Real Life Examples of Building Around Core Values

While under what was likely the most intense pressure I had ever experienced to fill open positions, I remember a conversation with one of the managers I was supporting where he told me that he needed seven people with a very specific skill set by the following week. It just so happened that I had all the applications for that position in my hand as we spoke. I explained that of the five we had, two were more suited for a restraining order than a job offer, one had no relevant experience, and the remaining two were probably worth interviewing. I went on to hand him the applications and told him to let me know which seven (of those five) he had the most interest in adding to his team. He replied by saying, “Just do the best you can” and walked away.

Regardless of industry, current economic climate, or pressing business demands, I’ve rarely seen a time where any organization has too many talented team members living out their core values. What I have seen far too often has been a compromise on upholding those values, even if ever-so-slightly, resulting in a questionable hiring decision negatively impacting the culture of the organization. However, I’ve had the privilege of seeing the inverse as well. Over the last decade or so, I’ve worked with several leaders who were absolutely adamant about only adding team members who matched their core company values rather than filling a spot on their roster with whoever had the basic skills for the open position. I won’t pretend it was ever easy for them. In fact, it was harder in the moment nearly every time.  But if you remember what I learned from Terry about choosing the harder right over the easier wrong, you can guess where I’m going with this…

Several years ago, I had a scheduled lunch meeting with a friend just after he was supposed to have selected a candidate for a key role on his team. He had accepted a promotion from Deputy Chief to Chief in a fairly large city’s Fire Department and he was working to backfill the position he had been in. He and his team had interviewed several candidates with all the necessary skills to excel in the role, but none could explain why they were interested in joining this specific team; none were a direct match on what that team valued most. Since my friend had been juggling the duties of both roles for several months, it would have been so much easier at the time to select the best of that batch and move on. They did not. He and his team opted to post the position again rather than settle. That decision yielded a great person for the role, one who truly modeled the organization’s core values immediately and has ever since.

Another example is a close friend who acquired his company in 2016. I helped with the majority of staffing for his company from late 2017 until early 2022. Through that time, he always had positions to fill; a few due to normal turnover but most because they were consistently earning new opportunities. I can point to dozens of conversations during that time where he was satisfied the candidate could do the work but not sure the candidate would be a match for the values he was building the company around. As I write this, that organization has experienced 5X growth since he took over and is currently on pace to double year over year.

Two other examples are businesses that offer very specific services in their respective markets. The leaders of each maintain incredibly high expectations of their team members, and they base those expectations around the core values they detail routinely. While in very different industries, both companies have earned outstanding reputations with the clients they serve as well as throughout the communities they operate in. If you’re ever close to their areas and have a need for what either business offers, I’m confident you’d get a referral to both from nearly anyone you ask - and that all stems from how those teams live out their core values.

Since I’ve referenced so many examples from the businesses Craig and Kim operate already, I’ll skip them here. But I could go on and on about the growth I’ve seen their team experience and how their core values have been the foundation for it all. The last example I’ll share is of a friend in a leadership role in law enforcement. He took a new position in early 2022. Like many organizations where a new leader takes over, his saw nearly thirty percent turnover in just the first few months. That said, all turnover ain’t bad. The ones who chose to leave so quickly were quite accustomed to doing the bare minimum and my friend’s expectation for exemplifying the department’s core values and providing a premium level of service to their community wasn’t something they were willing to live up to. Since then, he’s developed a reputation with the citizens, business owners, and elected officials in his area like I’ve never seen.

Each of these leaders have been instrumental in how their organizations have built strong reputations in their respective areas and industries. Interestingly enough, more than half of them are also experiencing something few organizations ever do; they have a waiting list of folks who want to join their teams. And the ones that don’t (yet) are moving in that direction rapidly. None of this happens without a solid foundation built on core values. With that in mind, we’ll look at why this happens next before digging into exactly how we can do it with the teams we lead.