What is Valkyrie Values Week?

Every year, Valkyrie pauses all work across the portfolio to bring all Valkyries together for a special celebration called Values Week. During the week, our team engages in activities that represent Valkyrie’s five core values: Honor, Love, Hope, Curiosity and Grit. Each of the values have a designated day that is planned by a Valkyrie that was nominated the previous year. By having our team plan the week themselves (with support from myself and my colleague), it has kept everyone excited, engaged and energized to keep coming together for Values Week each year. 

Values Week serves as a manifestation of the values we uphold when we make all decisions at Valkyrie. It also allows us to carve out a special time for us to remember how far we’ve come and how far we can go together. Instead of our values being something created by leadership and written on a wall, never to be referenced again, we make it a priority to ensure that we embody and celebrate these values regularly. 

Why we put so much energy into Values Week?

For many of our team members, stepping away from their daily responsibilities is a challenge. They shoulder the weight of guiding their clients, navigating critical decisions, and satisfying a myriad of stakeholders, all while making time for their loved ones at home. Values Week was born out of a desire for connection coming out of the pandemic but the week’s importance has only grown over time. 

In today’s landscape in our industry, where doing more with less is the norm, it’s easy to overlook the importance of events like Values Week. However, we believe it’s more crucial than ever. Often dismissed and rarely discussed, the life of a high performer can be a particularly lonely one. According to the 2022 research by Deloitte, 30% of leaders reported that they always or often feel lonely. 

“Valkyrie was born with a vision to serve and support our team, our clients and our community. We don’t sign up just to do business with them – we sign up to “life” with them. So, as we prepared for our first Values Week in 2021, we wondered how else we could help our colleagues cope as the pressures mount and they continue excelling,” — Bailey Steinhauser, Vice President of Strategy.

What does Values Week look like?

Something the team loves about Values Week is that it’s slightly different each time because we have a rotation of Valkyries helping to plan the activities and sharing their perspective on our values. The feelings we all get from participating tend to be the same – connectedness, gratitude, and most importantly, fun. 

“Life is busy and hectic, it’s so easy to get swept up in your to-do lists while running from one meeting to the next. One of my favorite things about values week is watching our team slow down and ‘smell the flowers’. You can visibly see people relaxing as the week goes on.

My other favorite thing is watching the team bond. The activities are always different and more likely than not, there is something that gets you out of your comfort zone, which helps create or strengthen bonds and it also helps to see your co-workers in a different light, that you might not get to in a 9-5 environment.” — Kristin Russell, Chief of Staff 

From volunteering to learning survival skills from escape rooms to writing letters for active duty military, we have done it all but the intention to celebrate each other and invest in our community remains consistent.