{"id":6415,"date":"2016-05-24T01:26:12","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T06:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.managementcenter.org\/?post_type=article&p=6415"},"modified":"2025-07-14T21:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:39:23","slug":"how-to-develop-and-use-core-values","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/www.managementcenter.org\/resources\/how-to-develop-and-use-core-values\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Develop and Use Core Values"},"content":{"rendered":"

Articulating and aligning on core values is one of the most important tasks of a leader. Values describe how you aspire to operate. They help guide your approach to your work and relationships. They are a critical part of building a strong organizational and team culture.<\/p>\n

5 Guiding Principles for Core Values<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no one \u201cright\u201d way to go about discovering and codifying your values, but here are some guiding principles for developing core values:<\/p>\n

1. They should guide and ground.<\/h3>\n

Your values should serve as both the foundation for how you approach your work and relationships and a North Star when you\u2019re confronting difficult decisions or circumstances.<\/p>\n

2. They should represent who you are (or want to be) at your best.<\/h3>\n

Like goals, your values should be both ambitious and realistic. They should push you and your team to create the culture that you aspire to while being honest about where you are.<\/p>\n

3. They should set you apart.<\/h3>\n

Your values, when lived out, should set you apart from other teams and organizations. Ask yourself this: if someone spent a week observing your team and later said, \u201cWow\u2014they\u2019re unusually X,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ve never been in an organization that cares so much about Y,\u201d what would X and Y be?<\/p>\n

4. They should be defined.<\/h3>\n

Core values are just words on a page if you\u2019re not clear on what they mean for your organization. For example, is your value of \u201ccollaboration\u201d about practicing interdependence, mutual support, and collective problem-solving? Or does it mean that you care deeply about partnering with and involving stakeholders in your programs? Again, there\u2019s no right answer (and in this case, it might be both!), but the more explicit you are about what the value looks like for your organization, the more aligned your team will be.<\/p>\n

5. They should advance equity, inclusion, and belonging.<\/h3>\n

When defining your values, consider being explicit about the ways you aim to disrupt\u2014rather than reinforce\u2014systems of oppression and their impacts. For example, at TMC, we value being \u201cunusually helpful and supportive.\u201d For us, this looks like: 1) being deeply on the side of our clients, including by saying the things that may be hard to hear\u2014such as pointing out when we see bias, racism, and other forms of oppression showing up; and 2) being supportive and considerate of our colleagues, especially across racial and positional differences. Before we defined \u201chelpfulness\u201d like this, this value was closer to \u201cbe as helpful to clients as possible.\u201d Because of how implicit bias plays out, this value created uneven expectations for staff depending on their identities and roles (i.e., junior staff, women and TGNC people, and BIPOC felt the burden of \u201chelpfulness\u201d more than others).<\/p>\n

Embedding core values in day-to-day work<\/h2>\n