The Caitlin Mitchell Show
After nearly a decade in business, it's time for me to share what I've learned about building a business focused on service leadership to help you on your journey as a business owner. My goal is for you to walk away from each episode with one thing - one sentence, one thought, one perspective shift, one new idea - that has an impact on you, your business, or your life.
The Caitlin Mitchell Show
Building Success with Core Values as Your Compass | Ep 2
In this episode we'll explore how core values can greatly impact a company's culture and success. We'll look at real-life experiences from EB Academics and get inspired by the book Traction. Together, we'll learn how to use these powerful principles to make smart decisions and create a thriving team environment.
Picture a workplace where core values aren't just words on a wall—they actually guide everything, from hiring the right people to making tough decisions about those who don't quite fit in.
In this honest conversation, we'll uncover how core values like the 'wow factor' and being 'growth oriented' can change your hiring process. They can help you find candidates who fit in perfectly with your company culture and avoid expensive mistakes.
We'll discuss how to align your personal values with the company's during interviews. This is the key to creating a smooth operation within your company. And, we won't avoid the difficult discussions. I'll show you how these guiding principles can help us make tough decisions, like letting go of team members when things no longer match up.
Tune in for an episode that gives you the tools to incorporate core values into your daily work and build a team that's not just talented but also truly harmonious. It's all about making your work environment the best it can be for you and your team!
Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caitlindmitchell/
In this week's episode we are going to be focusing on the importance of company core values. So if you already have company core values, I'd invite you to still take a listen, because it's possible you're not utilizing all of the ways in which they can be implemented into your business and if you have no idea what core values are or you don't have them, this episode is absolutely going to serve you. So core values might not necessarily seem like the sexiest thing on the surface. You might be like why do I even need to think about core values? It's just me in my business, or I only have one team member, or perhaps you have a team of five or 10 or 16, like we do at EB academics. But I will say that once I started really harnessing the power of the variety of ways in which core values can be utilized in the business to create a successful company culture, that's when I started to see the magic happen. So I really truly believe that core values are one of those foundational building block essentials to creating a successful team, to a team that's going in the same direction together to a great company culture, all of that stuff. And it's actually pretty interesting whenever I share something about our team on social media over on our EB academics Instagram or on our Facebook or even our EB teachers club inside of our community. With out fail, I will always get direct messages or emails or people with Facebook direct message me asking me hey, can I come work for you? I just want to come work for your company because I love what you guys stand for. I love what you guys are doing, and I don't really believe that that exists without strong core values, and that's really what this episode is going to be about is to give you that same sort of leverage of company core values to build a strong culture at your business. So I actually want to start all of this with a story about where our core values for EB even came from. And I also have core values for my excellence in leadership team, but that's just myself and my executive assistant, anna. So I'm utilizing this more from the frame of our EB academics business. We have 16 employees, et cetera, but when we first started EB academics, it was just Jessica, my business partner, myself and a couple other you know, part time contractors that eventually became employees, but the company started to rapidly grow in about 2019, 2020, 2021.
Speaker 1:And I remember being at a conference with Jill and Josh Stan from Screw the 95. And we're sitting at a cocktail party and we're just talking about how gosh, the business is growing so much it's really hard to control. Like it's, it feels like it's getting away from me. And this woman I can't remember her name but God bless her she had such an impact with the one thing that she told me. She suggested that I go read a book called Traction and she said that as soon as she read that and started to implement some of the systems and processes within that book that it immediately helped her with scaling and building her team. And so I was like, yes, I'm going to go buy that book immediately. And that's exactly what I did.
Speaker 1:And I remember thinking about all of the team meetings and the level 10 meetings and this quarterly state of the company stuff. And then I got to this section of the book that was about core values and I'm like, well, this seems kind of lame. Like what are these core values even matter? I don't understand how they're actually going to benefit the company, but I'm going to do whatever the book tells me to do, because this woman told me that it made such an impact on her business. I'm just going to follow through with it. So just can I sat down and started to come up with like, well, what's really important to us as as a company, as a business, what do we stand for All of that stuff? And back then that was this must have been 2020.
