How to Use Core Values in Decision-Making

I walked into a leadership meeting last week and spotted their Core Values beautifully framed on the wall. "How do these values influence your hiring decisions?" I asked. The room went silent. Then the CEO admitted, "They don't." This company was bleeding talent (42% turnover) while watching their market share shrink. Here's the brutal truth: Core Values aren't decoration. They're your organization's operating system. According to Gallup, companies with strong, lived values have 65% lower turnover rates. Harvard University research shows teams aligned on values deliver 17% higher performance. Organizations with successful cultures see 47% more revenue growth. But most companies make a fatal mistake: confusing having values with living values. Here are 4 ways to transform your Core Values from wall art to competitive advantage: 1. Discover, don't invent Your true Core Values already exist in your organization. They're demonstrated by your best people. In EOS, we uncover them by examining who succeeds, not by crafting aspirational statements. 2. Make them memorable If your team can't recite your values without looking, they aren't guiding decisions. One client replaced "Demonstrate Integrity" with "Do What You Say." Which will people remember and apply? 3. Hire, fire, review, reward Every people decision must filter through your Core Values. Using the EOS People Analyzer, rate each person against each value. Below the bar? Coach up or out. This isn't optional. It's survival. 4. Decide by values When facing tough choices, ask: "Which option best reflects our Core Values?" Make this question standard in every meeting. The companies that outperform their competition don't just have better strategies. They have better alignment. ♻️ Reshare to help another entrepreneur see the power in mastering your Core Values

It's not enough to have logic to make decisions as a leader. A lot of the advice you’ll find on #LinkedIn regarding decision-making revolves around: -SWOT Analysis -SMART Goals -Eisenhower matrix -OKRs These tactics require data and lean heavily into only 1 of 3 of our brains. Yes, I said we have 3 brains. 1️⃣ The Brain/Mind, for Researching, Critical Analysis, Planning, and Strategizing. 2️⃣ The Heart-Mind, for Core Values and Emotional Intelligence. 3️⃣ The Gut, for Instincts, Risk Assessment, and Intuition. Leaders often face the challenge of integrating these diverse sources of wisdom. The key is not to ask the right questions but also to ensure that each 'brain' has its voice in the decision-making process: For the Brain: -What do I know to be true? -What don’t I know? -What is the best strategy? -What assumptions are present? For the Heart-mind: -How does this align with my core values? -How will this impact others? -How does this decision fit within the company culture? -What kind of legacy will this decision leave? For the Gut: -What's my initial reaction? -Is there unexplained resistance? -Do I trust myself here? -Does this energize or deplete me? Logic is over-valued in today’s society, and we have access to these other sources of wisdom. The more connected we become to our inner environments, the better leaders become at making critical business decisions. Our three brains are constantly learning to understand the nuances of our contexts over time. How have you balanced the insights from your brain, heart, and gut? #reframe #coaching #leadership #mindset

What do you believe and why? And how does that impact you as a business leader? Here are 3 lessons I've learned after 7 years as an entrepreneur. 👇 When I first started risk3sixty, I didn't know that 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 would be become so fundamental to our long term success. Saying that core values and ethics are important seems like a class you take in business school. It is academically true, but not necessarily something that turns out to be true in practice. But I have come to learn that personal principles are fundamental. 𝗪𝗵𝘆? Because in business we make tens of thousand of seemingly small decisions. Those decisions become your personal and business reputation. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲. It is an inevitable and unstoppable law of business physics. But how do you put your principles in action in business? 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗲: 𝟭. 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺. One of the things we did very early at risk3sixty was define our core values. Seven years ago it seemed like a fun academic exercise. Fast forward seven years and today we hire by our values, build them into our performance reviews, and make decisions by them. I am certain that this one action has had more impact on our culture than anything else we have done at risk3sixty. 𝟮. 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗹𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹. Jim Collins wrote a business masterpiece called Turning the Flywheel. Jim uses a flywheel as a business metaphor for gaining momentum. Like the fan blades on a flywheel used to capture wind to gain momentum, every business has its own fan blades. The CEO must focus on the flywheel to gain and keep business momentum. One day my business partner and I drew our flywheel on a whiteboard during a strategy session. It hit us like a ton of bricks. We struck clarity. Since then we have used our flywheel as a model to validate the investments we make in risk3sixty. 𝟯. 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿. Rob Campbell was a Colonel in the Army. He was responsible for 4,900 men. Under his leadership some of the Army's greatest leaders were shaped. One of the things that Rob says is that every leader should document a written leadership philosophy. He encouraged his army officers formally document their philosophy. The exercise creates time and space to think deeply about yourself as a leader. He wrote a whole book about it. As a leader it is your responsibility to know what you think, why you think it, and then live by it. I did this exercise and it made an important impact on my leadership journey. Today, we ask all of our emerging leaders to do the same as part of risk3sixty's leadership development program. --- Photo below of our business flywheel and 5 core values at risk3sixty. #cybersecurity #leadership #business

