TBL: The Most Common Company Core Value Mistakes

Core values aren’t slogans. And they definitely aren’t for show.

Recently, our team has completed several projects with companies looking to refine or overhaul their core values. I’ve enjoyed this work immensely and have also begun to notice some interesting trends.

Most leaders I’ve worked with agree that core values matter. They understand that well-crafted values drive culture, clarify decisions, attract the right people and repel the wrong ones.

However, most companies don’t have values that are constructed to help them accomplish these goals and it’s not due to a lack of effort or care. If anything, the most common mistakes come from trying too hard: overthinking, overpolishing, or focusing mostly on the marketing effect of the values, rather than if they accurately represent the company’s authentic culture and desired behavior. The result is shiny art for the company’s walls or website that has no effect on their organization’s performance or culture.

Here are four of the most common company core values mistakes I see, and how to avoid them.

Prioritizing Marketing Buzzwords Over Meaningful Behaviors

Too many companies develop core values with an external audience in mind. They craft statements that sound good in a pitch deck or look nice on a brochure: platitudes like “Innovation,” “Integrity,” “Customer-Centric.” These values sound fine, but they’re too vague to be actionable or effective. If you ask 10 employees what “Innovation” means, you’ll get 10 different answers. That means it’s not a value or a desired behavior, it’s a buzzword designed to impress clients or investors.

If your values can double as ad copy, they probably won’t shape your culture. Instead, values should describe the behavior and character of the best people in your organization. For example, if you want to be an innovative company, consider something like “Keep Raising The Bar,” which describes the mindset you want people to have in a more vivid, specific way.