I recently sent the following email to the HomeCEU team, and as the year draws to a close and we embark on the next chapter, I wanted to share our values and mission with our extended family as well.
On the heels of a fantastic Mexican Thanksgiving feast (Kudos D for organizing the event) it's a perfect time to showcase an initiative inspired by all the energy and enthusiasm the team has generated over the past 6 months.
In an effort to precisely direct everyone's energy, effort and enthusiasm to build the culture we desire as our company grows it's high time we reveal the company's core values as we move forward. Several months ago I, along with several other staff members read a book by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, Inc. In the book Tony talks about the importance of a company's core values on it's culture. Tony did such great job introducing the concept of core values, I figured heck why reinvent the wheel when it's already been invented, so I adapted the next several paragraphs directly from Tony's book to introduce HomeCEUConnection.com's core values. As HomeCEUConnection.com grows as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the HomeCEUConnection.coms core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. With so many new employees joining the company as we grow, we want to make sure that everyone's on the same page and acting consistently with what we want HomeCEUConnection.com to be all about. Over time, we will be restructuring performance evaluations so that a big part of every employee's performance evaluation is based on how well he/she represents and makes decisions based on the HomeCEUConnection.com core values. Ideally, we want all 10 core values to be reflected in everything we do, including how we interact with each other, how we interact with our customers, and how we interact with our content partners and business partners. There is a lot of work that lies ahead, and it will be quite some time before our 10 core values are truly reflected in how we think, how we act, and how we communicate. Our core values should always be the framework from which we make all our decisions. Because this is the first time publishing our core values, there may be some additions or changes made over the next year, but our goal is to ultimatley decide on a final list of core values to serve as the framework for how we run and grow the company. I encourage everyone to re-examine everything that is being done at the company and ask yourself what changes can be made to better reflect our core values. For example, our website ad copy could be improved so it sounds more like the fun loving culture we desire and less like what you might find on our... so called.... competitors website. The forms we use internally, communication with our customers (it's all about service with SMILE), communication with content providers and business partners, communication with vendors, communication with team mates, email templates and much more can all be improved to feel more like HomeCEUConnection.com and better reflect our core values. So the challenge to everyone is this: Make at least one improvement every week that makes HomeCEUConnection.com better reflect our core values. The improvements don't have to be dramatic - it can be as simple as re-writing a line on an internal document, or as dramatic as changing an entire process to make it better reflect our values as a company. But if every employee made just one improvement every week to better reflect our core values, then by the end of next year we will have over 500 small changes that collectively will be a very dramatic improvement compared to where we are today.
HomeCEUConnection.com Core Values
1. Deliver a SMILE Through Service
2. Relentless Forward Motion
3. Give More Than You Take Away
4. Embrace and Drive Change 5. Build a Positive Fun Loving Culture
6. Build a Family Spirit With Open Honest Communication
7. Solve Challenges with Solutions
8. Be Passionate and Enthusiastic
9. Own the Process
10. Know No Limits
As we move with "Relentless Forward Motion" I along with several other team members will write a brief description detailing of each of our core values.
Have a Fantastic Day!
Thanks to an awesome team who's making it happen every day, we have grown tremendously in the past year, both in hiring new folks (5 to date!) and in growing our processes. From the message above, you can see we will be diving into each of these values as a team over the next few months. As we grow, it's important to stay focused on the big picture - our extended family of customers! So won't you join us as we embark on the next chapter of HomeCEU history?