Speaker 1:When we did this four years ago, I had no idea Just how much the core values of the business would have an impact on nearly every single way in which the company operates, and I don't know that that was very clearly articulated enough in the book traction of just how much of an impact your company core values can have on everything, because, at the end of the day, they really are a decision-making filter for pretty much anything that you're doing in your business. Now I'm going to dive into a couple of key ways in which we utilize our core values. At EB academics, you can start to see how you can utilize them for yourself and your business. But if you're not familiar with what core values are, I want to start there and I want to share directly from traction. And if you don't have this book, definitely go purchase it and read through the whole thing.
Speaker 1:I do most of what they suggested in their EOS system, but not everything, but their core values is definitely something that I utilize, and so in their book they define core values as a small set of vital and timeless guiding principles for your company. So they are a small set of vital and timeless guiding principles for your company and I think that that was the part that was lost on me that they are guiding principles for your company. They are decision-making filters, they build the culture at your company and they suggested a good rule of thumb is to limit them to somewhere between three to seven different core values. And if you don't have the book, go buy it, because they recommend how to sit down and actually come up with your core values, et cetera. And we're not going to talk about how to come up with them, we're going to talk about how to utilize them in the business. And knowing that they are a set of guiding principles for your company, it can kind of be overwhelming like well, shoot, I don't want to make a mistake in the core values that I come up with.
Speaker 1:And so what I want to talk to you about before we dive into how we utilize them at EB academics, I want to share some of the initial challenges that I faced when we were implementing core values and how we kind of moved past them. So initially, when we sat down to do this, we came up with them, we followed what traction told us to do, but we didn't really understand how to embed them into the culture of the company. We had our vision traction organizer also something from traction. We went over our core values at every quarterly team meeting, but that was pretty much it, and so we weren't really seeing the benefits of just how core values could be harnessed in the day-to-day operations of the business. And it wasn't until I realized how to actually utilize them in that powerful capacity on a consistent basis that they became a true foundation to the strong culture that we've built at EB academics. And really that started with making the core values the heart of the following things that I'm going to talk to you about today.
Speaker 1:Number one is we use core values in hiring. We use core values in firing. We use core values in our day-to-day operations. We use core values in performance reviews. We use core values in recognition of our team. We also utilize them in a variety of other ways, too. Does this decision for an offer that we're working on make sense with our core values? Does this podcast episode that we're producing make sense with our core values? So there are a variety of other, like marketing, tactical what's the word I'm looking for offers, ways in which we can use them. But today I'm going to talk to you about those specific lenses hiring, firing, day-to-day operations, performance reviews and recognition and as I walk through this, I hope that you'll start to see just how much your company core values can really start to shape your entire operating system of your business.
Speaker 1:All right, so I want to dive into the first way in which we utilize core values, and that is in hiring somebody for a role at the company at EB. So we include the core values right off the bat. They're included in the job description so, before anyone ever even applies to the position, they already know the guiding principles that we hold at EB academics and they can self-select out of that. Oh well, discipline isn't something I'm really good at. Probably shouldn't apply for that. That's not one of our core values. But that's the first example that came to my mind. But then we also use it in every round of the hiring process, everything that we go through. So in the hiring process. We have it in the job description. Well, someone applies. Then we look through the applications through the lens of our core values. Well then, when we go into the actual hiring process, we have three different interviews. I'm going to give you some examples of how I utilize these in our interviews, but they come up as a part of every conversation in our interview process. So I want to give you a specific, concrete example of what this looks like in our interview process.
Speaker 1:So, after somebody's applied and we have maybe five, six different candidates that we're looking at for this position, in that first interview I'm asking them a variety of questions that align to the specific role. I'm kind of trying to get an idea of who they are, the type of person that they are those intangibles. But I'm looking at the intangibles through the lens of our core values. So wow factor is one of the core values at EB academics. Wow factor in how we treat our customers. Wow factor in how we treat each other internally. Wow factor in everything that we do. We want to be the Disneyland of our market, right? We want to be just. Everyone has an interaction with us and they go wow.
