TL;DR.
The second value in our values mini-series is about Excellence. Excellence isn’t a destination but a continuous journey. We cover important why values are important, give you our own business value examples, dive into our value Excellence Is Our Endeavor, and why you need to have values in both your personal life and for your business!
Introduction.
Excellence should be at the core of your personal drive and at the core of every business. We always want to put our best forward, otherwise why do anything at all? Try putting yourself on the other end of a scenario; if you purchase something and they tell you “yeah this isn’t our best, we only did this halfway for you” what would you think?
Note: The first two sections (The Value in Having Values & What Values Convey) are located in each value post. They provide important information to remember when reading each post. So if you’ve already read them in another post, you may go ahead and skip to the Ownership value section!
The Value in Having Values.
Values are often times the sounding device you will use for a multitude of different things. We all have personal values, whether they are constructive values or destructive values, we all have them. Your values should point you in the right direction. Often times they are something that is a relief and something that can be relied upon. At Maven X we have values to both convey what we stand for but also to show our clients and potential customers what we deliver each time.
Having both you and your clients or customers align on a value is a win-win for both sides. It can give your clients a more relieved feeling to go with someone who has the same values as them, you’re telling the client what they are to expect from you, but also you get a read into what might be important to that person or brand you’re working with.
Values also don’t have to be this crazy unique thing just to you and your business, but they shouldn’t be generic or just adopted because it looks good. You need to live it out.
What Values Convey.
Values speak things into someone’s mind before they meet or even talk to you. Spoken and unspoken conclusions are made based upon someone’s values. You and your business values are no different. Your values can either be an asset or a curse. So what can values convey to others?
- Your Purpose
- Who You Are
- Your Sounding Process
- Your Decision Making Guide
- What Matters to You
Your Purpose
In a business sense your purpose is the reason that you exist. In a personal sense you purpose is something that drives you or is a part of your identity. Your values will convey what your purpose is but in small details which play into the big details. Let’s say you sell cybersecurity services, one of your values should be trust. They play together. You need to be trusted to handle security. So make sure that your values speak into your purpose.
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Who You Are
Someone’s values speak a lot about the person that they are. Like mentioned, values tell a story about you and your business. Your values will show what you stand for. You shouldn’t take on values unless you are already putting them into action or you really want to pursue them. Your values also shouldn’t be difficult to “implement” because they should already be there; they’re a part of who you are.
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Your Sounding Process
A sounding is defined as:
information or evidence ascertained as a preliminary step before deciding on a course of action.
Oxford Languages
When making decisions or taking action on something the steps should align with your values. They fill in the blanks before you begin to make a better decision. What we can see is that a lot of false opportunities or noise is filtered out when values don’t align. This is a good thing! A process or boundaries should be in place to protect you and your business from certain things. So use your values as a way to filter and guide you to the decision or outcome.
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Your Decision Making Guide
Similar to being a sounding process, your values should help in making decisions. If you can’t trust someone, don’t do business with them. If they don’t have integrity, cut them out of your personal life. Some decisions can be cut and dry when aligned (or mis-aligned) with your values.
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What Matters to You
Finally, your values should show what matters to you. These are your top picked traits and items that mean something to you. They will convey ultimately what you are looking for in others as well as other businesses. It’s a match-match situation. You’ll be more aligned to another person or another business when your values match. These are the characteristics that you both are that matter to both of you. When you’re showing that you’re living them out, there is no argument about who you say that you are and what you stand for.
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Excellence Is Our Endeavor.
Perfection is impossible. The closest thing that we can strive for is excellence. Excellence isn’t a destination but always a journey.
I know that these sentences sound like a bunch of cliché sayings but that doesn’t make them any less true. We know that we aren’t perfect and we never will be, but that isn’t going to stop us from doing and being the best that we can be.
Excellence is defined as:
the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.
Oxford Languages
Endeavor is defined as:
try hard to do or achieve something
Oxford Languages
Maven X places a lot of effort in our work, appearance, and content. This blog post and the website is an example of it. Our clients hire us to provide the same level of excellence to them and their projects. This is the value we provide to them and it’s a promise. We will never stop providing outstanding products and services and we will continue the journey and try our hardest to keep the excellence flowing.
Final Thoughts.
It’s important to think about your processes and the message you want to convey about them. For Maven X it’s excellence. In a personal sense, pushing yourself to go farther, be better, and do more can do wonders. You’ll expand your capacity and allow yourself to do more. In a business sense, your entire business should promote excellence. Do you want to tell your customers “Yeah we only did this halfway but here you go.” Anything short of excellence isn’t worth it to your customers. Don’t do things halfway.
Previous & Next Value.
The first Maven X value we covered was Ownership – “We believe that when you take ownership of something, you begin to care for it in a different way. That’s why everything that Maven X takes on, we take ownership in it. Ideas, tasks, projects. From the smallest to largest of details.”
The next Maven X value is Try, Fail, Learn, Repeat – “We are a team who understands that we don’t know everything, and we won’t pretend to. We know that the only way to keep going is to try, fail, learn, and repeat until we get it right. This value isn’t meant to be a sad value but an encouraging one where we aren’t afraid to try and fail!”
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