318: Realigning Your Vision and Values in Your Business: Fan Favorite Replay

Hi there. You’re listening to the Leading Lady Podcast. I’m your host, Alison Loftus, and I’m a certified professional coach specializing in leadership and work-life balance. I work with clients to shift their limiting beliefs, insecurities, and self-doubt. This podcast is filled with tools and strategies to help high-achieving women like you feel connected, empowered, and in the lead of your life, both personally and professionally. Let’s transform your life starting now. Lead yourself. The rest will follow.

Hi there, Leading Ladies, and welcome to today’s episode.

Today, I’m going to be talking to you about how to realign your vision and your values in your business. I have recently gone through this myself as I’m about to embark on my 21st year in business in early childhood education.

I started my first business in 2004, and like any new business, I had an idea and a vision of what I wanted to do with it. Maybe not formally, but I knew the values of my business and what I wanted to put out into the world.

Why Values Matter in Business

Obviously, as a business coach, I talk a lot about values and how we can align our personal and professional values together to create a business that fits our lives.

However, as I was celebrating my 20th year in business and getting ready to go into the new school year at my preschool, we were putting a lot of emphasis on updating our buildings, our uniforms, and getting professional development ready. My executive director asked me a really interesting question.

What makes it interesting is that while I knew this was something I needed to focus on in my business, and for goodness’ sake I talk about it nonstop, I had not taken the time to really sit back and do an audit or assessment of how my values were being supported or neglected in my business.

When she asked me this question, it took me about a week to sit down and type out my values, what I had envisioned for my business, the ways those values were being supported, and the ways I had gotten away from those values because life was lifing and I was getting distracted by all the other parts of running a business.

So today I’m going to walk you through the exercise I went through. I’ll even share a little bit about the values of my business and how I was able to identify areas where things were continuing to go well, areas where I had gotten off track, and then create an action plan to realign my business with my values.

It was truly an eye-opening experience. I loved being able to articulate those values and share them with my management team, and we plan to share them with our teachers and support staff as well.

It really set the foundation as we go back into this new school year. It brought to the surface the core of why I created my business and what I wanted to put into the world and provide for our clients and families.

Identifying Your Top Five Values

The very first thing I did was identify my top five values. These are the values that are really important to me as a person and in creating this business. I wanted the business to stand for them. I wanted anyone who came into contact with our business, whether clients, employees, or community members, to quickly recognize these values.

For me, those values are:

• Community
• Excellence
• Perspective
• Love
• Integrity

You might be asking how I came up with those values.

I use a value-mining exercise several times throughout the year with my clients, and I also do it with myself. A little-known secret is that your personal values tend to become your professional values as well.

If you’re interested in going deeper and experiencing that value-mining exercise with me, I’m happy to walk you through it. If you don’t know what your core values are, I highly recommend doing a value-mining exercise, either on your own by searching online, working with a coach, or reaching out to me.

I like helping my clients identify their top five or top seven values, but for this exercise, I focused on my top five.

Community

The definition of community that resonated most with me was:

A feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

This resonated because my business is not just a business to me. It truly is a community.

I wanted to create a place where people felt safe and knew their children would be safe. I also wanted to create a work environment where people were happy to be part of the team and felt they were contributing to something meaningful.

Once I defined community, I listed indicators that would show we were truly operating as one.

Some of those included:

• A shared commitment to the safety and well-being of children.
• Preparing children for kindergarten and lifelong learning.
• Parents feeling like they’re part of the program rather than simply paying tuition.
• Children being seen as individuals.
• Families feeling seen, heard, and valued.
• Staff being positive, compassionate, and committed to children, families, and one another.

I also identified areas where we could strengthen our sense of community, including:

• Greeting people more intentionally.
• Showing our values through social media.
• Inviting families and community members into events.
• Hosting fundraisers.
• Sponsoring community events.
• Publishing newsletters, blogs, and educational resources.

Bright Beginning has an extensive blog that allows us to support families even outside our immediate community, and that’s another way we foster community.

Excellence

The definition of excellence that resonated with me was:

The quality of being outstanding or extremely good.

