By
Jamey Heinze
In the long list of strategic priorities, core values are too often dismissed as ornamental. A branding exercise. A poster on a wall. A set of words recited during onboarding and forgotten thereafter. For some leaders, core values feel like corporate theater—aspirational buzzwords assembled more for optics than for legitimate operational guidance.
That skepticism is not unfounded. Many (maybe most?) organizations do approach core values in a superficial way. But that doesn’t mean the concept is flawed. It means the execution is.
Done right, core values are not marketing slogans. They are behavioral anchors. They don’t tell the world what a company wants to be—they reveal what it already is, or at least what it’s truly striving to become. This distinction is everything.
When I help organizations discover and activate their core values, I start by rejecting the premise that they need to create values from scratch. Values already exist inside the business. They’re visible in who gets promoted, who thrives, who doesn’t last. They show up in how decisions are made, how risks are evaluated, how accountability is handled. Even in dysfunction, there are values—just not always the ones you’d want to write down…
That’s why I compare the process to an archaeological dig. The values are buried in the cultural soil. The work is to excavate them—carefully, honestly—and polish them into something every employee can see, understand, and rally around.
When I first experienced this in action—at iGrafx working with Ryan Tognazzini —I was a skeptic myself. I’d seen too many lifeless value statements. But what we built at iGrafx was different. The values were real. They were lived. And they were memorable, because they were structured as a simple, powerful acronym: FLEET.
FLEET wasn’t just an internal slogan. It became the rhythm of the business. We hired to it. We coached to it. We praised and—when necessary—made tough decisions by it. Values weren’t aspirational. They were operational.
Since that experience, I’ve helped many other companies uncover and roll out authentic core values. And in nearly every case, I advocate for an acronym. Not as a gimmick, but as a memory device. Something that makes the values tangible.
Values only work if people remember them. If they’re too long, too vague, or too interchangeable with every other company’s list, they’re forgettable. But when the values are sharp, honest, and easy to reference, they begin to shape behavior—consciously and unconsciously.
Some of the value sets I’ve helped build include:
These acronyms are not contrived. The core values that form them are born from the organization’s real character. The naming follows the discovery—not the other way around.
The acid test for whether a company’s values are real is this: Can you hire, manage, and fire based on them?
If the answer is no, they aren’t values. They’re ideas. If the answer is yes—and if leaders are willing to reinforce them even when it’s hard—then values become an asset more powerful than any strategy deck.
This doesn’t require massive process overhauls. It requires consistency and a little bit of creativity:
Culture is not built in slogans. It is built by a leadership team that lives the company core values. Walking the talk every day.
In today’s volatile business environment, culture is even more of a strategic differentiator. Talent chooses companies not only for compensation and mission, but for belonging. Customers align with brands that feel grounded in something meaningful. And leaders need more than quarterly metrics to stay on track—they need a compass.
Core values provide that compass. But only if they are real. Not aspirational. Not plagiarized adjectives. Not what the marketing team thinks will play well externally. Real values. Practiced values.
If you’re a C-suite leader and you’re not sure whether your company’s values are authentic or performative, start by asking:
If not, it may be time to dig.
F3 helps leadership teams conduct that dig—carefully, honestly, and with deep respect for the culture that already exists. We help you name it, shape it, and deploy it with rigor and pride.
Because when core values are real, everything else aligns more easily. Talent decisions get clearer. Accountability gets cleaner. Engagement gets stronger. Messaging is authentic. And company culture stops being an accident.