Your Company's Values Are Meaningless Unless You Do This

A CEO I worked with knew her company culture had a problem, and she was pretty sure its name was her VP of Sales.

He delivered results—the team consistently exceeded quota and investors loved his track record. But his 360 reviews told a different story: abrasive, demeaning, egotistical. He made smart people feel dumb.

The impact was spreading. People spoke up less in meetings. Open communication was dying. The team felt less energized.

With her Series A fundraise approaching, she faced an impossible choice: keep the high-performer who was poisoning her culture, or fire him and risk looking unstable to investors.

She had spent months crafting beautiful company values: "Respect, Inclusivity, Team Spirit." They were posted on every wall.

But when I asked her one simple question, everything clicked:

"Are you just honoring your values, or are you standing for them too?"

The Difference Between Honoring and Standing For Your Values

Most founders think having values means living them personally. That's honoring your values—and it's just the starting point.

Standing for your values means holding others accountable to them, even when it costs you something.

The CEO was honoring respect by being respectful. But she wasn't standing for respect by allowing her VP to disrespect others.

Here's the truth: Values that don't imply real, scary choices aren't really values—they're just convenient beliefs.

Where Real Values Come From

Real values don't start with your company. They start with you.

After 15 years of coaching startup leaders, I've learned this: Your company's values are always an extension of your personal values. But most founders have never clarified their authentic values.

Here's how to uncover yours:

Exercise #1: The People You Choose Look at your closest relationships and the people you’ve most loved working with. What do you most value about them?

Exercise #2: Peak Experience Analysis When did you feel most energized and alive? What values were you honoring that made those moments stand out?

Exercise #3: The Anti-Values Mirror What behaviors in others make you most angry? Your anger triggers reveal your deepest values.

Exercise #4: The "No Fear" Test What would you do if you weren't afraid? Fear often masks our true values.

The Critical Step Most Leaders Skip

Once you have a list of potential values, narrow it down to 3-5 core values. Trying to hold more than five values in your mind is difficult—you need a memorable set you can actually use.

Then, for each value:

1. Rate yourself 1-10 on how well you currently honor each value. Where are the gaps?
2. Identify the risks worth taking. What would you be willing to risk to uphold this value? Notice where fear has been stopping you from fully living your values.

The Bottom-Up Approach as the Bridge

Before defining your company values, here's a powerful approach most leaders miss: Ask your team about their values first.

Instead of just imposing values from the top, create space for individual values to flourish:

• What values, if violated, would cause you to quit?
• What are the qualities of your favorite and least favorite teammates?
• How could we better create an environment where you feel safe living your values?

The goal isn't to abandon shared company values, but to find the overlap—creating a culture where people feel safe expressing their authentic values while aligning with the company's mission.

This bottom-up input often reveals blind spots and helps you craft company values that actually resonate instead of feeling imposed.

Defining What Values Look Like in Action

For each company value, get specific about behaviors. Netflix doesn't just stop with defining the value of "Honesty." They specify: "You only say things about fellow employees that you will say to their face."

Ask:

• What specific, observable behaviors are most important to us in demonstrating this value?
• How will we know when we’re honoring our values?
• How would we know if someone was violating this value?

Integrating Your Values

Embed your values and value-based behaviors into every system:

Hiring: Create interview questions specifically designed to assess whether candidates have a history of exhibiting these values and behaviors. Use historical behavior-based interview questions rather than asking them about their values or what they think of yours; it’s much harder to make up stories about the past and you can tell how easy it is for a candidate to answer (e.g., for Honesty: Tell me about a time when you spoke your truth even when it was hard.)

Decision-Making: Before major choices, ask: "Which option best aligns with our values?"

Performance Reviews: Include values-based behaviors alongside performance metrics in your 360 surveys and review process. Define being a top performer based on both values and results, and be willing to fire top performers who violated the values or don’t embody them. Especially expect leaders to model the values.

Conflict Resolution: Return to values as your framework for resolving conflict and difficult situations.

What Happened Next

After clarifying her authentic values and understanding the difference between honoring and standing for them, the CEO realized what she had to do.

She had been honoring respect but not standing for it. Despite the risks to her fundraise, she made the hard choice and let her VP of Sales go.

The result? Her team's energy skyrocketed overnight. Open communication resumed. People started speaking up in meetings again. And when they did raise their Series A, investors were actually impressed by the culture of accountability and alignment. She ultimately recruited a VP of Sales who was not only extremely talented but a fantastic culture fit.

Teams that operate from authentic, lived values outperform those with beautiful wall decorations every time.

The gap between her stated and lived values had been costing her far more than she realized—in team morale, innovation, and ultimately, business results.

Your Next Move

Don't start with company values. Start with yours.

Block out two hours this week. Work through the exercises. Get specific about behaviors. Rate yourself honestly. Then ask the hard question:

What are you willing to risk to stand for what you believe in?

Because until you know what you'll risk for your values, you don't actually have values—you have suggestions.

And your team can sense the difference.

With love,

- Dave Kashen

P.S. The companies that scale sustainably aren't the ones with the prettiest values statements. They're the ones where leaders have the courage to stand for their values when it matters most. Forward this to a founder who might benefit from this reminder.