I looked at excellence through several lenses:

• Professionalism
• Problem-solving
• Continued education
• Customer service
• Quality of materials
• Mindset

Breaking excellence into these categories helped my management team develop a clear roadmap for leading with excellence.

Perspective

Perspective means seeing the bigger picture and looking at systems from different viewpoints.

This value shows up through:

• Listening to coworkers.
• Listening to families.
• Following industry trends.
• Receiving feedback.
• Learning continuously.

Feedback is incredibly important because it helps us understand the larger perspective while also revealing our blind spots.

I loved discovering why perspective mattered so much to me.

I never want to dismiss someone else’s feelings because I know my perspective is only one perspective. We all experience life through our own experiences and learned behaviors.

When we’re open to learning from others, listening, observing, and continuing to grow, we become stronger as an organization.

I truly believe that we’re either the teacher or the student in every situation.

Love

Love might sound a little mushy for business, but especially in caregiving, it’s essential.

The definition that resonated most with me was:

Valuing and fostering close relationships with others in a warm and genuine way.

Love shows up through:

• Empathy
• Active listening
• Gratitude
• Building trust
• Offering support
• Creating positive interactions

I started this business because I was pregnant with my first child and couldn’t find a place that truly aligned with what I wanted for my family.

Parents have a choice about where they place their children, and I want them to know we lead with our hearts. We love their children, we build trust, we support families, and we’re grateful they choose us.

That exercise reminded me just how much love I have for this business.

Integrity

The definition of integrity that resonated with me was:

Doing the right thing through your words, actions, and beliefs, even when no one is watching.

In child care, where you’re often caring for children who can’t advocate for themselves, this value is absolutely crucial.

Integrity is more than honesty or responsibility.

It’s being a person of character.

It’s advocating for someone who doesn’t yet have a voice.

It’s being accountable to your coworkers, your families, and one another.

Reviewing how integrity showed up in our organization reinforced why I built this business in the first place.

Getting Back Into Alignment

As I completed this exercise, I realized I’d gotten off track.

Coming through the pandemic, I had been operating from fear.

I worried that if I held boundaries, maintained expectations, or asked things of my staff or families, they might leave.

Because we experienced so much turnover during that time, I found myself leading from fear instead of from my values.

This exercise reminded me why I built this business, what I envisioned, and who I wanted to be.

If you go through this exercise and discover you’re not operating from your values, that’s okay.

Identify:

• What your business would look like if it fully reflected your values.
• What it looks like today.
• The steps needed to close that gap.

Doing this helped reduce overwhelm because it gave me bite-sized action items, clear indicators, and confidence to get back on track.

I encourage you to identify your top five values.

Define what each one means to you.

Find definitions that truly resonate.

Then ask yourself:

• What does this value look like in my business?
• What evidence shows this value is being lived?
• Where can we improve?

It is such a powerful exercise.

It reignited my passion for my child care business.

It helped me clearly explain the “why” behind everything we do.

Our next step is asking our administration team, teachers, and families what their values are, how our program supports them, and where we can improve.

I think it’s going to be a profound exercise for all of us.

If you’d like to go through this process with your own business, please reach out.

I read and respond to every email, text message, or however you choose to get in touch. I truly try to be as responsive as possible.

Twenty years into business, this exercise was one of the most profound things I’ve done, and I can’t recommend it enough.

I also want to highlight that just because I’m a business coach doesn’t mean I have all the answers.

But because I’m a business coach who owns businesses, I’m constantly evaluating my own businesses with a critical eye.

Am I walking the talk?

Am I doing the things I tell my clients lead to success?

I’m in the trenches with you.

I understand the challenges, the distractions, and everything that pulls us away from leading ourselves well.

While I may not have all the answers, I ask a lot of questions, both of myself and my clients.

Frequent audits and assessments are part of accountability.

If this resonates with you, I’d love to hear from you.

I’d love to walk through this exercise with you so together we can build a plan that aligns your business with your personal and professional values.

Okay. Until next time, take the lead.

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This episode is sponsored by Pangloss Interactive.

I’m Christy Ray, the founder and president of Pangloss Interactive. We create and maintain beautiful and optimized websites for small businesses and nonprofits. You can learn more about us at pangloss.com.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the Leading Lady Podcast. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at LeadingLadyCoaching.com.

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