Discover how Q Branch uses their Values
“Please don’t sack them off as a potential client because of me”.
We received this as a WhatsApp message recently after someone had highlighted behaviours from someone that just felt wrong. The individual who was displaying the behaviour is known to be “a good person” with positive intentions, and we liked them too. But the way they were behaving did not match our values at all.
My response to this was to say, “one of our top business goals is to work with people who align with out values. If we can’t say no to those people, we are not walking our talk.
And to us, as a brand, this is VITAL.
I love this word Vital, if you look in the dictionary, it has 2 meanings.
1. Absolutely necessary; essential.
2. Full of energy; lively.
One thing I know for sure is that if you don’t follow your values, you lose the “full of energy” type of vital. And some businesses feel it is vital they take on certain clients from a cashflow point of view, but if you do this and your values are completely misaligned, you end up in conflict, (within yourself as well as business), and often this leads to burn out.
What are our Values?
We have our top values in Q Branch as a business:
Togetherness
Excellence
Creation
Education
But we also have some additional, personal values, that perhaps go without saying, but I’m surprised how many people don’t seem to align with these.
We are finding more often that Honesty and (my least favourite word but necessary in this case), Integrity, are not always showing up with people around us which means we have to reflect on what we are also attracting. We have also noticed that we are picking up on these things very quickly.
You may wonder why I hate the word Integrity when it is full of promise and honesty. It’s because I have found people use it to persuade others that their business is a good one, with good values, trying to do good things. Sadly, I’ve often found that those who use the word regularly, don’t match my idea of integrity. I have to admit I have some trauma over the word. But the message behind it still rings true for me. So, when I see people who feel like they are running outside of integrity, it irks me.
Now I’ve got that bit out of the way, let’s discuss our business values.
Togetherness:
This is huge for me in both business and relationships. I love making time for people, and my clients. I feel like we are on a journey together as a team. I love collaborations and bringing amazing people in. I’ve never been a lone wolf, even though I’m happy in my own space too.
Excellence:
I’ve always been attracted to excellence (see my last blog post). I love watching people do things well, which means I also want to do well for our clients. Watching Matt being excellent at all he does, and striving for higher levels of excellence daily gives me motivation to be the best I can be every day, whether that’s in business or personal life. That doesn’t mean I have to be perfect, sometimes excellence means going for a swim instead of the gym and then a swim. Sometimes it’s saying to a client, “I can’t help with this, but I know the best person to help”. Excellence isn’t about doing it all yourself, it’s about allowing the best person for the job to help you.
Creation:
As a kid I loved to help dad build wardrobes and do DIY. I loved the creation of a painting, or an outfit for my art degree. I love creating impactful conversations, a safe environment for my kids and clients to talk to me in. Creation comes in many forms. It’s about making something that can impact the world in a positive way. Creation for us also means never taking away from something. We won’t work with clients who want to take away from the world (negatively impacting society or the environment). For our clients we create pathways, a safe space to be BOLD and the confidence to move forward with their business being proud of what they stand for.
Education:
I used to have a narrative that I didn’t like studying and didn’t want to go back to college. What I failed to realise was that for me, life was a whole learning experience. When we wanted to get a dog, I researched for months in detail. When I had my babies, I spent months researching real nappies, breastfeeding, the best way to wean, the schools they would go to, I did a Reiki course, and it was only when I did my coaching diploma that it felt I was properly “learning”. I now realise that education comes in many forms, and I had been educating myself every day my whole life just by paying attention to the world around me and being open to an alternative way of thinking.
What are your Business Values?
If I ask you your business values, you will probably tell me a list of words that mean something to you. But do you know why? And do you follow them? And if you are in business and a client clearly doesn’t match them, do you keep pushing to work with them, knowing it feels all wrong, or do you say, “hold up, this isn’t feeling right, I need to check in on my values”?
In our clarity workshop we do a lot of work on values, because if they are part of a throwaway strategy, people can tell. It may just be a deep-down feeling, but they know subconsciously. And we can tell too. Because it brings you against brick walls in your business. We will be able to see this in our clarity day and deal with it, so you have a roadmap instead of a wall ahead.
If you are intrigued as to how your values can enhance your business, and you are feeling a bit vague about where you want your business to go (or how to get there), book a first date, to see if Clarity Roadmap is the right first step for you, it's on us!
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Jenny Jarvis
Founding Partner of Q Branch, Jenny is a highly trained and experienced Human Transformation Specialist, Coach and NLP Practitioner who is passionate about positive relationships and giving founders and leaders the BOLD Confidence and tools it takes to build BOLD Brands and Cultures. She is also an inspiring keynote speaker and lover of french wine and cheese.
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