on your values, you can check out CEO day kit where I do an annual CEO day live that's happening a couple of days after this episode goes live.

[00:36:29] Or you can sign up for our Boss-Owned Business Group Coaching waitlist at beingboss.club/coaching, where I will be taking a cohort of bosses through the exercises of defining both your personal and your business values. And as you embark on the year ahead, I hope that you will spend some time planning in your business and in your life, and as you are doing so, take your personal values and your business values and jot them down on a Post-it note. Make sure they are right there in your eyesight as you are making these plans so that you are planning through the lens of your values with these in mind, so that you are most likely to be taking just the actions that you need towards just the version of yourself or your business that you are here to meet.

[00:37:20] And that's it. Happy New Year. So glad that you are here with me as I embark on another year. I'm excited to see what this year has in store for me and also what it has in store for you.

[00:37:34] All right, boss, because you're here, I know you want to be a better creative business owner, which means I've got something for you.

[00:37:41] Each week, the team at Being Boss is scouring the news, the best entrepreneurial publications and updates and releases of the apps and tools that run our businesses, and is curating it all into a weekly email that delivers the must know tips and tactics in the realms of mindset, money, and productivity. This email is called Brewed.

[00:37:59] We brew it up for you each week to give you the insight you need to make decisions and move forward in your creative. Check it out now and sign up for yourself at beingboss.club/brewed. That's beingboss.club/brewed now, until next time, do the work. Be boss.