Companies have no human values

Companies don't have Human values. This is how the great communicator's speech begins Luis Bassat In a talk he gave at a congress recently, and that you will see later. 30 Great value minutes.

Here's a one-minute video trailer:

You can hear it in the episode 110 of the podcast Everything Leaves Mark on iVoox, Apple Podcast, Spotify Or Google Podcast.

Why companies don't have human values?

The answer is simple. Luis Bassat is resounding:

Companies have no human values, The people who work in companies have them.

Several times in this blog I have referred to the "imagined realities" of which it deals Yuval Noah Harari in his book "Sapiens". It refers to the idea that humanity has created a series of concepts to better organize itself., like money, politics, companies, brands. In a nutshell, The company is an abstract entity that represents people.. That's why you can't have Human values. 

Then, What about that vision?, Mission, Values?

A company always starts with the dream of one or several people. Bill Gates and Paul Allen with Microsoft, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne with Apple...

So together they define the principles of company branding, You know, Purpose, Vision, Mission, Positioning, Values, Attributes, Principles, Levers, Insights, Territories, Brand assets, Tone, Systems, tagline, Kpi, Employer Value Proposition...

Is there anything more human than a purpose?, that values? That's why, When defining these two intangible assets of the company, those of its founders are used.. Another thing would be to define the purpose and values of a brand., that will be based on an exercise of idealization and personalization: I want a brand that connects with certain people in this or another way..

Let's differentiate human and brand values

Let's differentiate Human values and brand, Because we already see that those of the company are those of its creators. I was fortunate to work for a few years in Luis Bassat's advertising agency, Bassat & Ogilvy. And the values that governed were those of Luis Bassat., What, Fortunately, were humane and effective, since he put them into practice every day and impregnated the personality of that office and were contagious to those who worked there.

To know how lucky we were who worked with Luis, Here I leave the talk he gave about Human values last November 2022 in the Talent & Knowldedge Congress who organizes a great guy called Bru Recolons. 

This talk follows the ideas embodied in the book "Dream like Luther King, speaks like Obama, command without command and be yourself" (Editorial Platform, 2019) written by Luis Bassat himself, and that it is a small jewel of personal brand that I recommend you read.

How can we identify our values??

We have two ways to do it. Asking ourselves and asking the people around us.

In the first case, to identify our values, First we need a moment to reflect on what is important to us.. Let's think about situations where we have made the best decision. Let's ask questions about what motivates us in life., What makes us feel satisfied or what we consider worthwhile.

In the second case, It's about asking for feedback. Here I leave my article next to Naomi Vico, Personal Brand Diagnostics 1: Ask for external feedback. Here you can enrich the previous exercise of self-reflection, Simply asking your close circles to help you define your main human values.

I am already clear about my values, ¿Now what?

Once you've identified your values, You can use them as a guide to make decisions and align your behavior with what's critical to you.. And very important, Your values should also be able to align seamlessly with the project and the people you work with.

You will realize that sometime, when you act against your values, You'll feel bad. That is why it is important to use them as a guide. Many people leave companies because of a conflict of values, because they force them to do things that go against their human values, what we know as countervalues.

How are values transmitted?

Values are better transmitted through example and our actions than through feeling or our words.. And that's because each person's behavior reflects their values.

To a lesser extent, Another way to transmit values is through verbal communication, I mean, through conversations, Speeches and talks.

In terms of personal brand, Our values can be transmitted through our hobbies, Our passions. Here I leave my article Hobbies and values: What relationship do they have? where you will see the affinity between one thing and the other.

And continuing with the personal brand, The other excellent way we have to transmit our values is with testimonies – public or private – from people who know us.. You just have to ask for them.

Postscript: Networking ideas at Café con Talento

Good friend Juan Martínez de Salinas and Noelia Bermúdez invited us, Andrés Pérez Ortega and me, To talk about networking applied to personal branding.

I leave you the video, which has its notes of humor (By the way, one of the Human values). 

Stock Photos from Yurko Gud / Shutterstock