When you hear the term “core values,” do you have to suppress an eye roll? You’re not alone. Many business leaders ignore the impact that core values could have on their company because they’re seen as too formal, stuffy, and lacking any sense of innovation.

But that’s only true if you don’t push yourself to deeply investigate what makes your company unique. Sure, if you phone it in and shoot out generic words that all companies should value such as honesty and innovation, you won’t be offering your team any real inspiration. However, CEOs such as Tony Hsieh of Zappos are using highly personalized core values to drive their company culture and define their customer relations.

Bottle It Up

After a period of fast-paced growth, our team at WTM Digital knew it was time to revisit our core values.

For a long time, we had been getting lucky. Without having to work for it, we effortlessly attracted new talent and corporate partners that matched our company culture. But we knew that we needed to stop leaving it up to chance.

We wanted to create a benchmark to evaluate potential partnerships and measure compatibility. We wanted to bottle the magic.

This is where identifying our core values came into play. To find like-minded people, we needed to discover what brought us together in the first place.

How to Get There

For us to uncover the heart of our company, it was critical that we gathered as many voices as possible. We pulled a sampling of employees from various departments for one-on-one interviews. We held calls with our clients. No one was off limits.

Once we felt confident in our data collection, a team sat down to identify the themes that were woven into our collected responses. Our focus group carved out these commonalities and brainstormed some overarching “big ideas.”

This process forced us to stretch our thinking, get creative, and strive to create an authentic list of values that reflected our team.

Drum Roll, Please

After a month of interviews and workshop sessions, we are excited to see how these new values will impact our business and strengthen our company culture.

We plan to use these core values as a compass to keep us focused on our vision. From hiring to service packages, we want our decisions to be intentional and driven by our character.

Without further ado, we’re happy to announce our revamped corporate values:

Get to the heart of it

We’ve learned that real conversations allow us to drive real results. The best decision makers are those who have the most information, and that’s why we refuse to keep others in the dark by hiding behind industry jargon or vanity metrics.

Remain teachable

In a constantly evolving industry, it is imperative to stay sharp and keep learning. We encourage everyone at WTM Digital to feed their curiosity, question experts, and stay open to the fact that learning can happen anywhere.

Expect more

Companies should be expecting more from their digital marketing partners. Our team is obsessed with discovering unconventional ways to improve the marketing experience for our clients. Not only do we work relentlessly to maximize client revenue, but we also strive to bring time and creativity back into the lives of our partners.

Redefine partnership

Treating people right is how we do business. Whether it’s our clients, our team members, or those in our community, we believe that by empowering and educating others we will improve the quality of life of those around us.

Spark the conversation

Where would we be if we didn’t share ideas? It’s our responsibility at WTM Digital to be at the forefront of innovation, inspire new trends, and never stop asking what’s next.