Speaker 1:I cannot believe that that company did X, y and Z for me or whatever it might be. And so I'm looking for somebody that in their responses to me in that first interview, really exemplifies the wow factor. Are their answers wow factoring me Right? I know that's not a word, but you got my point. Are they the type of person that if coach says jump, they say how high? Right, and I'm getting those intangibles through the lens of my core values? And if I didn't have the core values to kind of look at their answers as the lens through, I might just be like, oh yeah, that's a good answer. But here I'm scrutinizing their answers in a different capacity.
Speaker 1:Well then, in the second interview that I do with candidates that move on, is this interview really is all about the core values? So I'll give you another example of one of our core values and how I would utilize this in interview number two. So in interview number two for me it's I want to communicate to the candidate what it means to get to work here. What does it mean to get to work at EB academics? How is it expected that you're going to come in and operate and be a part of our culture? And because I've created such a strong culture at EB. It's important that whoever I bring in that's new is going to hold that sacred and is going to fit in with our core values.
Speaker 1:So in that second interview I might ask a question that aligns with our core value of being growth oriented. So I might ask the candidate I'd love for an example of how, in your job in the last month, have you been growth oriented? But before you answer, let me give you an example. So our customer support person, who's our head of customer support, an example of her being growth oriented in her role is she went and read, be our guest about Disneyland and how they do their operations, and then she came back and presented to the team how we can utilize some of the strategies that she took from that book in our own company. So not only is she learning something new, she's bringing it back to the team.
Speaker 1:So that's what growth oriented looks like. It doesn't mean just like, oh, I'm taking a course or I'm listening to podcast episodes. Now I'm taking it to another level because I want this person, this candidate, to see hey, if I'm hired by this company, that's the expectation of me in these core values, these guiding principles that shape this business. So do I even fit in here? And in fact I've had people after the second interview and I've really clearly shared our expectations of our core values and examples of every single one of our core values, of our team and what that looks like here. I've had people self opt out and not want to continue on and oh my gosh, what a blessing to not continue with them in the hiring process and not hire them and not waste time training them and lose money when they quit because it's not the right fit.
Speaker 1:So in that second interview I spent time going over every single one of our core values. I give examples of our team exemplifying those core values and then I ask them to show me how they themselves in their job, in their personal life, in their professional, wherever it might be that they also have a high level of, you know, that quality within themselves. That's incredibly important and that allows us to align our core values with successful hires. Well, when we haven't utilized that lens right in the beginning, when I was hiring people in the beginning of the business, the me hiring people then was very different than the me hiring people now. And you know we've had people in the past who have quit, who I've had to let go because these expectations were not clearly managed of what I was really looking for, and someone who gets to work at our company because I didn't have the core values to communicate that through.
Speaker 1:I was just like, oh, can you show me some examples of what your strengths are, all of the general stuff that when we're first interviewing people we're not really good at it and then we get better at it over time and the core values are such a key player in that hiring process. It's cool too, because the core values allow you to get really clear on the candidate themselves. So the way in which they answer the questions to interview number two, where you're going over the core values, you're looking at those intangibles of your core values, those guiding principles. We're not talking about their skillset, we're talking about who they are, we're talking about their values. Do their personal values align to your company's values? And if there's a disconnect there, it's just not going to work and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But I'd rather figure that out now than three months down the line or 30 days in or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1:The other thing, too, because we do a third interview of any candidates that make it to the end. That third interview is like what are the red flags? And typically the red flags come up for me. Where are they misaligned to our core values? So I can use them to kind of not grade but essentially give a yes. They totally align to this core value. Or, oh, I'm a little bit concerned, you know, are they someone who is going to be honest with their role? You know, whatever it might be because that's one of our core values to IDB is honesty and integrity. So I suggest you to utilize them in your hiring process. It makes a huge difference in the type of person that you hire and it allows you to have a really clear decision making filter throughout that entire process. All right.
Speaker 1:On the other hand, on the flip side, with core values, we can also use core values in our firing decisions and it can be very difficult to let team members go, but it makes it a lot clearer to us as leaders when they don't align to our core values. So if our core value of integrity is, you know you are your word. You say you're going to get something completed on this day by this time and you continue time and time again to fail to meet that core value, well, it's very clear for us that you're not an integrity with this core value of integrity of our company and it creates kind of a lens through which to look at this person that is removed from feelings, from emotions, from getting in your head about things. It's do they really align with the company core values? And if they don't, it's okay to let them go. And I can do a whole other podcast episode about this.
