Core values, the 3-5 behaviours that define a company culture, are a critical part of any long term vision.
At The Physio Co our four core values are described in detail on page three of our Painted Picture of 2012. One entire page of this six page vision is dedicated to our core values. Why? Because our Painted Picture is designed to share the future of The Physio Co and attract people that are aligned to where we are headed.
A strong family culture is essentially a group of people that live and believe in a small set of shared values. Therefore, growing a values-based organisation is about attracting more and more people that share those values.
At The Physio Co we use our four core values to attract new team members by sharing and referring to them at every possible opportunity. Potential new TPC team members already understand how important our values are before they even apply. In most cases, one of the reasons why they apply is BECAUSE of our values.
The Physio Co core values are in many spots on our website, in our painted picture of 2012, used in recruitment and stories are told of TPCers living our values at To The Point every single day. Our core values are even No.2 on the list of the Top 57 reasons to work at The Physio Co!
Like attracts like. Are you using core values to attract more culture-fits for your team?
Do you have dreams that you never do anything about? Would you like to make some of them come true? I love day dreaming and here’s how I turn those crazy ideas into dreams that come true..
Day dreaming about the future is a simple pleasure. I do it often and I love it. But I rarely stop at the thought of ‘one day I’ll do that’. Instead I decide when I’d like the dream to come true and then I work backwards.
Working backwards to turn a dream into an actionable goal is sometimes called reverse engineering. In 2009, I learnt of reverse engineering my dreams from business coach Cameron Herold. Cameron coached me to understand how choosing big but achievable steps along the way would help me focus and bring my goals to life.
I now use reverse engineering all the time. I’m currently planning out the next five years of both my business and personal dreams. It’s both exhilarating and scary to think what I am planning to achieve between now and 2016.
At The Physio Co, we used reverse engineering to create our Painted Picture of 2012. That vision, created in 2009, described how we planned to grow from a small team delivering 40,000 physiotherapy visits in 2009 to a much larger team delivering 100,000 memorable visits in 2012. The TPC team at the time thought I was nuts! But, by setting the dream and working backwards I’m excited to say that by 31 December 2011 (this year), The Physio Co is on track to deliver 100,000 visits in one calendar year. It’s likely we will achieve that massive goal more than 12 months early!
Reverse engineering works. Dream big and work backwards. You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.
One of the most important things I do as a business owner is to ask for help. Every day I seek out new ideas to grow and improve. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by lots of great people and resources.
One of the resources I’ve turned to in the past has been Business Victoria. In 2006, I participated in Business Victoria’s My Business, My People program which helped The Physio Co take the leap from small business to something more significant. A couple of months ago the guys at Business Victoria asked me to write a monthly post for a new blog they were launching. Knowing how much I’d gained from their program, I jumped at the chance to share my experiences and hopefully help other business owners to think, learn and grow.
My first post was called ‘The Secret to Staff Motivation’. Here it is..
The Secret to Staff Motivation
The thought of better performance, higher sales, more fun and more profit from a motivated team warms the heart of most business owners. But consider this: ‘if you motivate an idiot they simply do stupid things faster!’ So how on earth do you motivate your team to do what the business needs?
The answer is to create a fun and inclusive culture of people that are all aligned to achieving the same goals. To make this happen in my business, I needed to think about motivation in a new light. You see, as a business owner, I don’t see myself as a motivator. I’m more of an educator. The best way I’ve found to get the guys in my team to be engaged and performing at a higher level is to teach them how to motivate themselves.
At The Physio Co, there are two very significant things that have improved the motivation and performance of our team. These two things are quite simple:
As simple as these two things sound, they have worked wonders for The Physio Co’s growth over the past two years.
The What
My vision of The Physio Co’s future has been clear for years. That picture however, was in my mind – and no one could see it!
In 2009 I created our very first Painted Picture. A Painted Picture is a short, simple but detailed description of what the business will look like in 3 years time.
Getting the vision out of my mind, onto paper and sharing it with all current and future team members helped motivate our team more than I ever imagined.
The How
With the vision clear and our team now motivated to bring the Painted Picture to life, creating some very clear expectations in terms of HOW we go about it was needed. Enter The Physio Co values.
Now I’m not talking about lofty words that are hard to understand. I’m talking about some very simple values that even our kids could live. For example, ‘We are always on time’ is part of The Physio Co’s values. As is, ‘We are friendly and make positive first impressions.’
Creating and then obsessing over our Painted Picture of 2012 and core values have been the most significant things I’ve ever done at The Physio Co. Creating them wasn’t easy but it was absolutely worth it. Start today by grabbing a blank sheet of paper and getting the vision out of your mind and onto paper. It will excite, energise and motivate you, I promise!
____
This post received quite a few questions and comments. You can find them over here at blog.business.vic.gov.au.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Youtube