Since Sign Brothers started in 2007, we’ve strived to be a business that pushes our team members to be better people and that adds value to our customers and our community. To do that, we specified five core values that would serve as guideposts to make sure we never put short term gain above providing lasting value. This blog post is part of a series of posts breaking down each of our core values. In our first four posts we covered our core values: “Integrity,” “Quality,” and “Do What’s Best For The Customer.” This post will break down our fifth core value: “Make It Better.” In this post we’ll be looking at where this core value comes from, why we chose this core value as our fifth core value, and how this core value impacts our day to day operations from our highest level leadership making company decisions to our newest team members. Let’s dive in…

Good Is The Enemy of Great

It’s easy for this phrase to sound so trite that it looses its power. Attributed to Good To Great author Jim Collins, this phrase captures how easy it is for someone to stick to familiar patterns that work at the expense of achieving true greatness.

Here’s the full quote from Collins:

“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”

This last core value, “Make It Better” is what keeps Sign Brothers from falling into complacency, and keeps us growing and evolving as a company. With each team member aligned on all five core values, everyone is free to identify ways of improving processes and situations and putting them into practice.

“Make It Better” effects both our attitudes, and our processes. As a custom signage company, we are always looking to create solutions that are the best for each clients needs, budget, and goals. When we identify something in our process that could be better, we make sure to update our process to reflect that change moving forward. “Make It Better” also means that there are times where we need to buckle down in the moment and go the extra mile to make something better in the moment.

Justin-Seibert“If there is a core value that gets me the most excited, this is it. I’m wired to always be looking for the best way to do something, and then when I find it, I’m continuously looking for ways to improve upon it. We encourage this thinking throughout our organization. We’re constantly challenging our processes to see if they can be upgraded. Our employees are craftsmen that seek to refine their skills to become the best at what they do. Everyone has a voice and the freedom to experiment with different approaches so that we’re learning and growing. It’s the entrepreneurial spirit, and we try to bring this attitude to all that we do.”

Accountability and Reward

One simple way that we like to reward team members when they go the extra mile is by having them spin “the wheel.” Similar to wheel of fortune, our wheel has a series of rewards on it including gift cards, time off, and others. This is a simple way that we can champion our employees and let them know that we see their efforts.

Positive reinforcement and rewards also help build report with team members so that when there are moments where someone drops the ball, or needs to do better we can have those conversations without that team member feeling attacked or getting defensive.

Conclusion

Paired with our other core values (Integrity, Quality, Do What’s Best For The Customer, Help Your Fellow Man), Make It Better keeps everyone at The Sign Brothers aligned and on the same team. If there’s ever a problem, we use these core values to right the ship and get us moving in the right direction. This brings us to the end of our series on core values. Are you currently working on defining core values for your business? What are some of the core values that define your company? Let us know in the comments.