Let’s quickly define mission, vision, and goals:
Goals: These are the tangible outcomes that contribute to overall revenue growth and moving the company forward.
Company core values vs. mission, vision, and goals
And cliche or not, data shows that core values impact a company’s bottom line:
Today’s workforce is more transient than ever. But when a company hires, fires, and operates according to a steadfast set of core values, it is prepared to withstand changes in staff, losses in leadership, or even entire reorgs.
Core values should be a mix of those that describe your company as it is now as well as what it strives to be. They should celebrate but also motivate; evoke pride but also inspire action.
“Deliver WOW Through Service”
In a former job, I once was tasked with establishing the company’s core values. I’m going to go over a high-level view of the six steps I took to do this, which you can adapt accordingly.
Now it’s time to use your marketers and content writers. Core values can get pretty redundant and generic. Come up with unique names and [short] descriptions for those core values that match your brand voice. Feel free to make up words and get playful here.
Maybe you’re a team of one or three. Maybe you’re just starting out and don’t have a wealth of employees and experiences that lead to clear core values and related links. There’s nothing wrong with keeping it short and sweet with famous quotes.
Why you need company core values
Acceptance
Accessibility
Adaptability
Altruistic
Approachability
Brilliance
Care
Collaboration
Commitment
Common sense
Communication
Competency
Consistency
Continuity
Courage
Courtesy
Craftsmanship
Credibility
Curiosity
Customer centricity
Dependability
Experimentation
Expertise
Fairness
Generosity
Goodwill
Gratitude
Grit
Hard work
Honesty
Hospitality
Humility
Idiosyncrasies
Inclusivity
Individuality
Ingenuity
Initiative
Integrity
Justice
Leadership
Mindful
Open-mindedness
Opportunity
Original
Patience
Perfection
Perseverance
Persistence
Philanthropy
Pragmatism
Reliability
Resilience
Resourcefulness
Respect
Responsibility
Simplicity
Speed
Spontaneity
Sustainability
Systemization
Teamwork
Thoroughness
Tolerance
- More than 63% of consumers prefer to purchase from purpose-driven brands.
- Highly engaged employees can increase performance by 200%.
- A culture that attracts high-caliber employees can lead to a 33% revenue increase
“Obsessive: We are tenacious in pursuit of our goals, and believe that success in life is proportional to the effort we put ini”
Improve output
Talk or send out a poll to your customers, asking them for feedback like what stands out to them about your business, why they choose your business, and what keeps them coming back. Read reviews and see if there are any common themes.
A truly core-value-based company facilitates, encourages, and recognizes demonstrations of those values among its employees. With a clear picture on what their company stands for and the positive outcomes this brings, employees are inspired to take meaningful action that goes beyond KPIs and metrics—leading to more fulfillment and engagement (not to mention more success for the company).
Make better decisions
The Zappos has a whopping 10 company core values and is compiled into a comprehensive “Oath of Employment.” Each value comes with its own description, set of questions to ask yourself, sample behaviors, and video! I know that actions speak louder than words, but this page itself is an action. A company that makes this much effort to explain their core values is really serious about them.
Gain a competitive edge (in marketing and hiring)
Company core values produce teams of employees that are fulfilled, motivated, engaged, and inspired to do their best work. When employees believe in both themselves and their company, better deliverables and customer service follow. This translates into micro-interactions that customers pick up on, write reviews about, and share with others.
Motivate action
Core values can both inspire and support a company’s mission, vision, and goals. Most importantly, they provide guidelines on the most ethical, unified approach to achieving those goals.
Improve customer service
For most companies, each department has its own unique profile. The sales team has a different mindset from the web team. Content marketers have a different focus from product marketers. But like a human being, separate systems are needed in order for the whole to operate properly.
Build your reputation
What I like about this page is the personalization they’ve applied to their core values. You have a lot of freedom with your core values: you can make up names (CogoStars, Cogonauts), be a bit bragadocious, and go beyond the typical three to five.
Become resilient
And of course, put them on your about us or careers page to attract employees and customers who share your values. Or write a blog post like Flywheel did
How to establish your company core values
Every person in the company has a different role. Your company core values guide the way each person can carry out their role. Consistent, meaningful behavior between employees and with customers, partners, and vendors speaks volumes to the integrity of your brand and its overall reputation.
Abide
Act
Adapt
Align
Amplify
Apply
Ask
Balance
Believe
Believe
Bold
Break
Challenge
Charge
Coach
Combine
Connect
Distill
Drive
Educate
Embrace
Employ
Empower
Energize
Ensure
Explore
Focus
Foster
Guide
Instill
Invest
Keep
Learn
Mentor
Multiply
Operate
Practice
Promote
Pursue
Pursuit of
Push
Recognize
Refuse
Say
Seek out
Seize
Strive
Take charge
Teach
Win
Work
And now, as promised, the list of words you can use to describe your company core values.
1. Consult your employees
Think about memorable experiences in your company’s past—positive and negative. What actions were taken (or not taken) that made them memorable? Use this information to collect anecdotal clues about your inherent core values.
Display your core values in a location in your office where employees can see them every day. Start off meetings with a core values slide and give employees an opportunity to recognize team members who have demonstrated them (that’s what we do!). Instate a company-wide core values award every month, where anyone can nominate anyone (we do that too!).
