Don’t make the mistake of thinking your team can identify and work with core company values without being emotional about them. A corporation may be a giant on the block and rake in billions per year, but at its heart are people who serve from a place of belief, emotion, and a set of values that keeps them going.

When you’re implementing a company-wide purpose or establishing values that will guide the direction of your organization, remember that each person will react to those values and to that purpose emotionally.

Values Carry Emotion

Most business schools operate from a place of factual information and data provision that shows business leaders how to think and strategize. But one thing that might be missing is how to understand the impact that emotions have on our decisions—when we are consumers and also when we are employees. Your team may be perfectly capable of assessing, auditing, evaluating and managing… and they do it always with underlying and ingrained emotions that have been shaped within them from hundreds of thousands of previous life experiences.

The same goes for your customer – they purchase your product based on their understanding of data, ingredients, packaging, marketing and personal need. AND it is based on their emotional reaction to the product even at a subconscious level.

People are people. We feel things. As businesses, we want to honor this when we are developing products or crafting strategy that will be the basis of decisions large and small. Consider the values your company embraces and ask yourself how these values might influence a person’s emotions. A smart strategic plan allows for this.

To be clear, in a world of integrity, the goal is not to manipulate a person’s emotions, though of course there are marketing agencies that are built on this and there’s a whole wing of most business campuses devoted to studying consumer buying psychology. But it is critical to understand emotions on a team level, especially when you're developing company core values or implementing a mission. We all must recognize that when a leader talks to his or her team about core values, it’s an emotional subject.

People lean into their values. They connect with the words that frame their life beliefs. When you’re establishing values or determining what your company’s mission or purpose should be, or when you’re making a big decision that can influence the company’s direction or (especially) that can impact a population, community or ecosystem… be aware of the emotions involved.

Leadership Awareness

How can you become aware of people's emotions? Ask them. Ask people how they feel about things. Many leaders don’t. They’re good at giving directives, coaching, or speaking. But being a good leader also means asking questions and then listening to the answers. It means taking feedback even if it’s something that makes you uncomfortable, such as hearing someone else’s emotions.

Consider adding questions about emotional responses in your surveys of customers to learn how their perception of your brand makes them feel. Your survey might already ask them if they’re inclined to buy your product, or how they perceive the price, or whether they anticipate using it. But asking how it makes them feel might give you insights you otherwise would miss.

Similarly, add a question to your employee evaluation materials. “How does our core company value about transparency make you feel?” “What emotions come up when our leadership talks about our company’s purpose to fight hunger?” The answers may surprise you. If your purpose is to eradicate hunger, you may expect employees to say they feel proud or they feel honored. But what if your employee told you they felt guilty because he or she is well-paid and has never experienced food insecurity? This is an opportunity to explore your purpose more deeply, and/or connect with this employee for ongoing conversations about how they can best support the company’s efforts and exactly what activities will help them (and possibly other team members) overcome these feelings. People often won’t volunteer their heart-felt emotions unless they’re directly asked about their feelings.

Bring Emotional Intelligence to Core Values

Your emotional IQ, or emotional intelligence, is your ability to govern your emotions and recognize how the emotions of colleagues influences general work behavior. Learning emotional intelligence is one way to navigate how people in a work setting interact with each other.

It’s helpful to consider this when developing core values or defining what a company’s purpose will be. If you’re in the stage of business where you’re defining (or re-defining) core values or you’re ready to work toward a mission, you would do well to consider your team’s emotions as you go about it. Values are about more than just beliefs or even biases; they rest on a bedrock of emotion and people feel very strongly about certain things. Hiring a facilitator to help through the core values process can be helpful in navigating the ups and downs of working with some of the most emotional beings in the corporate world: people.

Strategy Consultant

I help businesses work strategically to identify core values, implement a company-wide, indelible purpose, and develop alignment strategies that are bold, progressive, and world-changing. If your company needs transformation, talk with me about team training, strategic planning, and next steps.

About the Author

Holly Bellebuono, MPA, is the founder of Selle Impact Consulting and is a fierce advocate for revolutionary company missions that elevate business and culture. She is a global speaker, 8X author, and strategist for values-based leadership. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration: Environmental Policy from Appalachian State University, and executive certificates in Nonprofit Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Impact Measurement & Management of the UN Sustainable Development Goals from Cornell, London Business School, and Duke University. She has served on the Martha’s Vineyard Climate Action Plan Steering Committee (Economic Resilience) and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Community of Practice, among others. She is known for celebrating the human experience and empowering business leaders seeking a worthy purpose.