Recent allegations of long shifts, unsanitary warehouse conditions, union-busting, and employee mistreatment have put Amazon under the ethical microscope. Additional reports of the online retailer evading federal taxes and exploiting temporary hires for cheap labor have also surfaced. On the other hand, Chick-fil-A receives continuous praise for the core values of employee welfare that they demonstrate. Aside from awarding millions of dollars in scholarships every year to their team, the business remains closed on Sundays, costing them approximately $1 billion per year.
The scenarios from these two wildly different companies may indicate simple differences in business practices, senior leadership, and general management. But the biggest difference is much deeper: the absence of family values.
Unfortunately, the reality is that unethical employee treatment is more prevalent than we realize.
So, how do we combat this?
It all starts at the top. Leaders who bring their family values with them into the workplace create a ripple effect of respect, trust, and integrity. They foster environments that promote healthy work-life balance, positivity, and purpose-driven careers. The solution may sound simple, but many leaders and teams still don’t integrate core values into their businesses.
In this article, discover how to prevent unethical company behavior, increase productivity, and improve business culture by understanding:
- What family values are
- How family values benefit businesses
- 10 family values to start incorporating today
- How to build family values into your existing culture
What Are Family Values?
Similar to personal values, family values are moral rules that guide your motivations and choices. They can pertain to an individual, a family unit, or a society. When applied to a family or work unit, they create a unified front. Furthermore, these values help determine right from wrong, guide big decisions, and solve problems. Without them, a family unit may not be on the same page about certain things, resulting in unmet expectations, disappointment, conflict, and confusion.
Family values also serve as a foundation for the kind of person you want to be. How do you want to be perceived? What’s most important to you? How do you want to be remembered? Applying family values to your home, work, and personal life creates a value system that will support your path as you grow and make new decisions.
Family Values Examples
- Integrity
- Respect
- Humility
- Reliability
- Honesty
- Compassion
- Kindness
- Connection
- Empathy
- Persistence
- Flexibility
- Accountability
How Do Family Values Benefit Businesses?
Corporate culture matters. How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything for the better or for worse.
simon sinek
Blending family life with work may feel uncomfortable, but applying the same principles to both has tremendous benefits. Here are some of the top ways family values benefit businesses.
5 Ways Family Values Benefit Businesses
- They guide your decisions: Having moral values is like having a map. When you’re unsure of a decision, refer back to your map (your values) for direction.
- Provide clarity: Choices and solutions can become hazy, depending on how challenging or complex they may be. Having family values can make the right decisions a bit clearer.
- Establish and define priorities: Family values provide a base for what’s important to you. Knowing what’s important allows you to identify and prioritize actions that support your family values. This results in greater alignment and harmony.
- Practice emotional intelligence: Situations that require empathy, understanding, humility, and compassion arise every day within a family unit. They help you to better understand the human brain and foster a higher level of emotional intelligence. This can have significant benefits on a company’s culture.
- Exemplify leadership: When you demonstrate leadership with family values, others will do the same. It’s similar to parenting. By exemplifying the right attitudes, responses, and priorities according to set values, the trickle-down effect on a company’s bottom line (and public perception) can be tremendous.
Without clear family values in a workplace, many things can go awry. Work burnout, a toxic company culture, and more severe problems like harassment can cultivate. In fact, a survey by Deloitte showed that 77% of respondents reported feeling symptoms of burnout at their current job. Further, the National Safety Council reports that overexertion is the second most common cause of workplace injury and illness.
10 Family Values to Bring to Work
Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.
stephen covey
Being a leader is like being a parent. Similarly, your job is to model strong morals and ethics, support team members as they grow, and build character. As a result, a new generation of leaders is born. Integrating family values into your workplace drives and bolsters this necessary relationship. To do this, learn more about the top qualities you’ll want to implement from home into the office.
- Integrity: As C.S. Lewis once said, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” Practicing integrity means having solid moral principles in all circumstances.
- Honesty: Often confused with integrity, honesty is having a character that is truthful, positive, and virtuous. Being honest fosters trust from others and builds work relationships that are sincere, fair, and respectful.
- Responsibility: Being responsible means fully owning a project and demonstrating clear management and control. Without this, goals and tasks can crumble under confusion, mismanagement, and oversights.
- Accountability: Having the willingness to practice transparency and accept responsibility for your actions is being accountable. This is often missing in work cultures lacking psychological safety, but taking accountability builds trust and promotes a safe and positive culture.
- Empathy: Empathy means relating to the feelings of another person. Having this family value allows team members to feel supported, safe, and understood.
- Humility: Humility means lowering one’s own view of their importance and being open to making mistakes and learning from others.
- Respect: When you practice consideration for team members for their contributions, that’s showing respect. Employees that feel respected and appreciated are more engaged and happier in their roles. This is huge for a company’s success.
- Positivity: Having a cheerful, upbeat, and respectful attitude at work can make a big difference in team morale and productivity.
- Reliability: By showing up, doing your best, and supporting your team, others learn to trust you. As a result, increased communication, collaboration, and innovation occur within a business.
- Effort: Making conscious and intentional attempts, both at home and at work, shows you care. This is what grows relationships between people. When you go out on a limb for someone, give a person your time, or do something thoughtful, you prove that you want to take care of them. In turn, bonds strengthen as commitment and dedication increase.
Integrating Family Values Into a Business Culture
Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be.
andy stanley
Integrating family values into an existing business culture doesn’t happen overnight. It requires thoughtful intention and a daily strategy. It’s all about taking small steps and building them up over time. As humans, we’re all learning and growing. Practice patience and allow others to learn from their mistakes, guide them with compassion, and remember to celebrate the wins.
For example, if your team struggles with empathy, set a new daily meeting to strengthen this. Start by having everyone practice active listening, asking thoughtful questions, avoiding judgment, and taking time to reflect and consider feelings. If responsibility is a value you’d like your team to strengthen, start assigning tasks and granting autonomy for others to complete them start-to-finish.
Ultimately, family values represent what your company stands for and prioritizes. If your company doesn’t have a clear vision and mission, lean on these values to learn how to create a vision and a mission statement for long-term success. Whichever family values you integrate will set the tone for the success, or failure, of the whole company.
Continue learning how to get the most from integrating family values by watching Lead With Your Values by Simon Sinek.
