Lead with your Core Values

Do you know your company’s core values?

Do your employees? Do your clients? If you’re honest, I imagine most of you answered “no” to at least the last two questions. You might have also struggled to remember your core values. Am I right?

The reason for that is simple. Most companies treat core values like a task they need to complete when building their organization.

They also don’t make their core values easy to remember, promote, reinforce, revisit, or celebrate.

At best, most publish the core values on their website, in the employee manual, and only refer to them now and then in a team meeting or annual report. The sad truth is that most organizations and employees rarely give them a second thought, much less know how to identify them or apply them in their day-to-day decision-making and interactions.  

Organizations that are successful and do not have their core values at the center of what they do, often have an inconsistent corporate culture that differs by department, location, and manager. That is what we refer to as a culture by default, and that has many unintended and avoidable challenges. Does this sound familiar?

Organizations that are purposeful in their core values development, deliberate in the application, and dedicated to weaving them into every aspect of their operation have a culture by design. These organizations are much more focused, resilient, cohesive, successful, and, I would argue – happier. Is this where you want to be?

Why core values matter

Core values are inherent and sacrosanct; they are not compromised for convenience or short-term economic gain. I would add that they are the ingrained principles that you live everyday. This is rooted in the shared vision, code of conduct, and ethos of a company.

Once you identify and define your core values, they should be at the center of your actions and decisions, from hiring to strategy. They should be expressed, captured, and shared widely and often to inspire, align, and attract employees and clients. 

Discovering and developing your core values

This is where you answer the fundamental question:‍

What kind of company are we trying to build?

Start with what the company actually stands for

Values can be aspirational, but they should be who you already are and what matters most to you to be truly authentic.

These ideas are sometimes dismissed as corporate wallpaper because organizations have often treated them that way. But when they are genuine, they provide the context for almost everything that follows.

• Mission explains why the organization exists.
• Vision describes where it is trying to go.
• Values establish how people are expected to behave while getting there.

Creating values is not a consensus team-building exercise

Your core values should be developed by a core group of people that truly know the organization's personality and what type of company they want it to be. They will be the ones who will be there to live them in the long term. They will be the ones that will use the core values to lead by example and use the core values to drive performance and make critical decisions.

The book The Core Value Equation by Darius Mirshahzadeh describes in great detail how to develop and employ your core values. He outlines four key elements of a well-designed and communicated core values:

1. Themes: Themes are core values such as integrity, caring, and customer service, which define the company’s personality.
2. Headers: Headers are memorable words, sentences, or catchphrases that are easy to remember that represent several grouped themes and sub-themes like “WOW Service.”
3. Descriptions: Descriptions are the four to eight sentences that are the nitty-gritty details that precisely describe what you expect and how your team should deliver on the themes.  
4. Policy/Producers: Your manuals and living documents outline how the core values are employed tactically in everyday processes and activities.

For example, if one of your themes is “Default to Action,” explain that team members are encouraged to take the initiative instead of waiting for direction.

Concepts to consider when you are developing your core values:

• Core values don’t need to be generic or “nice.” Your values should make you unique, distinct, and attractive to your ideal employees and clients.
• Make your core value themes/headers easy to remember. Following Miller’s Law, you should keep your core value themes and headers between five and nine words.
• Leverage your subthemes. Subthemes highlight the more expansive qualities and behaviors that are critically important to defining who you are as an organization and how team members should act and interact.

Becoming a core value driven organization 

To become a core value-driven organization, you need to weave your core values into everything you do.

Getting team buy-in and a commitment to live by your company’s values is critical and should be part of your processes or “How.” Everything from job postings and onboarding to recognizing team members and having team core values discussions, to individual performance reviews should be based on your process as outlined below:

1. Hire people based on core value alignment. 
2. Evaluate your team based on living your core values.
3. Recognize team members regularly for living your core values.
4. Communicate your core values to your team like you market your product or services to your clients.
5. Celebrate your people, culture, and values at every opportunity. 
6. Reflect on your core values when faced with difficult decisions.

Darius Mirshahzadeh, in his book The Core Value Equation, describes strong core values as something like an invisible manager. When they are well designed and genuinely embedded in the business, people can use them to make decisions even when a leader isn't standing beside them.

That's the real test.

• If collaboration is a value, does it influence who gets promoted?
• If customer care is central to the mission, do people hear stories about employees who went out of their way for customers?
• If innovation is important, does the company recognize thoughtful experimentation or quietly punish every failed attempt?

Recognition helps turn values into observable behavior

Recognition isn't simply appreciation. At its best, it is reinforcement.

Every time someone says, “That was a great example of how we work here,” the organization is teaching its culture.

Kudos’ peer-to-peer recognition allows organizations to keep their core values front and center. Every recognition message sent and received reinforces core values, qualities, and behaviors.

The quantity and quality of the Kudos messages is a barometer of daily and weekly employee engagement levels.

Peer-to-peer recognition is particularly powerful because organizations are far too complex for managers to see every valuable contribution. The people closest to the work often know who actually helped make something happen.

Recognition therefore becomes part of the organization's information system:

• It tells you what people value.
• Where collaboration is occurring.
• Which managers are recognizing their people.
• Which teams may be becoming invisible.

The recipe for a great company

The foundation for a great company starts with the right ingredients (strategy and tactics). You need them in roughly the right proportions. You need to combine them in the right order.

And then you need to keep tasting and adjusting. It's like climbing to the peak of perfection, with each element building on the last, and every ingredient complementing the whole recipe.

So, I think of the foundation as having two sides:

1. On one side: mission, vision, values, and business strategy.
2. On the other: job design, compensation, benefits, and working conditions.

One establishes meaning.

The other establishes fairness.

A strong employee experience needs both.

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You can find me on LinkedIn @wtshort.