What are core team values? How they do define the success of a business? How do they impact your team culture? When our founder, Chaz Volk, was in a conversation about core team values the other week, these were the questions he found himself pondering. When he came back to our team and said “Let’s talk about our core values.” This blog post began to form.
Here at Mr. Thrive Media, we focus a lot of company mental effort on our culture, how we work with our clients, and how we view the world in a positive light. From celebrating the International Day of Happiness to our year-round attitude of gratitude, we put effort into maintaining our values as a major component of the business.
In this Mr. Thrive blog, we’ll walk you through our core team values. You’ll find they balance well with podcasts and National Wellness Month, as well as celebrating mental health awareness. The Mr. Thrive Media brand is built on these concepts of health and well-being. Read on to learn about our team values, and how you can measure and uphold your core team values.
What are Core Team Values?
Before we zoom in on Mr. Thrive’s core team values, it’s time to define what core team values are. Core team values are the communal goals and standards of your team. They are the values you believe in, ones you want to uphold, and ones you know your team works from as their starting place. Core team values are what you’re working toward, and what you work with to achieve your goals.
Mr. Thrive Media’s Core Team Values
Mr. Thrive Media’s core team values bring us together and guide us through new situations. When we have a new client we’re finding a cadence with, we lean on our authority in the podcasting industry to find value for the client. Within team meetings, we encourage out-of-box thinking to find new ideas. All in all, these six values make our team as efficient as can be.
Mentorship
Mentorship is one of the values brought strongly to our team by our founder, Chaz Volk. Chaz instills in all of us the importance of mentorship, in both the giving and receiving of mentoring. For Red Española, our head of digital marketing, she states:
“Chaz helped me with our Lead Generation Plan and taught me more about leads in the process. He also taught me about client behavior, and about how podcasting isn’t really about the listeners, it’s about setting a brand image. It gives you an image of being an industry leader.”
Red has grown in her time so far with Mr. Thrive Media, taking on more responsibilities and learning about the art of podcasting. Her progress is mirrored by that of Sarah Ward, our content and copywriter. Sarah has equally benefited from Chaz’s mentoring mindset, saying:
“Chaz is my biggest supporter in growing my writing career, both here at Mr. Thrive Media and in my own ventures. He puts the wheel of client responsibilities in my hands and guides me forward with compassion and the skill of a natural leader and teacher.”
Chaz also inspires his team to be mentors in their own right. Whether that’s through encouraging the hiring of people for ourselves or sharing his networking expertise to teach us how to build our business communities, Chaz brings mentorship to the Mr. Thrive table.
Friendship
Friendship is a value that applies across the Mr. Thrive team and client network. First and foremost, one of the goals for our team every day is to thrive in each other’s company and find a better work balance through friendship. For our clients, we treat our clients as trusted friends, to make those relationships as positive as possible.
Out-Of-Box Thinking
Out-of-box thinking is how Mr. Thrive Media has gotten to where we are. Chaz thought outside the box of what he had been taught in school and previous work when he decided to launch Mr. Thrive as a podcast production and networking agency. Now, it’s grown into a full-blown marketing and podcasting business through his out-of-box thinking.
Out-of-box thinking is also fostered in our team culture, with Chaz giving all of us the space to pitch ideas for clients and the Mr. Thrive brand. It’s what gives our clients exciting additions to their services, and what makes us the growing business we strive to be.
Authority
Authority is a value every team should hold dear. Authority in your industry gives you credibility. When you do your research and speak from a place of authority, it cuts back your imposter syndrome (we’ve all felt it) and gives your business strength. At Mr. Thrive, we work every day to hone our craft and find our authority in the podcasting and marketing industry.
Diversity
Diversity is important for many reasons, in all the ways you can be diverse. In one, Chaz likes to say that while our name has “Mr.” in it, we’re a women-run company. We come from a range of backgrounds: culturally, racially, geographically, and more. We also seek diversity in our clients, primarily in the industries they are in, to exercise our skills in different places of work.
When you hold diversity as a core team value, every day brings something new. You work with people from different backgrounds and learn more about the world in doing so. When you work with different clients from varying industries, you get to continually learn more about business. Overall, valuing diversity expands your worldview and makes everything better.
Coffee
Yes, we know it’s silly, but coffee is the lifeblood that flows through our company. We run on caffeine and well-edited podcasts, and we need the first before we can produce the second. Our team’s personality is reflected in our favorite coffee orders:
- Chaz Volk, our founder and CEO, likes a cappuccino with almond milk. It’s a drink that reflects Chaz’s efficient and delightfully sweet personality.
- Red Española, our head of digital marketing, gets her fix from a salted caramel cold brew with white mocha flavoring. It’s a go-get-em drink that emphasizes how Red is detail-oriented in everything she does.
- Noa Drori, our web developer, has two regular orders. One is a plain Americano, the other a hot latte with oat milk. Noa doesn’t mess around with flavors or changing her order; she keeps it straightforward so she can give all her creativity and skill to site development.
- Brady Morgan, our virtual assistants connection and CEO of SINQ, keeps it neat with an iced coffee with sugar-free sweetener and almond milk. His order is a precision-focused cousin of Chaz’s coffee preference.
