Personal statements, vision statements, mission statements… Businesses use them to define their focus, and individuals use them to help guide their goals. No matter what you call them, clarifying your purpose can be a powerful act. Or, it can be just another set of ho-hum rules to break.
Last week on the blog we shared Part I in our series, which discussed why the Jensen Team scrapped our old lukewarm, self-centered Mission Statement. This week in Part II, we’ll tell you how we crafted a set of passionate, patient-centric Core Values to energize and inspire us – and everyone who comes into contact with Jensen Eye Care – so you can do the same for yourself! Core values are the essence of a one’s identity – whether you are an individual or a business.
They are the basic beliefs and philosophy that dictate our behavior and shape the culture around us. They help us make decisions and they inform others what we stand for.
Three-Step Process for Crafting Core Values That Inspire
Step 1
The Jensen Team began our process by agreeing that we needed to dig deep to discover our core values, rather than create them. Why? Because in order to be authentic and totally transparent as an organization, we needed to make sure we could live our values every day. Simply creating a buzz-word or catch-phrase that sounded good, and aspiring to act in accordance with it would have been disingenuous.
So, to discover the values that were already governing Jensen Eye Care, we asked ourselves, “Who are we when no one is looking?”
That’s deep, we know. We didn’t say this would be easy!
Step 2
The next step in our process was to get real. We knew we weren’t going to do ourselves or our patients any favors by pretending to be like the other guys. Honest self-assessment is a critical part of crafting a set of core values to work and live by, and the Jensen Team looked for real-world examples to provide evidence that what we were naming as our core values were 100% true.
Step 3
Then, we had to ask the tough questions to confirm that the values we chose were a good fit. Is this value timeless? Is it natural for us to live by? And, most importantly: Even if other organizations or patients don’t see the advantages of these values, will we still believe in them and uphold them – no matter what? When we achieved a resounding “YES!” to our list of values, we knew we had finally defined the identity of Jensen Eye Care.
Do you know what makes you uniquely you? Do you know what gifts you alone can offer the world? Do you know the “why” that propels you forward every day? Do you know what you believe and how you live those beliefs?
We invite you to discover your own core values and put them into practice in every area of your life. We know from experience that doing so can change how you experience your life as well as enhance the positive impact you make on others. That’s what Jensen Eye Care is all about!
Stay tuned for the exciting reveal of our practice’s core values in the coming weeks! And, please visit our Facebook page and share your own Core Values with us. We’d love to learn more about you.