The focus of this topic is on personal and business values and goals. It links to better business planning and benchmarking procedures covered elsewhere in this module. Values describe the things that are important to individuals, while goals provide direction by naming the destination.
As values are personal, they are the guidelines for how individuals behave, underpinning the choices and decisions they make. Goals are much less complicated and more direct and describe what an individual or business wants to achieve. A goal may be to reach a certain level of income, while values will determine how to go about reaching that goal.
Both have a big role in business and personal decisions, so developing and documenting them is important for both business and family.
The Developing shared values and personal and business goals tool provides individuals within a business team the opportunity to shape a common sense of purpose, based on the values and goals that are important to each individual in the business.
Determining which values are common within the team and what is really important to the people in the business is not something to be rushed — thought and reflection are needed to gain agreement. Allow whatever time is needed to develop a sense of trust, ownership, commitment and unity.
To help develop a common sense of purpose:
- Work out who needs to be involved. It is recommended all family members have a chance to contribute to the discussion. Many businesses also involve employees in this step.
- Start with each person working individually on their values and goals. Then share and discuss these to develop a combined ‘values and goals statement’ for the business.
- Write down the agreed values and goals as a ‘statement of business intent’. Display this in a prominent location.
- Review the statement regularly. Allow values and goals to evolve over time. This allows everyone to gain ownership, commitment and unity.
- Use values and goals to shape decisions. In this way the business will remain focused on what people within the business really want.
Using this process with family and business members will assist greatly with finding and maintaining a balance between work and family time. Creating a work–life balance is covered in more detail in MMFS Module 4 Capable and confident producers.