Our Core Values & How We Work

When I first began working with senior leaders to help them identify their core values several years ago, it became clear to me that the leaders who truly embodied their values referred back to them regularly. It wasn’t just an intellectual exercise that was then thrown in a drawer and never looked at again.

Thoughtful leaders used their values as guides for decision-making. They used them to get back on track when they felt themselves veering off course. Their values were an active part of their lives, guiding their daily actions and interactions.

Some of these leaders had their values printed and sitting by their desk, to remind them of how they wanted to show up with others at work and in their personal lives.

One leader would turn her values into questions. For example, one of her core values was freedom, and she would ask herself, “Freedom to WHAT?” Or for her value of personal responsibility: “Personal responsibility for WHAT impact?”

About 5 years ago, when I was leading many different clients through this exercise, I wrote down my top six core personal values. Doing it properly took me many hours, but having this list has served as a very helpful guide over the years as I think about how I want to show up, and what I want my days to reflect.

Then a few years ago I came up with the core values for Epicycle.

At Epicycle, we are in the business of growth and change — for individual leaders, their teams, and for organizations.

When I sat down and really thought about what it takes to get ourselves to do things differently, it led to the articulation of our three core values: Clarity. Courage. Connection. You’ll see these embedded in everything we do, as well as in some obvious places like our letterhead and our website footer.

When our new website went live, I spent time really thinking about what drives growth and change, and digging into different schools of thought about how people and organizations grow and change. I also thought a lot about our clients, their own journeys of transformation, and how I want the experience of our partnerships with them to feel. Three clear operating principles that guide how we do our work emerged: Curiosity. Candor. Commitment to Excellence.

Our values reflect how we believe individuals, teams, and organizations grow and become more effective. And our operating principles are how we approach our work and our relationships.

Here is what our values mean to us:

1.     Clarity: Knowing Where You’re Going Next

Clarity means identifying a clear set of next steps to generate momentum in the present. For the far-off future, clarity is the north star that illuminates the right direction even when you can’t see the exact path. The destination will change as goals evolve and circumstances shift. Clarity is knowing your next steps despite uncertainty.

 Clarity in Action: Whether we partner with an individual or a team, our clients always have measurable goals they’re working towards. Sometimes clients start their work with us knowing what their goals are, and sometimes we need to collect information and conduct interviews to co-create the goals. In both cases, we don't start the real work until we know what success looks like.

2.     Courage: Taking Action Despite Fear

Change means experiencing discomfort. Courage is taking action even though you’re afraid or uncomfortable, and it is how you learn to behave differently than you do right now. Courage opens up possibilities. It is how you, your team, and your organization become different. Through action steps and practice, behaviors that at one point feel difficult or even terrifying become commonplace and comfortable.

Courage in Action: We help our clients identify specific new behaviors to experiment with between sessions. Adopting a new behavior is hardest at the beginning, so we focus on the mindset shifts that spark motivation and a willingness to try new things. We learn from what happens and adjust as needed. Over time, challenges that were once anxiety-provoking become routine, and confidence grows.

3.     Connection: Connection with Yourself. Connection with Others.

Connecting with yourself is a source of personal and leadership strength. It allows you to be clear on what you think and feel, make good decisions, and achieve your goals. Connection with others allows you to build respectful relationships. By listening, empathizing, and communicating effectively, you can work in a genuinely collaborative and synchronized way to get more done. Finally, staying connected across differences is the long-term path for greater innovation, retention, and personal and organizational impact.

Connection in Action: With individual leaders, we start by understanding work history and often use assessments as well so clients can gain insight into themselves as they also set goals to grow. With teams, we speak with each person individually first and then work with the real conflicts and challenges that the team is struggling with right now. We generate new approaches together and then practice them live in the room. With all our clients, we meet them where they’re at to co-create personalized experiences that catalyze growth.

And here is how we define our operating principles:

1.     Curiosity: Seeking to Understand

Curiosity is about being open. It’s an empathic stance, where you suspend what you think you know and focus on learning and understanding the perspectives of others. Curiosity keeps you open to new ways of thinking and behaving, and it’s a building block of creativity and innovation.

Curiosity in Action: Before we propose anything, we ask questions and listen without judgment. We interview multiple stakeholders, gather data, and synthesize what we heard to paint a picture of the current dynamics and capture diverse viewpoints. And we stay curious about our own thinking, questioning our assumptions and considering how we might evolve our perspective.

2.     Candor: Being Honest and Real

Candor is speaking your mind openly, including when it’s difficult. It’s naming how you see things directly to explore them with others and engage in thought-provoking dialogue. For us, tact and diplomacy are a part of candor done well because they’re important signs of sensitivity and respect that keep open conversations constructive, kind, and solution-oriented.

Candor in Action: Our first focus is building trust. This foundation allows us to share what we see openly and encourage our clients to speak directly with us as well. We ask probing questions to get the important stuff out onto the table, surface what people are thinking but not saying out loud, and then guide conversations to make sure that the real issues are voiced, worked with, and learned from.

3.     Commitment to Excellence: Doing Things Accurately and Elegantly

Time is your most finite and precious resource. We believe if we’re going to spend time on something, the result should be excellent. Doing our best work is our standard practice. This means taking the time to design and deliver services that are right for our clients in terms of accuracy, creativity, and responsiveness.

Commitment to Excellence in Action: We want our clients to emerge from our work together feeling better equipped and more confident in their own abilities. We customize each of our services to meet the needs of the people in the room. Whether it’s an individual coaching engagement, an offsite, or training, we build a strategic program, incorporate client feedback in real time, and then invest in our craft to get the details right. We care that the work works, and we also delight in being intentional about how experiences with us look and feel.

Like the leaders we’ve worked with who keep their values front and center, we use these values and ways of working as a daily guide, to stay grounded in our why and how as we do the work that we truly love.