By Leanne Prewitt – President & Chief Executive Officer
When done well, core values drive decisions, culture and results.
A client partner asked me a question recently that a lot of leaders quietly wonder: “What’s the point of core values? Isn’t it just another exercise that looks good on a poster but doesn’t really change anything?”
He’s not wrong to ask. Most companies do values badly. They roll them out in a meeting, print them on mugs, maybe etch them in the lobby…and then never use them again. Meanwhile, leaders are making one-off decisions, managers are improvising and employees are left guessing what “good” looks like.
My reply: “What’s the cost of not doing it?”
The cost is time, energy and effort wasted explaining the vision over and over. It’s inconsistent hiring and pay decisions. It’s performance reviews that feel arbitrary. It’s culture drift. Gallup estimates disengaged employees cost U.S. companies $1.9 trillion a year in lost productivity. It’s known that the biggest driver of engagement is actually clarity of expectations. That’s what real values give you.
Core values in action.
At Ervin & Smith, our values aren’t wall art; they’re operating standards. And because we run on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), those standards don’t live in a binder. They show up in the way we run the company every day. EOS is a simple framework that gave us the tools (quarterly rocks, the People Analyzer, accountability charts) but our values are what make those tools matter.
These same principles apply in any organization. Whether you have 20 employees or 2,000, operationalizing your values creates clarity and consistency at scale. It’s what moves leadership teams towards their goals, not because it adds more structure, but because it removes the friction of misalignment. Here’s how it works for us:
1. Reviews mean something. Every 90 days, we measure performance against our values as much as against metrics. Did you hit your goals — and did you do it in a way that reflects who we are? That shift has helped us keep voluntary attrition at 14%, half of the professional services average of 28.8% as of September 2025. In an environment known for turnover, that’s a competitive advantage.
2. Pay feels fair. Before we took over, salaries were all over the board — inconsistent, negotiable and often disconnected from role or value. Today, our salary bands are tied to levels that assume alignment with values, not negotiation skill.
We’ve eliminated pay compression entirely: 0% of new hires earn more than long-tenured employees in the same band. Regular market benchmarking keeps us competitive, with on-track employees earning an average of 10% above the market midpoint (ranging from 0% to +19%). The result: pay that’s fair and consistent with fewer one-off requests, less negotiation drama and a structure that reinforces equity and accountability.
3. Hire for more than a résumé. We’ve passed on great candidates because they didn’t line up with our values. And we’ve promoted people whose résumés weren’t flashy but who consistently showed they “get it.” One study found that 89% of hiring failures happen because of culture misfit, not lack of skill. Well-defined values are how you prevent that.
4. Development actually develops. Every growth plan ladders back to values. Want to lead? You’ll need to show how you “Be real” in tough conversations. Want to manage projects? Prove you can “Own your work” when things go sideways. That clarity gives employees a path forward and managers a language to coach with.
5. Feedback isn’t personal. Correction is easier when it’s not about personality. With values, you can say, “That decision didn’t reflect ‘Give a damn,’” instead of “I didn’t like how you handled that.” It’s cultural, not personal. In our quarterly pulse surveys, employees consistently say they understand what’s expected and what success looks like. That kind of clarity builds confidence.
Care values are more than an HR exercise.
Values live in your employer brand, but because the customer experience is shaped by interactions with your team, values will shape your external brand too. So it’s important not to just pen a few nice-sounding, aspirational words. Values need to reflect what it’s actually like to work at your company AND guide the decisions that happen there every day.
Through our Next Gen Brand Blueprint™, we help leadership teams uncover and operationalize values that are both authentic and actionable. Not slogans. Not aspirations. The real DNA of how the company runs.
What transformation looks like.
Most leaders don’t call us because they want to “define core values.” They call because something isn’t clicking.
They’re feeling the drag of misalignment: the same conversation resurfacing every quarter, the same tension between departments, the same sense that growth should be easier than it is.
- “We have great people, but everyone’s solving problems their own way.”
- “I’m tired of being the translator between vision and execution.”
- “We’re hitting numbers, but the culture doesn’t feel sustainable.”
- “We’ve outgrown what made us successful, and I’m not sure what replaces it.”
The Next Gen Brand Blueprint™ process combines research, workshops and strategy to uncover what’s true about your organization and turn it into action:
- Discovery & research. We start by listening, conducting leadership interviews, employee surveys and customer insight work to understand how the company is really operating.
- Workshops. We bring teams together to align on vision, define authentic values and identify what’s getting in the way of traction.
- Blueprinting. We synthesize everything into a clear, practical framework that ties vision, culture and operations together.
- Activation. Finally, we help leaders roll it out — embedding values and systems into how you hire, lead and measure success so it doesn’t fade once the meetings end.
For some organizations, that means building the foundational systems that bring order to chaos. For others, it’s about re-centering culture to match a new phase of growth. Either way, the goal is the same: clarity that scales, culture that sustains and a company that finally feels easier to lead.
What it feels like to gain traction.
When values become operational, the payoff is obvious: more alignment, less confusion, better decisions. Leaders spend less time hand-holding. Managers know what to reinforce. Employees know what’s expected and how to grow.
That’s the ROI of core values. Not a plaque. Not a pep talk. Traction (which just so happens to be the name of the book that made EOS famous.)
So the real question isn’t whether you can afford to make your values operational. It’s how much longer you can afford not to.