Resources for Values Builders
With special thanks to the team & companies of K1
Here’s a shortened copy of my presentation deck with relevant notes.
Values overviews to review and learn from:
Apple’s values statement from Tim Cook ( versions from both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook here. Which do you prefer?)
Apple’s “what we value” statement on their Careers page is more people-centric and individual; sharing here so you see how they’ve done it.
Zappos — the company crowdsourced these from early employees. Do they still work today?
General resources:
From Indeed.com: specific examples. Notice the structures here — not all are verbs. If you’re thinking of an overhaul, apply these examples to see if and how you might test and measure the non-verb values.
Best and worst company culture examples.
Twitter thread on building and developing values: early stage, acquisition, and beyond.
Amazon leadership principles: not exactly values, yet principles people can organize around.
Google 10 things we know to be true
Southwest Airlines; related article here
Although this is more a marketing study than anything about culture, the publishers do a great job associating company culture, and even values, as amplifiers of business success. Worth a read (and maybe sharing with your revenue and marketing orgs?)
ETSY core values include “commitment to craft, minimize waste, embrace differences, dig deeper, and lead with optimism.” The company also calls these its guiding principles. Here’s an article about a role they created to ensure values alignment across the company.
Recommended reading: The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age (Reid, Casnocha, Yeh) — great insights from early LinkedIn on creating win-win, career-focused value agreements with employees. It’s a quick read, and excellent.
Stay in touch:
— Connect on LinkedIn: Ellen Petry Leanse
— I’m on Twitter and occasionally Instagram.
— My book The Happiness Hack guides brain-aware approaches to increasing life satisfaction. Learn more here, order from Amazon, or listen on Audible.
If you have suggestions for additions to this article, please share them as comments. I’ll add them in – thank you in advance!
Wishing you well as you lead with Values,
Ellen
