Here are questions more leaders need to ask: Could your employees sum up the core values of your company? Could they tell others in a short and simple way what the culture is like where they work?

If you are trying to grow a business with meaning, the answers should be yes.

What Makes A Successful Business?

This is mission critical in the great divide between providing jobs and building teams. This is the game-changer between creating a place to go to work and creating a place where more people wish they worked.

The bottom line (and a profitable one too) is that a company that lives and leads with values will always outperform, outshine, outdo and outlive competitors who leave ethics at the back door.

But, is it just window dressing? Truthfully speaking, our society has been hungry for more businesses and more business leaders with some integrity to take the lead for a long time. We are tired of headlines about businesses that are too big to fail. We want to find something we can believe in again, and then we want to grab on with both hands and never let go.

It all starts with values. And I don’t mean the monetary kind. I also don’t mean that list of superfluous goals that sound good but lack substance.

I mean the kind of values your people know, love and live…every day…on the job…and off. And nobody is exempt from the team.

How to Design Your Code of Values?

At Dwyer Group, we’ve been lauded across the country and around the world for our Code of Values and the goal to Live RICH following the themes of Respect, Integrity, Customer Focus and Having Fun in The Process. It’s not just theory. It has become a way of life across 2,100+ franchises around the world. And the popularity of our Code of Values has also been a key driver for new customers, new franchise owners, and bigger business across our service brands by sheer attraction to who we are and what we stand for. It has helped us become a $1+ billion annual business in system-wide sales. From one brand in 1981, The Dwyer Group has grown into a holding company of 12 service-based franchise organizations. So, do values bring value? Oh, yes!

But, we are not alone in our quest to live right and do right in business and in life. A lot of companies want the same thing for their business and for their people. And there’s a real way for getting there.

In my new book, Values, Inc., I share a staggering fact. It’s been said that 95 percent of companies that have a code of values don’t even use it. Thousands of companies spend countless hours and piles of money with experts to help define their mission, vision and values. They write them down, hang them on the wall…and then walk away.

The key to changing all that – the key to asking employees what your business stands for and getting an actual answer – is putting those values into action. And making both the executive team and the employees remember those values by heart, with heart.

In my book I share countless stories from businesses and leaders around the world who have taken a stand and made a difference by living and leading with values in business. And I also share an entire chapter for how you can create your own code of values and bridge the gap. If you need more help, I would love to talk with you, as I have with several business leaders and CEOs across the country.

It’s all within reach for a world in need of a new direction. Enacting a values-driven direction won’t just change your business. It can change our world. And the rewards are too great to ignore.

So, what do you stand for?