Speaker 1:I've had to let quite a few people go over the years. Every single time it's hard, but every single time you get a little bit better at it and a little bit more used to it. And one of the things that I will say on this particular topic and again, I'll do another episode about this but I've been fired from a job and I look back and I'm so thankful for that and I'm so thankful that I had that experience. And so now when I look at the letting go process, I'm not firing somebody, I'm just releasing them to go live out their greatest potential in their lives, because clearly it wasn't in this role, because if they were truly living in their fullest potential, their greatest purpose in this life, they wouldn't be missing the mark with our core values, and so when we utilize them through the firing lens to decide, hey, does this person get to stay here? It helps those tough decisions just become a little bit easier for us. So use them in a hiring process, use them in our firing or releasing, letting go process.
Speaker 1:Now I also use our core values in our day to day operations of the business, decision making with things. So, for example, if we're going to release a resource, for example, or we're going to even release a reel on social media, or we're going to send out an email, the language that we're using we're always looking at what we are producing and what we are putting out into the public sphere, for our customers, for future customers, etc. Are those things aligned with our core values? Do they have the wow factor? Are they growth oriented? Are they being in integrity? Are they being honest to who we really are as a brand and all of the other lenses through which we have? So every piece of content, every piece of media, every email, every resource, every thing that gets put in front of a customer, goes through this lens. Well, it also happens on the back end of the business, internally, with the team.
Speaker 1:So one of our core values is team player. Well, what does it mean to be a team player? A team player is someone who says, hey, I got your back, don't worry about it, I'm going to take care of it. Or a team player is like oh no worries, I know, I understand that you're sick. Hey, you know what, I got you here, can you help me out here? And a team member says, yeah, no problem, I got you Right.
Speaker 1:So you think about what a team player means and what it means to show up for other people. This isn't just a team player for our customers, this is a team player for us internally. And if you think about, we all know those teammates if you played sports, those teammates who were a team player. We loved playing with them. We want to be around them. They make us better, we lift each other up. Well, we also know those players who are not team players, who are ball hogs, who have ego. It's all about them.
Speaker 1:Well, at our business, because team player is such an integral part of who we are and what we do. We all operate like that on a consistent basis, and so we've built this culture where we are all team players for each other. We've got a bunch of people on our team who one can say, hey, coach, give me the ball, I'll shoot it, and are also willing to take a step back and say, hey, coach, I'm happy to give the assist and help this person, help them reach their fullest potential. So internal, day-to-day operations are also heavily influenced by your core values. It's not just about what your brand stands for to the outside world, it's what does your brand stand for to the inside world to foster that positive environment within your team. So I'm going to give you some examples of how we utilize and integrate these into our regular team processes.
Speaker 1:So we have weekly team meetings and our team is all remote, we don't have an office, and so we miss out on those little kind of day-to-day interactions with each other. So I have to be really intentional. I get to be really intentional as a leader about how do we create community, how do we build connection, how do we build that feeling of togetherness, even though we're all across the country and all around the world? And so at our team meetings every single week, every single week, every single week, without fail, I go over all of our core values, I repeat them to the team. I guarantee you there is not one person on my team who could not tell you all six of our company core values, because they are that repeated and put front and center throughout our team meetings, our internal processes all the time. They just know. So every single Monday I go over our core values and then I open it up to the team to notice and share other team members who have exemplified any core value in the past seven days.
