Great organizations and leaders know a simple truth: beliefs drive behaviors, and behaviors drive results.

That’s why they codify their beliefs into three to five core values. They’re typically meant to institutionalize the culture and be a guide. They create clarity around what winning behavior looks and feels like for different people with different backgrounds.

But most companies get something wrong. They understand beliefs drive behavior, but then pick their favorite words like “Excellence,” “Integrity,“ or “Family,“ put them on a wall, and hope it works.

It’s one thing to talk about core values. It’s another thing to be about them. As I wrote in Building the Best, “Talented people are not attracted to empty words, but rather the exercising of them.” Rewarding, recognizing, and living them out on an ongoing basis is what matters to your people. 

Beliefs drive behaviors. Words alone do not.

Before we go further, it’s worth stepping back and asking a simple question: What are core values, really?

What are Core Values?

Core values are guiding beliefs anchoring behavior. They define what matters most for an organization. Leaders rely on values to inform their decisions and align behavior.

The modern concept of organizational core values gained traction with the 1994 book “Built to Last“ by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. They argued that lasting companies embed “inherent and sacrosanct“ values as non-negotiable principles. Before then, there were some forward-thinking companies like Hewlett‑Packard’s “HP Way,“ which offered a behavioral ethos as early as the 1950s, an early form of values-based leadership.

Since then, 72% of organizations use core values, most list three to seven values, with five being typical.

Why Core Values Matter

While each team or organization may achieve different results from implementing core values, there is evidence of their impact.

• According to Flair HR, Prospective employees weigh culture and values heavily: 23 percent cite them as key to choosing an employer; 55 percent would quit if their values don’t align.
• One study of 160 firms found that performance-oriented cultures anchored in values drive better long-term financial results.
• However, only 21 percent embed values into performance reviews, but when they do, employee satisfaction increases by 80 percent.

Clearly, core values and being a values-based leader help deliver better performance. However, all core values aren’t created equal.  Neither are the leaders who create and communicate them.  

Why One-Word Values Fall Short

One-word values are easy to remember but hard to live out. They’re vague, subjective, and mean different things to different people. For example:

• “Integrity“ might mean always telling the truth to one person, but never breaking the rules to another.
• “Family“ might mean putting relationships first, or it might mean avoiding conflict.
• “Excellence“ might mean perfectionism for one manager and consistent effort for another.

I will take it a step further, one word, core values are lazy.  They feel like a board or CEO was told they needed some core values and wanted to make an attempt to show their employees that they tried. 

Sounds crazy, but one word core values are lazy.

Now no one wants to be told their baby is ugly, so if your one-word core values fuel performance in your business, then more power to you. 

Use Culture Behaviors Instead

If one-word values fall short, so what’s the alternative? The best leaders turn values into behaviors by going beyond core values and defining Culture Behaviors. These are short phrases that clearly define what winning behavior looks and acts like. This way, there is no confusion about what winning looks like in action.

• Translate words into culture behaviors. Instead of “Excellence,“ say “Prepare two steps ahead.“ Instead of “Family,“ say “Treat each other well.“ Instead of “Work Ethic,“ say “Next level hustle.” Instead of “Positivity,” say “Be a Fountain, Not a Drain.” Instead of “Effort,” say “Start you’re own engine.”
• Keep them short and memorable. Three to five behaviors, written as 3–5 word action statements, are easier to repeat and reinforce.
• Make them visible and repeatable. Put them in onboarding, on t-shirts, create rewards for team members who live them out in meetings, and entrench them into your performance reviews.

There aren’t perfect culture behaviors, just your culture behaviors.

Whatever ones you come up with, embrace them. Regardless of whether you were the creator or a manager implementing them, remember, culture sticks when values are lived, not listed. 

Culture sticks when values are lived, not listed.

It’s one thing to talk about them. It’s another thing to be about them.

Closing

Beliefs drive behaviors. Behaviors drive results.

If your core values are nothing more than words on a wall, they will fade into the background. But when you define them as culture behaviors, communicate them daily, and hold people accountable to living them out, they transform performance.

Great leaders don’t settle for vague words. They create clarity. They give their people a common language. They model, recognize, and protect the behaviors that lead to winning.

In the end, culture is not what you say, it’s what you do.