Why Your Core Values Aren't Driving Behavior
How values become wallpaper instead of the operating system for your company.
We spent a full day off-site working on our core values. It felt important. We brainstormed, debated, and wordsmithed until we had a list we were proud of: Integrity. Excellence. Teamwork. Customer Focus. Innovation.
We put them on the wall. We added them to the employee handbook. We mentioned them in all-hands meetings. We felt good about having done the work.
Six months later, I realized they had changed absolutely nothing.
When we made hiring decisions, no one referenced the values. When we had performance issues, the values never came up. When we faced a hard trade-off—take a shortcut to hit a deadline or do it right—the values didn't guide the conversation. They existed in a parallel universe from how we actually operated.
The problem wasn't that we didn't believe in integrity or excellence. Of course we did. The problem was that every company believes in integrity and excellence. Our values didn't tell anyone anything about what made us different or how to make decisions when things got hard.
I call this the Values Poster Problem—the pattern where companies create values that sound inspiring but don't actually shape behavior. It's one of the most common culture traps I see when coaching founder-CEOs of $5M to $50M companies, because the work feels meaningful even when the output is useless.
What the Values Poster Problem Looks Like
The pattern is easy to recognize. The company has stated values—usually three to five words or short phrases displayed somewhere visible. They sound positive and professional. No one could argue against them.
But ask employees what the values are, and most can't name them. Ask how the values influence their daily work, and you get blank stares or vague generalities. The values exist as decoration, not as an operating system.
There's often a gap between stated values and actual behavior. The company says it values "work-life balance" but celebrates people who work weekends. It claims to value "transparency" but leaders hoard information. It espouses "customer focus" but internal politics drive more decisions than customer needs.
Employees notice this gap. They learn quickly that the poster on the wall has nothing to do with what actually gets rewarded or punished. The values become a joke—or worse, a source of cynicism. "Oh, we value integrity, except when it's inconvenient."
The founder might genuinely believe in the stated values. But belief isn't enough. If the values don't translate into specific behaviors, decisions, and trade-offs, they're not values—they're aspirations. And aspirations don't scale.
Why Founders Fall Into This Trap
The first problem is that founders often create values in isolation. They go offsite, reflect on what matters to them, and generate a list that represents their personal ideals. But values aren't about what the founder believes—they're about how the company actually operates at its best.
The values that matter are the ones already present in your best people and your best moments. They're descriptive before they're prescriptive. When founders invent values from scratch rather than uncovering them from the culture that exists, the result feels artificial.
The second problem is choosing values that don't require trade-offs. "Integrity" sounds great, but what company would claim to value dishonesty? "Excellence" is safe because no one advocates for mediocrity. These aren't values—they're table stakes. They don't differentiate you or guide hard decisions.
Real values have valid opposites. If you value "speed," you're choosing it over "perfection." If you value "transparency," you're choosing it over "privacy" or "discretion." If there's no legitimate alternative that another successful company might choose, you haven't identified a value—you've identified a platitude.
The third problem is failing to operationalize. Even good values are worthless if they stay abstract. "We value candor" means nothing until you define what candor looks like in a meeting, in a performance review, in a disagreement with a customer. Values need to translate into specific, observable behaviors—or they remain intentions rather than culture.
What This Pattern Costs Your Business
The cost shows up most clearly in hiring. Without real values, you default to hiring for skills and hoping culture fit works out. You end up with talented people who don't belong—high performers who create friction, drain energy, and eventually leave or need to be managed out. Each mis-hire costs months of productivity and team cohesion.
The cost also shows up in decision-making. When values are vague or ignored, every hard decision becomes a negotiation from first principles. Should we refund this customer? Should we delay the launch to fix this issue? Should we let this person go even though they hit their numbers? Without values to guide these calls, they're slower, more political, and less consistent.
Then there's the cost of cultural drift. As companies scale, the founder can't be in every room. Culture gets transmitted through values, stories, and norms. If the values are empty, culture becomes whatever happens to emerge—shaped by whoever has the strongest personality or the loudest voice. You lose the ability to deliberately build the company you want.
Finally, there's the retention cost. Good people want to work somewhere that stands for something. When values are wallpaper, the best employees feel it. They see that what the company says and what it does don't match. They start looking for a place where values are real.
What a Real Values System Looks Like
Effective values are discovered, not invented. They come from examining your company at its best—the moments when everything clicked, the people who exemplify what you want to be, the decisions you're proudest of. The question isn't "what should we value?" but "what do we already value when we're at our best?"