- Bonnie Williams, our casting director, moves through the fall season with any pumpkin-spice related but typically enjoys a skinny venti iced caramel macchiato. Both these choices showcase how Bonnie is sweet, charming as can be, and versatile in every situation.
- Sarah Ward, our content and copywriter, favors a cold brew with a splash of cream. It’s an easy-to-remember option, to keep Sarah’s mind free to wordsmith away for Mr. Thrive and our clients.
Our coffee does the job of keeping us going through every workday. Additionally, knowing each other’s coffee preferences brings us closer together, and makes our occasional in-person meetings all the better when we share our love of coffee face-to-face.
Defining Your Core Team Values
Defining your core team values can be a bonding experience for your team and will lead to a stronger company going forward. Some questions to ask, both of yourself and your team, include:
- What is important to you on an individual level? For you and everyone on your team, your personal values will guide you toward your team values.
- What is important to your customers and clients? Your team values should move you in the direction of fulfilling the needs of your customers and clients.
- What makes your business unique? For example, from Mr. Thrive, mentorship is a particularly strong core team value because it’s the bedrock of how Chaz moves the business forward.
- What is the history of your business? Did you build up your client base through networking and industry connections? Have you categorically hired with specific traits in mind? Your history is a prime view into what you value in growing your business.
These questions will get you started. As you talk them through with your team, the conversation will blossom and you’ll find more questions and subsequent core value foundations come up along the way.
The Benefits of Defined Core Team Values
The benefits of defined core team values include:
- Team alignment, where everyone on the team understands and holds dear the goals of the business.
- Clarity, so no one is unsure of how the team operates together.
- Improved decision-making, because when you work with specific values, it becomes easier to make decisions in line with those values.
- Accountability, because when everyone knows why they’re doing their specific work, it becomes a matter of personal accountability and ownership.
- Recruitment and retention, with recruitment being easier when you have a team that operates well. Retention is a natural byproduct of being a high-value team.
- Resilience, because having solid grounding values helps you stay on track when times are tough.
- Customer satisfaction, because your clients and customers directly benefit when your team works well together.
- Long-term business success, which is born from the shared goal of creating a team environment that is strong and passionate.
Overall, core team values are the backbone of every successful team venture. When you and your team believe in the same path toward success, you’re better able to move forward.
Frequently Asked Questions About Core Values
From defining your core team values to delving into the benefits of shared values, there’s a lot to learn! It all leads back to the question of how to find and nurture your core team values. Our answers to these frequently asked questions will provide further context around building up your values.
What are Five Core Values?
Five common core values are:
- Compassion
- Accountability
- Healthy competition
- Personal growth and wellness
- Equality
These five core team values can suit many types and sizes of businesses. Some of them are reflected in our Mr. Thrive core values. Compassion, for instance, goes hand in hand with friendship. Accountability and authority are two concepts that may seem different, but in many ways, they lead to the same result: taking charge of and responsibility for your work.
What Is a Good Team Value?
If you’re wondering what your team values are, or you’re striving to instill values in your team, this mix of good team values is a good jumping-off point:
- Continuous educational goals
- Self-starting initiative
- Integrity
- Mutual respect
- Open communication
- Joy
If you’re building a team from the ground up these values are things you can cultivate. If you’re looking at your current team and wondering “How can we do better?” A team check-in on what everyone values and what they think the team values are will help. You can work core team values into your goals for 2023 or next year, to make them a priority.
What Makes a Team Valuable?
One facet that makes a team valuable as an interrelated mechanism of your business is trust. If your team trusts each other and you, you’ll have a strong foundation. When there is trust, communication is easier and projects flourish with teamwork and mutual appreciation.
If you’re looking to nurture trust within your team, the best thing to do is show your team you trust them. Let them take the lead in their areas of expertise and give them room to grow in new areas of interest. When you’ve hired the right people, trusting them gives them the freedom to do great work.
What Is a Good Vision for a Team?
A good vision for a team provides a healthy challenge for everyone to work hard and exceed their own expectations. Your ultimate vision for your business is one of growth and success, so your team vision should reflect those goals with actionable steps. Your vision statement could be:
- Our vision is to cultivate innovation and collaboration within our team. We aim to bring our skills and passions together to create something better, rise up in our industry, and become a team that trusts each other.
- We strive to provide a higher quality of customer service through precision and creativity. With our vision of streamlining interactions with our customers, we will be the best we can be.
These templates can help you create your vision statement. The key to creating a vision statement that will be continuously useful is to find the why behind your business goal, and speak to that reason.
Core Values: What Do You Value Most?
Finding your core values helps bring your team together and gives you a common incentive to reach your goals. When you and your team share these values you can better focus on project goals and trust each other to work hard. It makes it easier to maintain your digital ecosystem, be a better podcast host, and achieve podcast business growth.
Mr. Thrive can help you find and tend to your team values and grow your business. With our free digital ecosystem audit, available through October 14, 2023, we will examine every aspect of your business. We’ll see how your values align with your business output and needs. Sign up for your free audit today!