Core values: from compass to daily practice

Every founder has core values. Most just do not have them on paper.

They sit in how you make decisions, who you hire, who you let go, which clients you embrace and which you do not. In the beginning that works fine; you are the company, and your gut is the compass. But the moment you grow, that gut becomes a bottleneck.

Because new colleagues cannot smell what you smell. They need a yardstick. And that is exactly what good core values are: a yardstick that reads the same for everyone in the company, even when you are not in the room.

Why core values are not what you think

Most core values I encounter at companies are marketing. "Innovative, committed, people-focused." That kind of thing. No founder would be against them, which is precisely why they say nothing.

Real core values are hiring criteria, firing criteria and decision criteria. They are confronting. They exclude things. A core value that never feels uncomfortable once is not a core value but a wish.

At Glasnost one of our core values, for example, was that we were always at the front of what was happening in the world. Sounds innocent. But it also meant we sometimes parted ways with perfectly good colleagues who could not keep that pace. And we turned away clients who only wanted to follow.

How to formulate good core values

Good core values are not something you invent, but something you discover. They are already in your business — you just need to surface them.

My approach: look at the people who have been performing longest and best. What do they have in common? Not in education or background, but in how they work, how they decide, how they treat each other. Your core values are in there.

Then look at the people where it did not work. What patterns do you see? What clashed with the culture you actually wanted to build?

Three to five core values is enough. No one remembers more. And make sure they are active — so no abstract concepts but behaviour you can recognise on the work floor.

The difference between steering and preserving

Many founders think they steer the culture. In reality, the culture builds itself, and you only steer the frame.

What you can do: be consistent. Core values only work if they weigh in on every decision. Hiring conversation? Test on core values. Performance review? Test on core values. Client choice? Test on core values. Strategic decision? Test on core values.

If you do not, they are stickers on the wall. If you do, they become the compass on which you can navigate the entire business — even when you are not there.

And precisely that — a business that keeps heading the right way without you — is ultimately what scaling is about.

From three words to three sentences

The first version of our core values, written down in 2017, was openness, passion and trust. Three words that could have appeared on any company website and therefore said nothing. At least one suited us: Glasnost is Russian for openness, and anyone who knows me knows that I stand for it.

In 2020 we recreated them with the entire team. The difference was not in prettier words. They became sentences: We dare to be open. We connect over vodka. We lead the revolution. The middle one needs an explanation, and that is exactly the point of a good core value. Vodka was part of our brand and how we celebrated connection, with each other and with clients. When people heard the sentence, they asked questions. Try that with the word passion.

The real difference between a word and a sentence is that you can measure a sentence. Do you dare to be open? You ask a person's colleagues, and you get an answer. We hired people, retained people and let people go based on those sentences. We also let the culture decide who joined: I did not conduct the first interview, the team did, based on the values. If the go was not unanimous, there was no substantive interview. The result: people stayed for an average of six years, in a market where competitors managed no more than half that time. Someone who leaves after two years instead of three costs your company around 80,000 euros in recruitment, onboarding time and disruption. Work out what those extra years were worth.

You know a culture belongs to the team rather than to you when it is used against you. We had won a major pitch. I was not at the office and kept the news to myself for a while because I wanted to be there when we celebrated. Then the client emailed the entire team. A colleague said it straight to my face: "If openness is your core value, this was not your finest moment." My first thought: shit, you are right. My second: how wonderful that I am being corrected on the value our company is named after. That is the exact moment you know your culture has become bigger than you.

Core values in practice: five steps

Formulating them is the easy part. Here is how to embed them in every process, from the hiring conversation to the client relationship.

Step 1: Make them visible

Sounds obvious, but most companies do not do it. Hang them up. Literally. In the office, on your website, in your onboarding pack. Not as a design element, but as a topic of conversation.

At our place the core values hung in every meeting room, with a short explanation underneath. Not so much for ourselves (we knew them by then) but for clients and applicants. It makes visible who you are and who you are not. And that attracts the right people and repels the wrong ones. Both good.

Step 2: Build them into your hiring process

A hiring conversation is essentially a first measure of fit. Most conversations are about CV and experience, while the real question is whether someone can and wants to function within your culture.

My approach: for every core value, one or two behaviour-oriented questions. Not "are you entrepreneurial?", because everyone says yes to that. But "tell me about a moment you set something up without anyone asking you to." What they tell, and what they do not tell, is your answer.

And let your core values speak in your job ads too. Don't write about what the job entails, but about who fits with you. You get fewer responses. But the responses you do get are far more relevant.

Step 3: Test them in onboarding and evaluation

The first hundred days determine whether a new colleague grows into your culture or stays on the edge. Build the core values in explicitly: in your welcome conversation, in your 30-60-90-day check-ins, in your first performance conversation.

And dare to intervene early. If after three months someone clearly does not fit the core values, it will not get better after six. It only gets more painful for them and for your team.

Step 4: Use them in performance reviews

Here it gets uncomfortable. Because testing on core values also means having conversations with people who do perform but do not fit the culture. And those are the hardest conversations there are.

But that is exactly where culture is built or broken. If you keep a top salesperson who undermines the team culture, you signal to the whole team that results outweigh core values. And then your core values are worth nothing.

Step 5: Test clients on your core values

This is where most founders bail. Because turning away clients feels like throwing away money. But the wrong client costs you more than the revenue ever brings in: it eats your team, your margins and your culture.

So build a fit check into your sales process. Not just "can we do this?" but also "do we want this?" With this client, this way, for this budget. If it does not add up on one of those axes, it is usually wiser to say no.

And dare to part ways with existing clients that no longer fit. That is not a luxury, that is hygiene.

Putting core values in action is not a quarter-long project. It is a habit you build over years. But once it is in place you never have to carry the culture alone again; the whole company carries it with you. And that is exactly what a scalable business needs.