Core Values
Definition
Core values are the three to five behaviors an organization genuinely hires, promotes and occasionally fires on. They are discovered rather than invented — found by examining the people already doing the work in the way the company wants it done — and they are used to make decisions about people, which is the difference between a core value and a word on a wall.
Most discovery exercises work backwards from individuals: name a handful of employees you would rebuild the company around, describe what they actually do, and look for the behaviors that repeat. The output is phrased as behavior rather than virtue, so it can be observed in an interview. Values then have to appear in the machinery — interview questions, onboarding, review rubrics, and a recognition slot in a regular meeting where someone is named for a specific act. A value that appears in none of those is a preference.
The test of a value is whether it has ever cost something. Generic words — integrity, teamwork, excellence — cannot separate two finalists for a job, because no candidate claims the opposite. The sharper sign is upward: values applied to junior staff but not to a senior high performer teach the organization the real list within a quarter.
Example
A 120-person firm replaced seven aspirational words with four behaviors, one being 'we say the number we do not know'. It became a scored interview question; two of eleven finalists were screened out on it in a quarter, and it was the stated reason a top-billing manager was let go.
See also: compare frameworks