Company culture is the motivation behind the work your team turns out. It’s not what a company does, it’s why a company does it. 

My name is Dave Valentine—some of you know me already. I’m a serial entrepreneur and owner/founder of 7 companies where our core values saturate our day-to-day operations and stand as pillars in our work community.

Our experience is built on our 6 values: tenacity, curiosity, initiative, accountability, transparency, and humanity. These values, tested and honed over time, shape our culture and make our teams, quite frankly, totally badass. 

I recommend anyone reading this to apply these values in your own business environment.

Tenacity

Tenacity is the top value in our list because all of our values build off of each other. Tenacity comes from an inner drive to never give up. With any endeavor worth undertaking, there will be setbacks, failures, and times when you want to give up.
Tenacity drives us to stay the course and to try something new. This fervent desire to never give up comes from not only my vision but is embodied by each and every member of our team. This is such an important piece of our culture and is one of the top factors we account for in hiring staff members.

Curiosity

Curiosity only thrives in a context where it is cultivated and encouraged. To foster curiosity, you have to give people the time and space to ask questions, the resources to pursue ideas, and most importantly, the autonomy to shape their own path. Above all, you need an environment like we have that truly sees curiosity as an asset.

Our environment doesn’t have rules that are too rigid or too many. We don’t micromanage employees, and we check our prejudices when engaging with new ideas. An environment like ours can only happen in a space where the leadership team considers these values to be integral and non-negotiable. Here, with our leadership, the natural curiosity of our team is allowed to germinate and grow.

Initiative

Initiative is fostered in our company culture by empowering individual members of the team to both recognize and meet needs as they arise.

We each feel a great sense of ownership in the work that we create and the way we relate to one another. By encouraging innovation and fanning the flame of new ideas, we are encouraged to step up to the plate to better both our processes and the work we deliver for our clients.

Accountability

The main thing that fosters accountability is open communication. When we’re talking about accountability, there are two levels.

First, take ownership of yourself and your work. Second, take responsibility for your team. We actively allow and create space for people to point out things that need to change with team members. Everyone is encouraged to be collaborative. All of our work is done as a unit, we aren’t a crew of competing individuals.
By making accountability a core value, our team members feel confident that they’re better off taking responsibility for mistakes than they would be trying to shift the blame. Taking ownership is respected in our community. We don’t operate in fear of consequences or in a cycle of fighting for our place on the team.

Transparency

There was a time in business where it was expected that we would never admit any faults. Back then, people put up the front of security and impenetrability, because they thought the most effective defense was to have no weaknesses. In some companies, this is still the case.
At our companies, there are no masks. Radical transparency will always triumph against lies and manipulation. Radical transparency combined with genuine, hard work will carry a team straight toward their dreams. When a group of people is comfortable being themselves, all that’s left is to be creative.

Humanity

We compartmentalize our work and personal relationships and keep an equal balance of both. We never have to worry about if we’re valued as individuals because we are more than just the work we churn out.
This plays out in our policies as well. We’re allowed to be human. We can take time off when we need it, we take breaks on our own schedule, we manage our own time. We’re honest about where we’re at and how we can support and encourage one another. Every member of the team is seen as a human first. It makes all the difference.