Dec 20 2011

Return Path Core Values, Part II

Return Path Core Values, Part II

As I said at the beginning of this series, I was excited to share the values that have made us successful with the world and to also articulate more for the company some of the thinking behind the statements.

You can click on the tag for all the posts on the 13 Return Path’s core values, but the full list of the values is below, with links to each individual post, for reference:

  1. We believe that people come first
  2. We believe in doing the right thing
  3. We solve problems together and always present problems with potential solutions or paths to solutions
  4. We believe in keeping the commitments we make, and communicate obsessively when we can’t
  5. We don’t want you to be embarrassed if you make a mistake; communicate about it and learn from it
  6. We believe in being transparent and direct
  7. We challenge complacency, mediocrity, and decisions that don’t make sense
  8. We believe that results and effort are both critical components of execution
  9. We are serious and passionate about our job and positive and light-hearted about our day
  10. We are obsessively kind to and respectful of each other
  11. We realize that people work to live, not live to work
  12. We are all owners in the business and think of our employment at the company as a two-way street
  13. We believe inboxes should only contain messages that are relevant, trusted, and safe

As I noted in my initial post, every employee as of August 2008 was involved in the drafting of these statements.  That’s a long post for another time, but it’s an important part of the equation here.  These were not top-down statements written by me or other executives or by our People team.  Some are more aspirational than others, but they are the aspirations of the company, not of management!