Values and Principles lead to Success!
We’ve talked about having values and how they impact your work/life balance.
Hopefully, you’ve taken the time and energy to identify your values for work and life and made sure 3-5 of them overlap.
Those values become your “Code of Conduct” and will drive your daily business practices. Those values then become your principles, because your principles are values put into action.
Principles
Our principles develop as we mature, and are shaped by time, education and experience. They influence the choices we make by which we nuture families, form organizations, buid communities, and conduct business.
Many values and principles may be shared throughout an industry. Each business is defined by its own lguiding principles, as the individuals who create and lead it are defined by their own guiding principles.
These are among the top 10 values sought by customers and peers.
A person’s principles are the basis upon which business principles grow.
- Honesty – being truthful in all dealings
- Loyalty – demonstrating fidelity – not disclosing information learned in confidence for personal advantage
- Respect – for others and yourself. Treating all people courteously
- Trustworthy – candid and forthcoming
- Lawful – abiding by laws, rules, and regulations.
Favorite Businesses
We all have favorite businesses we purchase from. We become a loyal fan because of many factors, but the majority of our favorites are based on their values and principles.
One such Utah Company is Larry H Miller. If you visit their website you’ll find their mission and value statesments, their principles and this statement about their founders –
“Our founders: Larry H. and Gail Miller
Partners in marriage and business, Larry and Gail Miller followed a simple philosophy that the communities where they had businesses should be better because they were there. This belief and an incredibly strong work ethic propelled them to create one of the largest privately-owned companies in the western United States.”
Larry passed away in 2009 and Gail and her sons have continued their oversight of what he built.
Gail was the speaker at a recent graduation of a Girl’s School in Utah. She shared her 8 principles with them.
- Be Kind – kindness creates permanent change for the better;
- Serve others – share what you have. Lift someone who is down;
- Be Respectful – use good manners always and be polite;
- Be Inclusive – Embrace diversity;
- Be patient and forgiving;
- Keep money in perspective – use it to do good. Money should not be your motivator;
- Be Grateful – Gratitude unlocks the fulness of life;
- Be Successful – Success begets success – it has three important Components.
Gail’s 3 Components of Success –
- The depth of your relationship with a higher power
- The quality of iour relationship with others
- Your stewardship over the gifts and resources with which you have been blessed.
Notice – none of these includes having a lot of money.
A renowned company from Oregon is another example of leading by your values and principles. Les Schwaub. And there are others in every state in America.
All of us leading a legacy business seek success and respect. For lifestyle businesses it can be harder to achieve, but well within your reach if you do the work.
Gail Miller finished her presentation that Graduation Day with the following –
“Lead with love and success will follow.”