Our values have two purposes. First, to guide how we interact with our Partners and Members. Second, to ensure we bring people onto the team that share those values and treat one another accordingly.

• Collaboration. We believe the best solutions happen when people work together. There are two different types of teams. Some groups act like golf teams, where players have their golf balls and keep their score. Other groups work as a basketball team with one ball and one score. Not everyone plays a role when the team scores, but without the other members, the entire team will fail. Serve Denton asks its Board and staff to act like basketball team members. Our experience has been that the most gratifying success comes when strong teams succeed in their mission and positively shape team members' lives. Doing so requires deep trust between everyone. We will always seek to work well with others by asking, "What's the opportunity here?"

• Accountability. We must hold the trust of our donors and the community for the good. We must be an organization worthy of trust in all areas, including financial choices, client care, and governance. We will be transparent and honest about our purpose, vision, decisions, and dollars. Being a good steward does not mean being penny-wise and pound-foolish. It does mean treating every decision as though it were our own money. We must do our best daily to make decisions like a business owner. There will be mistakes—we are all fallible. Failure is not fatal. Failing to learn from our mistakes might be. We seek to continuously improve our performance in fulfilling the mission. We will continually ask, "How are we doing, and what can we do to improve?"

• Respectful. We exist to help nonprofits fulfill their missions. We respect their determination of purpose, direction, and methods. We will not judge or denigrate them. We will uphold the dignity of each client who visits one of our centers and show appreciation to our supporters who make Serve Denton possible. Lastly, we will treat each team member with respect. Respectful treatment means praising in public and criticizing in private. We will always ask, "How are we respectful to one another, our customers, and our supporters?"

• Empathy. We seek to show empathy for those nonprofits we serve and one another. Empathy is an often misunderstood word. It is "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." Empathy, like respect, is founded on active listening and understanding. As Covey wrote, "Our goal should be to seek to understand before seeking to be understood." Empathy and respect are highly interrelated. We may not have experienced the same trauma as another person. But we can experience similar emotions, although the cause may have been different. To have empathy, we must first be vulnerable—to trust one another enough to share difficult feelings. We will continually seek to ask, "How are we showing empathy to one another?"

• Service. Lastly, we seek to be of service to the nonprofits and to one another, as expressed through the practice of servant leadership. We seek to serve by responding to these challenges with creativity, teamwork, and leadership. We are committed to taking a strategic approach to solving our community's problems. Respected leaders serve on our Board, each of whom has demonstrated distinguished service throughout their careers. They serve as a "working board" with unique skills they bring to the organization. We are here to serve—our partners, their clients, and fellow team members. We will continually ask, "How are we serving our customers, their clients, and the community?"