By Briana Iverson

Hello to a brand-new decade!

At the beginning of every new year, we take time to reflect on our core values and what they mean to us. With the new decade upon us, we wanted to spend even more time reflecting on where we have been, and the exciting places where we are headed!

Each month throughout this year, we will highlight a core value, what it means to us and how our team puts it to action. We hope you enjoy our articles throughout the year, and that they bring positivity, inspiration and fun for you and your team as we kick off a new decade!

Our Core Values Story

In our second year as a company, President & COO Shay Hughes brought our original team together to identify the values that defined us personally and professionally. We found that many of our ideas were almost identical, and we refined them into ten distinct core values.

These core values have been absolutely instrumental to our success as an industry-leading commercial real estate firm that solely represents tenants and buyers, and have played a critical part in forming our award-winning company culture. Not only do we live and breathe them every day, but we discuss our core values in meetings, wear them on tees, and even have them on colorful display on an outdoor mural at our headquarters!

What started as a reflection of who we were then, our core values have evolved into a guiding force in where we are headed. We enjoy sharing them with other like-minded leaders and organizations, and heavily encourage the creation of core values to bring clarity and unity to teams.

Our Core Values

1. Always do the right thing.
We truly admire individuals who possess great integrity, which is why each and every one of our teammates is committed to always doing the right thing for our company, our team, our clients and our communities. If it’s the right thing to do and something we are willing to be held accountable for, then we can never go wrong!

2. Deliver excellence in everything we do.
Excellence is our brand, and we strive to pursue it in everything we do, especially by delivering unprecedented service to our clients. We know that every single detail matters, and we understand that it’s the intangibles, like relationships, our caring service and going above the call of duty that differentiates our team—and that is something we take great pride in!

3. Enjoy the journey.
Quite possibly one of our favorite core values, we try to enjoy the journey—both inside and outside of work—as much as possible! We create fun whenever we can, remember to enjoy the ride and strive to be grateful for every single moment. As a fun reminder, we have a vibrant neon sign of this value on display at our headquarters.

4. Embrace the family spirit.
Walking into our beautiful homes away from home and seeing our family photo walls at each office, anyone can see that family is incredibly important to us at Hughes Marino! We feel more like a family than coworkers, and our extended families are included in so many aspects of the company that we felt it was essential to include this as one of our core values.

5. Build lasting relationships based on trust.
Trust is at the root of building great long-term relationships and partnerships, including those with our teammates, clients, vendors and communities. We strive to be known for our strong character, transparency and integrity, and we always put our clients’ interests first.

6. Nurture your personal and professional life.
Strong teams are as committed to their personal lives as they are to their work, with a healthy balance between the two! We work hard and play hard. By providing our team with plenty of time off around the holidays and throughout the year, everyone comes back refreshed and recharged with new memories made, and are energized to take on the world!

7. Pursue growth & learning.
Embracing our team’s growth mindset, we always want to learn new skills and find opportunities to improve everything we do, including our knowledge and skill sets. By bringing in world-renowned speakers and business coaches, we stay at the top of our game and continue to be thought leaders in our areas of expertise.

8. Generously give to others.
Giving to others is one of the most rewarding things we can do, and we are grateful to be able to support our local communities and organizations. We provide volunteer time off to our team so they can support charitable organizations that touch their hearts, and internally, we always find fun ways to be generous to our teammates, like our HM Buddy event, WOW cards and enjoying special outings together!

9. Proactively communicate with everyone.
Proactive communication is a huge part of our success as a team and is a guiding principle in how we communicate with one another on a daily basis. Our goal is to ensure our clients and our teammates always feel informed, confident and appreciated. Each team member works to achieve this every day, leaving a positive impact on everyone we communicate with!

10. Be authentic, grateful and humble.
This is a deeply meaningful value to us. Authenticity and appreciation are aspects we practice every day through emails, in team meetings and even by putting post-it notes of what we are grateful for on teammates’ desks! As we say at every team meeting—success is not an entitlement, it has to be earned every single day—and we never take that for granted!

Does your team have core values or other traditions that you’d like to share? We would love to hear from you! Feel free to reach out to us via email at info@hughesmarino.com, follow us on social media, subscribe to our blog or give us a call at any time. We love connecting with others who believe in the power of a positive company culture!

Wishing you and your team a fantastic 2020!