Real values require trade-offs. Each value should have a legitimate opposite that another company might choose. If you value "move fast," you're explicitly deprioritizing "be careful." If you value "debate openly," you're choosing that over "defer to hierarchy." The trade-off is what makes it a real value.
I often use the concept of anti-values with clients. For each value you claim, ask: what's the opposite, and would a reasonable company choose it? "Customer obsession" has a valid anti-value—some companies deliberately optimize for operational efficiency over individual customer needs. "Integrity" doesn't have a valid anti-value—no company says "we value dishonesty." If you can't identify a legitimate opposite, you have a platitude, not a value.
Values are tied to specific behaviors. "Transparency" becomes real when you define it: we share financial information with the whole team, we give feedback directly rather than talking behind backs, we explain the reasoning behind decisions even when it's uncomfortable. Behaviors make values observable and holdable.
Values are used in hiring and firing. The ultimate test: would you not hire an otherwise qualified candidate because they don't fit a value? Would you let go of someone who hits their numbers but violates a value? If the answer is no, the value isn't real. It's a preference, not a requirement.
Values are reinforced through stories. Culture spreads through narrative. When someone exemplifies a value, tell the story. When someone violates a value and there are consequences, that becomes a story too. Stories teach people what actually matters far more effectively than posters or handbooks.
How to Know If You Have This Problem
There's a simple test. Ask five employees—not your leadership team—to name your company's values without looking them up. Then ask them to give an example of a decision or behavior that was shaped by one of those values.
If they can't name the values, or if the examples are generic, your values aren't penetrating. They're not part of how people think about their work.
Here's a harder test: think about your last three hiring decisions. Did values explicitly factor into any of them? Not "this person seems like a good culture fit" but "this person clearly demonstrates our value of X, as evidenced by Y." If values weren't part of the hiring conversation, they're not real selection criteria.
And the hardest test: have you ever parted ways with someone—or seriously considered it—because of a values mismatch, even though their performance was acceptable? If values only matter when someone is already underperforming, they're not values. They're a convenient excuse.
Where to Start
Don't start by writing new values. Start by examining what's already true.
Think about your best employees—the ones who embody what you want the company to be. What do they have in common beyond skills? How do they approach problems, treat colleagues, make decisions? The values are hiding in their behavior.
Think about your proudest moments as a company. What was happening? What made those moments possible? What would have been different if you'd had different priorities? Again, the values are in the story.
Once you have candidates, apply the anti-value test. For each one, articulate the legitimate opposite. If you can't, it's not a real value—it's a platitude. Keep refining until you have values that represent genuine choices.
Then operationalize. For each value, define three to five specific behaviors that demonstrate it. What does this value look like in a meeting? In a customer interaction? In a disagreement? Make it concrete enough that someone could observe it and say "yes, that's the value in action."
Finally, start using them. Reference values in hiring conversations. Bring them up when making decisions. Tell stories about them. Call out when they're violated. Values become real through repetition and reinforcement, not through announcement.
Questions for You and Your Team
Before moving on, take a few minutes to reflect on these questions. The goal isn't to have perfect answers—it's to surface whether your values are actually shaping behavior or just decorating the wall.
Can five random employees name your values and give a specific example of each one in action? If the values aren't in people's heads and connected to real behavior, they're not operating.
For each of your values, what's the legitimate opposite that another successful company might choose? If there's no valid anti-value, you've got a platitude, not a differentiator.
Have you ever not hired someone—or parted ways with someone—specifically because of a values mismatch, even when their skills or performance were acceptable? The willingness to make this call is the test of whether values are real.
What to Do Next
If this pattern sounds familiar, you're not alone. Most companies have values on paper that don't translate into culture in practice.
If you want to see where your Culture systems stand relative to other growth companies, take the Growth Readiness Assessment. It's a free 15-minute diagnostic that scores your business across six dimensions, including Culture.
Take the Growth Readiness Assessment
If you'd like help discovering your real values or building a culture that scales with intention, I offer a free 60-minute consultation.
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About the Author
Bruce Eckfeldt is a strategic business coach and exit planning advisor who helps founder-CEOs of growth-stage companies scale systematically and exit successfully. A former Inc. 500 CEO who built and sold his own company, he brings real-world operational experience to strategic planning and leadership development. He's a certified ScalingUp and 3HAG/Metronomics coach, Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), an Inc. Magazine contributor, and host of the "From Angel to Exit" podcast. Bruce works with growth companies in complex industries, guiding leadership teams through growth challenges and exit preparation. Reach him at bruce@eckfeldt.com with any questions or if you want more information or to book a call with him.
