Your core values can transform your organization—if you know how to bring them to life
If you’re reading this, you already know how critical core values are. They align your team, shape decisions, and build the kind of culture people want to be part of.
But here’s what a lot of leaders don’t realize: your core values are only as strong as your commitment to reinforcing them.
Failing to clearly communicate and reinforce your values can cost you. Your business can lose direction. Your team morale can dip. And it’s nearly impossible to build the kind of creative, thriving culture you need to make big things happen.
If you’re feeling like your core values are little more than words on a slide deck, I want to help you make THIS the year they truly take shape in your organization.
Here are five specific strategies you can use to elevate your core values and bring them to life in your organization:
1. Use recognition as a reinforcement tool
Core values thrive when recognized in real-time. Celebrate them—whether it’s a quick shoutout in a meeting or a formal award. Recognition reminds your team of the behaviors you want to see more often.
By the same token, however, you’ve also got to call out bad behaviors. If you don’t, you send a dangerous message that your core values are optional.
Reinforce both positive and negative examples of your core values, and you’ll create a culture where those values are respected and upheld.
2. Keep it simple and memorable
If you want your team to embrace your core values, simplicity is key.
A long list of values may look impressive, but it’s unlikely to stick.
Instead, pare down your list to the essentials—three to five core values—and consider ways to make them memorable.
One tactic is to use an acronym. For example, if your values are Collaboration, Accountability, Resilience, and Excellence, you could call them the “CARE” principles. Simple, easy to recall, and meaningful.
Remember, the goal is for your values to become second nature, not an afterthought. When they’re simple, they’re memorable. And when they’re memorable, they’re actionable.
3. Show, don’t just tell
Actions speak louder than words, especially when it comes to core values. If they don’t feel authentic, your team won’t embrace them.
Nobody understands this better than Steve Kerr, the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. He’s done a fantastic job cultivating his team’s core values of joy, competitiveness, mindfulness, and compassion. He knew those values on Day One, but he didn’t talk about them at first.
“It would be hard to throw it in their face on day one, and say, these are our values,” he told me. Instead, he found ways to demonstrate those values in every practice and meeting. And after a couple of months, he wrote those values up on the board and told his team, “This is what we’re about.”
Take a page from Steve’s playbook and embody the core values you’ve established for your organization. Find ways to bring them to life as you run meetings, launch initiatives, and connect with your team.
That way, when you talk about those values more explicitly, people will instantly make the connection with what they’ve already experienced.
4. Build accountability into your culture
Core values thrive when everyone in the organization is accountable to upholding them.
I love how Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas baseball team, does this with his staff. Their core value, “Fans First,” isn’t just a slogan—it’s a way of life.
To hold his team accountable to it, Cole has a weekly ritual: each staff member sends an email sharing what they did to embody “Fans First” and recognizing someone else who demonstrated that core value, too.
By doing this, he reinforces that principle, keeps it top of mind, and surfaces compelling stories to share with fans and followers.
5. Repeat, repeat, repeat
Core values are not a “set it and forget it” exercise. If you want them to stick, you need to communicate them constantly.
Pat Kelsey, head coach of the University of Louisville men’s basketball program, takes this responsibility so seriously that he refers to himself as the CRO, or “Chief Reminder Officer.”
He recently joined me on my podcast, How Leaders Lead, where he said, “My job is not to be the CEO; it’s the CRO. That means reminding everyone of our standard every single day—whether it’s in mentoring players, recruiting, building community relationships, or promoting our program. The standard is the standard.”
As a leader, you need to embrace this same mindset. Your team should hear about your values often—through meetings, emails, town halls, or one-on-one conversations.
Repetition creates consistency, and consistency builds culture.
You’re going to feel like you’re saying them too often, but until you do, you’re probably not saying them enough.
If you want to succeed, your core values should show up in every single interaction and decision—not just in annual meetings and bulleted lists.
Your values are the invisible threads that connect your people, guide your strategies, and shape your success.
And as a leader, you can make that happen by reinforcing your core values. By recognizing them, making them memorable, modeling them, holding people accountable to them, and repeating them, you’ll build a culture that thrives.
What’s one step you can take this week to bring your core values to life? I’d love to hear your ideas or stories—drop them in the comments. Let’s make 2025 the year your values drive your team to achieve extraordinary things.
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