2. Ask your customers
I’m going to provide a master core values list at the end of this post to help give you a starting point, but first, I want to provide some real company core values examples so you can have an idea of what other companies are doing.
3. Look back on key events
And Keaps’ values statement says it all:
4. Map it out and whittle it down
Vision statement: what you hope to achieve, inspire, or solve for the greater good, the bigger picture of which your mission is a part.
5. Describe them using your brand voice
I like the visual CAT uses for their core values page:
6. Make em known!
Don’t explicitly state that you’re trying to determine core values. Leave it open-ended so you can pick up on patterns and translate them into core values that use the language of your employees.
Send out a survey to your employees and ask questions about what’s important to them, what they prioritize when interacting with customers, what they like about working for the company, and what they’d like to see more of.
Company core values examples
“When we flock together, we fly farther and faster than we can alone We support, celebrate, and in est in each other, working together to create an inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work each day.”
1. The simple approach—Beiersdorf
Plus, some of the uncommon ones like “obsessive” are more memorable and also compel you to read on to see what they mean.
2. The branded approach—Cogolabs
So Keap’s core values page isn’t anything revolutionary. But I have this on my list because a company’s core values aren’t really the photos you see of teams doing community service or receiving “Best Places to Work” awards. These outward-facing materials are a manifestation of the mundane, day-to-day activities between employees that would be impossible to capture (and frankly, too boring to share) on social media.
“We’re in perpetual pursuit of new, innovative, outside-the-box ways to consistently improve ourselves, our products, and everything we do.”
Translation? If you want more customers, better performance, and higher revenue, you need to have a purpose driven culture of engaged employees. And this cannot happen without established core values. Here’s why:
3. The employee quote approach—Outback Team Building
Outback’s company core values take a unique approach by describing their core values through quotes by employees of varying points of the hierarchy
The hierarchy denotes that core values connect behaviors and goals to mission and vision. They provide the most ethical, unified approach to achieving your goals in a way that lends to your greater cause.
4. The punny approach—Flockjay
With the information, steps, and examples above, you should now have a clear understanding of the importance of core values and a clear path for developing yours. And with the list below, you’ll have all the inspiration you need! Remember, the authenticity of your company’s core values isn’t important. What matters is that they are established and clearly defined. When your employees have a framework within which to exercise those values in their own unique way, the authenticity will follow. The purpose is to have a purpose.
Businesses are run by great minds that don’t always think alike—diversity of perspectives is important. But that also means there will be moments of disagreement. When faced with predicaments and tough decisions, company core values can serve as an objective, true north compass to an agreed-upon best course of action.
5. The famous quote approach—Grimm Bissel
Abounding
Adventurous
Aggressive
Agile
Ambitious
Analytical
Approachable
Baked [into]
Bold
Can-do
Compassionate
Competitive
Compliant
Crystal clear
Divergent
Driven
Entrepreneurial
Essential
Exceptional
Experience
Fearless
Focused
Forever [curious]
Foundational
Friendly
Good-natured
High-caliber
Highest degree
Hungry
Insightful
Masters of
Nimble
Open-minded
Options
Owners of
Passionate
Proficient
Proportional to
Proud
Quirky
Remarkable
Singular
Skillful
Steady
Steadfast
Supportive
Talented
Teamwork
Tenacious
Together
Unflappable
Unified
Universal
Unrelenting
Unyielding
Utmost
Without compromise
Woven [throughout]
Always
Artfully
Beyond
Consistently
Constantly
Continually
Delightfully
Freely
Genuinely
Immensely
Impressively
Intelligently
Never
Perpetually
Personally
Relentlessly
Surprisingly
Unabashedly
Utmost
Weirdly
6. The oath approach—Zappos
Note: For a smaller company, a full team meeting might be all it takes!
Performance
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Authenticity
Kindness”
7. The Keap approach
“G2 Core Values:
Core values are department-agnostic, serving as the common thread that brings everyone together to create one collective “us.” Unified operation translates into output that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Commitment is an act, not a word -Jean Paul Sarte
The Beiersdorf core values page is clean and simple. (Look, they’re already demonstrating one of their core values.) While their values are generic, they are placed on a page with a video and related links that provide further reinforcement.
Establish your company core values for customer, team, and revenue growth
Every company is made up of individuals with unique skill sets and personalities. While KPIs bring skill sets together to accomplish tangible goals, company core values bring personalities together to create a firm identity. A firm identity gives way to better branding which gives a business its competitive edge in both marketing and recruiting.
Let’s go over some numbers here.
Company core values list: nouns
Mission statement: your function and purpose—what you do, who you serve, and why.
Company core values list: adjectives
Flockjay’s core values stand out to me with their unique word choice. Like Cogo Labs, they add color with their brand voice and use appropriate bird puns. But phrases like “invest in each other,” “whole selves,” “big bets,” and “let’s do this by” give them an authentic feel.
Company core values list: verbs
Compile all of this information in one place and see what kinds of patterns you can pick up on. Whittle it down into a list of ten or so values that reflect the input. You can then have a meeting with select team members to come up with the three to five core values that make the most sense.
Company core values list: adverbs
I’ll admit it: company core values enter the cliche zone more often than not. We work together. We strive for excellence in everything we do. We put our customers first. But truth be told, there’s a reason why they’re overused. Plus, the authenticity of a company’s core values (even if authenticity is one of them) is unimportant. What matters is that they are clearly defined and actually carried out.