Speaker 1:So what I'm doing is I'm intentionally taking our core values and I'm allowing our team to notice and recognize the power of those core values in other people. So, for example, brooke might say something to Sarah and say Sarah, I really I recognized your team player attitude last week when I couldn't get to that specific comment in time and I know that you had your kids and you hopped in there and you helped me out and you answered that question and meant so, so much to me. So not only am I reinforcing, through this process, this core value of team player, brooke is able to show her gratitude to Sarah for Sarah helping her out publicly in front of the team, and Sarah is able to be recognized for that as well and for her contributions. So it really fosters this incredible positive environment where we are all working together to intentionally shape and continue to foster that positive company culture that we've created, such as one example of how the core values are utilized in our regular team processes. And the other one that I want to point out here within the day-to-day operations is really recognition of each other as well. So not just at our team meetings on Mondays, but also within our Slack channel. So we use Slack as our communications channel and we have a glow channel where we just shout each other out and notice each other for exemplifying core values. So someone might comment in there hey, caitlin, I noticed you were incredibly positive during this specific interaction with the customer. Or hey, kdi noticed blah, blah, blah. So that's consistently happening in the background of just the team, of just the day-to-day operations, on a consistent basis. It's the very easy thing that you can take and utilize and implement into your company right now. So if you don't have a glow channel, start using it and you're going to have to be the one you're going to get to be the one, as the leader, to start to kick it off and really make sure that it builds momentum in there. All right.
Speaker 1:The last point that I want to make of how we utilize this and then I have a couple of important points at the end here is we can utilize core values in our performance reviews of our team. So performance reviews happen for us every April. We go over a variety of things, but we also cover our core values, so the six core values at EB we utilize to have our team rate themselves really on their performance. Against these core values, do you feel like you really are operating out of 10 out of 10 in positivity? And if you're not, what can we do to help you? How can we support you in moving into a 10 out of 10 operation performance with that particular core value? So it becomes a conversation starter for us. You know, if I'm having a meeting with, say, let's say, kerry, who's our head of school district partnerships right now, so Kerry says, you know I'm not, I don't really feel like I'm meeting. There are growth oriented core value and I really want to get to work on that over this next year. Well, now I know, hey, kerry needs support in this particular core value. How am I supporting her as leader in obtaining that and reaching that goal? So it allows us to have a conversation. It allows us to set goals for the team in those performance reviews. It allows me, as the leader, when I am talking to my team and sharing their performance review with them of how they're doing. You know, this is how we measure success here. This is one of the measurements of success, in addition to KPIs and things like that, but these are important to the success of you at this company, so we use them to motivate our team to, you know, help them reach the next levels of themselves, and it's really these kind of unique practices that we have incorporated at EB that have allowed us to intentionally build that culture.
Speaker 1:The last thing that I want to say about this is the fact that core values are going to evolve over time. So the core values that we had at EB when we first started are slightly different now. A lot of them are still the same. There are still some in there that were in there in the beginning, but they've changed over time and I think it's important to know that. That's okay.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I think a lot of people get stuck on with core values is well, it's got to be perfect. You know, I've got to nail them, because these are the guiding principles of my business. Yes, and you might find, like man, that one just really doesn't align for me anymore. I'd rather have this one or this word now more clearly articulates what this guiding principle is that I was after, and I kind of missed the mark at the beginning. So every year I come back to our core values, I take a look at them. Are these still going to be the ones that we use?
Speaker 1:In the last couple of years, I'd say we haven't made any changes to our core values because I really feel right now, with where the business is and you know the growth that we're going to see, that these are the core values that are going to take us there. So it's okay to reevaluate, to adopt different core values that align to just the changing dynamics of your team, of your industry and of your company. So key takeaways from this episode one, that core values really help you build a solid foundation for a strong company culture. The other thing that I love about core values is that everyone is clear on what it looks like to be a 10x player if they are aligned to the core values of the business. This is probably the most important thing that, if you take anything away, your core values are a decision making lens for nearly everything in your business. That's what I missed the mark on when we first created our core values years ago, I didn't realize the extent to which they could be a decision making lens for almost every single thing.
Speaker 1:So I would encourage you to reflect on your own businesses and consider the role of core values on your team building journey. How do these play a role? Even if it's just you and one other person, you should still have core values, because that's how you're going to interact with your customer. That's how you're going to act with interact in the world. So if you don't have core values, I'd love for you to create your own. You can go by traction and utilize that part of the book to help you develop them, and I'd love for you to share with me on Instagram the core values that you have, because if you do have core values, you can just send me a direct message. I'm at Caitlyn D Mitchell on Instagram and I'd love to connect with you over there. So thank you, guys, so much for tuning in. I hope this episode served you well and, if it did, your review and sharing of this episode would mean the absolute world to me. Thanks so much, you guys, and I'll see you on the next episode.
