Starting a Professional Services Firm: Culture and Values

Everyone is familiar with the Peter Drucker quote, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” That is certainly true in professional services where the ability to differentiate your firm in the marketplace is always a challenge.

Culture is not about the skills of the professionals on the team. Culture defines “how” the members of the firm work with each other and their clients.

But how do you create a winning culture that allows you to consistently attract both top talent and desirable clients? How do you take a diverse group of professionals and define a common set of core values to shape a culture that sets you apart?

Create Authentic Core Value Statements

Value statements are nothing new, but true core values that are clearly articulated, reliably demonstrated, actively policed, openly promoted, and regularly celebrated can create a strong culture that breeds success.

These values must come from the founders and leaders of the firm and be a true reflection of themselves and their beliefs. This is your opportunity to express what makes you and the firm unique.

Think differently. Most value statements sound like the product of a Mad Libs exercise in virtuous language. These are typically instantly forgettable. Value statements and the behaviors that flow from them should appeal to both employees and clients as a true source of differentiation.

Your value statements should “sell,” but they must be real. After all, the firm is an extension and reflection of you. Value statements should define how you intend to serve your clients and how you expect members of the firm to treat one another. Don’t be boring.  

Communicate the Meaning Behind the Meaning

Top-level value statements should be pithy and quotable, but they can’t be namby pamby nonsense. There must be a depth of meaning and the top-level statement should be backed by a detailed articulation of the behaviors that statement is meant to elicit.

In my previous firm one of our core value statements was “Leaders Behind the Leaders,” but that statement was backed by four specific expectations that essentially became commandments for our people:

·       We invest in the long-term success of our individual clients, not just their companies.

·       We celebrate every individual client promotion and view them as a measure of our value.

·       We believe that trusted advisors do not stop advising when the project is complete.

·       We reserve the spotlight and glory of success for our clients, not the consulting team.

Firm leadership must give voice to these values for them to be an effective tool in creating culture. Get accustomed to repeating yourself. If you are leading a growing, dynamic organization there will always be people that haven’t heard your values speech and others that need to hear it again and again.

To this day if you pull the string on my back, out will come the same speech I have given for almost twenty years. Avoid the temptation to “freshen up the message.” The ideas should remain constant.

Measure Performance by Your Values

Lastly, your values should be a screen in recruiting, an essential part of performance evaluations, and be held inviolable by leadership.

Nothing will undermine your culture faster than ignoring behaviors that are inconsistent with the core values of the organization.

If you do this right, you will not have to be the organization’s culture cop for very long. Your people will play that role for you and serve as a strong foundation on which you can build. Growth is not a risk to your culture as long as every member of the firm is dedicated to preserving the things that make it special.

Culture does eat strategy for breakfast.

We believe that culture is what determines long-term success in professional services. It is technically feasible to start a professional services firm without going through the process of articulating and documenting your core values, but if you want to create a business with enduring value, a rabidly committed team, and a unique market proposition, you’ve got some thinking to do.