Day #22 — “What’s the best way you’ve found to build a team atmosphere/culture in the office?” We’ve lived through a horrible company culture and a thriving company culture and there is one key differentiator… LIVING THE COMPANY VALUES. I know it sounds cliche.. What do “company values” actually mean to everyday employees? But I’m telling you, after living through radical cultural change, it all comes down to who is willing to LIVE and LEAD with the company values at the center of their decisions and behaviors. I have been guilty of allowing team members who produce great financial results get away with behaviors that don’t align with our values. And by doing that, I’ve sent a message to our entire organization that our values really don’t matter. Think about it.. what kind of leader says something is important to the organization but then looks the other way when it’s easy or convenient? Our values our: A Heart for People, A Mind for Innovation, An Eye for Safety. The kicker is, you cannot just live two of them and be a successful member of our team. Success on our team means living all three values even when it isn’t easy or fun. I’ve noticed when we have a person (or an entire team) in our business that is struggling with embodying the culture we are trying to create as an organization, it almost always comes down to those people not living out our core values. And the opposite is true; our top performers think about, talk about, and LIVE OUT our core values daily. When there is a hard conversation to have with an underperforming employee, speak with a Heart for People. When a challenging project frustrates the team, step up and lead with a Mind for Innovation. When a coworker cuts a corner to get the job done quickly on a Friday afternoon, step in with an Eye for Safety. Core values are easy to live out when everything is going right and sailing is smooth. But core values were built for the hard days - the days you feel like quitting or firing everyone, the days when nothing goes to plan, and the days you don’t feel like showing up. I’m convinced if we can get a group of people living all of our core values daily… culture takes care of itself. Turner Mining Group Turner Staffing Group

Your company’s core values can actually change how your employees act (hang with me here!). Anyone who’s been following me for a while has heard me talk about heuristics – the subconscious shortcuts our brains take to make decisions. Why does this happen? Because there are so many decisions – big and small – that come our way in a day. We need to make them as quickly and easily as possible, or else we'd never get anything done. That decision ends up being what seems like the right response based on past experiences. This means, subconsciously, the majority of your decisions come from your “default settings.” So, back to core values. One of our core values at The Good is “Make Improvements, Not Excuses.” When we hit a roadblock or don’t perform as well as we should (because we can’t be perfect all of the time – we’re people), we don’t just stop. Not ideal, but it's done. It's fine that it happened. Now how do we fix it? When those situations come up enough times, and we push for improvements enough times, it becomes our default. Our brains shortcut to see problems as an opportunity to improve. 👉 That’s how we’ve created an environment where everyone is constantly growing. 👉 That’s how our client outcomes get consistently better. 👉 That’s how our expertise grows. 👉 That’s why it’s ok to make mistakes, hit roadblocks or have periods where you can’t perform the way you usually do because there’s something going on in your personal life. Because along the way, we’ve trained ourselves to see that situation as a way to improve. We created that mental shortcut because we trained our brains to make that the clear and obvious response. What values or ideals do you think drives your decision-making? 👇