Our Values
By Ben Tyler, 925 Owner and Head Coach
925’s Vision is:
To help as many people as possible get fitter, healthier, and happier so they can have a greater positive impact on their families and communities.
As I’ve been reflecting on CrossFit 925’s last 8 years, our vision for the future and what we hope to accomplish, I’ve been seeing our values more clearly each day. It isn’t easy to succinctly summarize a culture, the foundation supporting it, and all the aspects that make it unique. It is, however, encouraging to look back and remember aa number of situations, choices, and how much our wonderful team and all our clients have helped shape what we are today.
I was able to identify six areas I believe influence our culture the most, as well as what we want to continue to improve (forthcoming blog posts will seek to flesh these out):
Servant Leadership - Being humble in leadership, open to feedback, and firmly standing by our values”
Genuine Care - Commitment to “Help First.”
Joy - Maintaining a positive, optimistic and thankful attitude and atmosphere
Ingenuity/Technical Excellence - Never satisfied with the status quo; always looking for ways to improve
Initiative - Working as a team to promptly take care of whatever may come up to the best of our abilities
Integrity - Being open and honest with our team and clients
Walking through each of these areas in detail was one of the more encouraging and thought-provoking exercises I’ve done in some time. There are many good qualities we could chase, but these reflect our primary goals, attitudes, and what we want to emulate the best.
For your own personal life or family, have you listed out your core values? We move through life so quickly that it becomes easy to get lost in the day to day, getting things done, trying to keep up with budgets, social activities, food, sleep, and on and on.
Taking some time to drink a cup of coffee or tea and reflect on your life, and the direction you are heading in is extremely beneficial. Sometimes you need to “right the ship” and give yourself clarity in order to course correct. Other times you can be encouraged by the progress you’re making and the victories you’ve won when it comes to standing by your values.
Defining our values helps build a foundation for good decision making. We can weigh decisions in the balance of those values, and due to already putting the thought into choosing those values, your decisions will be better and less likely to push you off course. It can help minimize the stress of difficult decisions by giving you a compass to align your decisions with.
For me personally, having these values helps immensely at 925. One example that solidified this in my mind was when one of our Coaches asked me if I had a few minutes to talk. We stepped into the cafe and she privately, but confidently, told me she needed me to lead better by not texting in class.
Backstory: I had been working on something via text for a few hours that afternoon and it bled into class time. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it besides being annoyed that I had to keep going to my phone to continue working on the issue. I finished class and went about my day, not thinking much of it.
For our Coach, she saw me as distracted, and honestly, although she didn’t directly say it, disrespectful. When she spoke with me and gave me her feedback, especially mentioning that people watch us a leaders, it struck a chord. She was absolutely right and I needed that feedback and vital reminder that as leaders, you are never not leading. You are either leading forward or you are leading backward.
All of us are leaders in one way or another. We have the option to live our lives worthy of being followed and having a positive impact, or conversely, negatively influencing those around us. This was a great lesson for me recently.
Circling back to our values, I was so proud of this Coach for not only having the confidence to correct me, but also grateful that she knew I would be open to her feedback (although yes, it stung!) because of the culture we have all created at 925. We always have room to get better, and her actions reflected our first value, Servant Leadership, very well.
Take a few minutes to jot down six values you have for your life. Are you living those well? Do your decisions reflect those values?
