Revealing Your Law FirmValues
Your organization’s values need not be identical to your personal values; however, as the founder, your values will influence, like DNA, the law firm. Values are harder to discover in your chair, hoping for insight. Values may be espoused or values in action. Oftentimes, we espouse values. I value fitness. However, we do not put that value in action. I don’t eat right or work out much. Reflect on your actions to get at values in action.
Values are revealed by looking at your actions and reflecting. Give thought to your personal values and take this survey, which should give you ideas about your personal values.
In thinking about your personal values, write out ways in which you have felt inauthentic, like a sellout, or have traded your priorities to achieve some other gain. Compare that to how you feel proud to have expressed the real you or provided great service. Think about when you have cut ties with a person, employer, or other group, and write out why you made the separation. Has someone violated a value that caused you to separate yourself from that person? This may be a clue as to what you value.
Look at your spending and calendar. Where you spend your money and your time tells you your values. What do you say “yes” or “no” to? Do you pick your house based on being new, large, big closets, the right neighborhood or school district, or is it close to work? Did you pick your car because of gas mileage or its electric engine, color and body style, brand, power, number of seats, towing capacity, and safety? These choices reveal your values in action. When you have some values in mind, let’s think about articulating them to the firm and putting them into the firm culture.
For further reflection on values, tell or imagine stories. What story illustrates a value that distinguishes your company from your competitors? Nordstrom legend tells of a salesperson with such a customer-focused return policy that they returned a set of snow tires.
When you have some words and phrases of firm values, let’s next think about selecting and articulating your firm values.