Three steps to build and sustain company culture through core values

Executive overview

Most companies state their core values but fail to embed them. Culture forms only when core values drive hiring, evaluation, and communication — consistently and repeatedly.

Repeating core values through three disciplines — hiring, reviewing, and storytelling — is 80% of the battle.

Hiring based on core values

• Deliver a "core value speech" to every candidate — not as a selling point, but as a filter.
• Frame it as a warning: "This may not be the place for you."
• Walk through each core value and describe what living it actually looks like.
• Candidates who share your values will visibly light up; those who don't will disengage.
• The goal is to talk the wrong people out of joining, not to impress them.

Evaluating people on core values

• Review every employee against core values at least once a year.
• Use a people analyzer as part of annual performance reviews.
• Rate each person: above the bar, at the bar, or below the bar — and explain why.
• Real, honest conversations about core value alignment reinforce their importance.
• When people see they're evaluated on values, not just output, culture shifts.

Quarterly state of the company

• Hold a state-of-the-company meeting within one to two weeks after each quarterly leadership session.
• Cover where the company has been, where it is, and where it is going.
• Show the VTO (Vision Traction Organizer) to all staff during the "where we're going" section.
• For each core value, share one real story from the last 90 days where someone exemplified it.
• One story per value — not three. More stories dilute impact.

Consistency over time

• People need to hear something seven times before it registers.
• Run all three steps repeatedly, every quarter and every year.
• After one to two years of consistent execution, a strong culture becomes self-evident.