Most people can’t name their core values on the spot.

They know the term. They’ve heard it in a job interview or a leadership workshop. But ask what actually matters most to them, the non-negotiables that guide their choices, and they go quiet.

That’s not a character flaw. Nobody ever sat them down and walked them through it.

I’ve worked through this exercise with hundreds of entrepreneurs and leaders. Here’s the first thing I tell every one of them: there are no right or wrong core values. There are only your core values.

Let’s break down what core values actually are, and how to find yours.

What Are Core Values?

The filters you use to interpret your experience. Core values are typically what’s most important to you.

Every day, you make decisions. What to say yes to. What to walk away from. Who to trust with your time and energy. Your core values are running quietly underneath all of it, whether you’ve ever named them or not.

Simple Definition

Core values are the deep beliefs and guiding principles that dictate how a person or group behaves, decides, and prioritizes. They act as an inner moral compass, which helps you:

  • Choose between right and wrong
  • Shape your goals
  • Steer daily decisions

Significance Of Core Values

When your values are clear, decisions get simpler.

You know what you’re optimizing for, and what you won’t compromise on, even when it’s inconvenient. When they’re unclear, everything gets harder.

You second-guess yourself. Take on work that drains you. And say yes to things you can’t quite explain later.

Clarity here isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between decisions that feel obvious and decisions that leave you exhausted. And that clarity compounds: every values-aligned choice makes the next one easier.

Here’s what changes once your values are named:

  • Faster decisions: you stop deliberating and just check the choice against what you already know matters.
  • Consistency under pressure: your choices stay recognizable even when circumstances get chaotic.
  • Strengthening trust: people learn what to expect from you, and that predictability builds trust over time.
  • A filter for fit: you know quickly who and what belongs, and what doesn’t.
  • Protection from drift: without named values, you slowly become whoever the loudest pressure in the room wants you to be.
Category For People For Business
Decision-making Say yes to the job, the relationship, the commitment that actually fits you. Weigh every hire, product, and partnership against what the company actually stands for.
Daily behavior Turn “courage” or “growth” into specific habits and choices. Turn values into team behaviors, customer practices, and operating standards.
Relationships Let your values decide how you show up for family, friends, and colleagues. Let your values decide how you treat employees, customers, and partners.
Pressure Return to your values when fear, expectations, or convenience pull you off course. Use values to guide decisions when growth, profit, or competition creates pressure.
Alignment Spend your hours on what’s actually true to who you are, not who you think you should be. Make sure your people, systems, and priorities support the company you say you’re building.

Core Values for Individuals

How to Identify Your Personal Core Values

Here’s the process I walk clients through, step-by-step.

Step What to Do
Brainstorm Ask yourself, over and over: what’s most enduringly important to me?

Write down every answer, no filtering, until you have 7-15 items.
Group Sort those items into 3-7 broader themes. “Honesty,” “keeping your word,” and “integrity” might all belong under one theme.
Prioritize Ask: if 2 of these values were ever in conflict, which one wins?

That sorts your list faster than staring at it for an hour.
Turn Into a Principle Rewrite each theme as a present-tense sentence you could actually live by.
Sum It Up Close with one sentence that captures how you want to live your whole life.

A couple of real examples from step 4: “Honesty and integrity” becomes “I am honest and have integrity in everything I say and do.” “Family” becomes “I express my love for my family by spending quality time and communicating honestly with them every week.”

It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be true.

Personal Core Values Examples

Some values I see again and again with clients:

  • Honesty
  • Family
  • Health
  • Courage
  • Freedom
  • Generosity
  • Resilience
  • Gratitude
  • Authenticity
  • Compassion

None of these are inherently better than the others. What matters is which ones are actually true for you, not which ones sound the most impressive.

My Own Story

When I ran this same exercise on my own life stories, 3 or 4 of them kept circling back to the same recurring themes:

  • Courage
  • Adding Value
  • Applied Mastery

That’s not my Why. That’s my How, the way I actually operate day-to-day, whether I’m coaching a client or running a meeting.

Core Values for Businesses

How to Identify Your Business Core Values

Here’s the process I walk teams through, step-by-step.

Step What to Do
Brainstorm Ask: What have we hired for, fired for, tolerated, and refused to tolerate?

Write down every answer without filtering until you have 7-15 items.
Group Combine those items into 3-7 broader themes.

For example, “standing behind partners” and “doing right by customers even when it costs us” could belong under one theme.
Prioritize Ask: If two of these values were ever in conflict, which one wins?

This can help you identify which values truly carry more weight.
Turn Into a Principle Rewrite each theme as a specific standard employees can use to make a real decision on a random Tuesday.

Avoid single words that sound good but offer little direction.
Sum It Up End with one clear sentence that captures what the company stands for, regardless of who is in the room.

My Old Company’s Story

I learned this firsthand at my old company, Kidorable.

I once hired a National Sales Manager, genuinely the smartest sales leader I’d ever worked with. He moved fast to professionalize things:

  • Turned our sales training meetings into accountability meetings.
  • Pushed to end a retailer-friendly return policy to protect margins
  • Wanted to personally manage our biggest accounts instead of developing the team.

He was skilled and would’ve thrived somewhere else. In under six months, I let him go. It wasn’t a performance problem. It was a fit problem.

How Core Values Shape Vision and Purpose

Once your values are clear, the next question gets easier: what do you want your business to stand for? That’s your business “Why”.

Values come first. They point you toward purpose. Purpose points you toward vision. Skip the values step, and the whole structure sits on a shaky foundation.

If you’re doing this as a team, be deliberate about who’s in the room.

  • Start with the founders.
  • Add a cross-section of roles, not just leadership.
  • Prioritize “true believers” who know the culture best over people with the fanciest titles.

How to Actually Live Your Core Values

Define Your Values

A value such as “excellence” sounds good. But it doesn’t tell you what to do.

Take each value and turn it into a clear statement that explains how you want to behave. For example-

Vague Value Guiding Principle
“I value health.” “I treat my mind and body with respect, including how I eat, sleep, and move.”
“I value family.” “I spend quality, phone-free time with my family every single evening.”

The difference is specificity.

A single word can mean different things to different people. A guiding principle removes that confusion and gives you a clear standard to follow.

When you face a decision, you can ask whether the choice supports the principle you have defined.

Set A Walk The Talk Cadence

Choose a regular time.

You can set a recurring reminder, weekly or monthly, whatever cadence you’ll actually keep. Review how well you’re living your values.

Look at and assess:

  • What you did well
  • Where your actions did not match your values
  • What needs to change next

You can set a recurring reminder, weekly or monthly, whatever cadence you’ll actually keep. Review how well you’re living your values.

Look at and assess:

  • What you did well
  • Where your actions did not match your values
  • What needs to change next

Values can easily become background words once the initial excitement wears off. A regular review keeps them connected to your current priorities and decisions.

Ask The Four Questions

Ask yourself:

  • Where did I fully live this value recently?
  • Where did I fall short, and what happened?
  • What will I repeat next time?
  • What will I do differently?

Vague reflection can leave you feeling like you need to “do better” without knowing what that means. These questions turn reflection into specific actions you can actually take.

Audit Your Calendar & Spending

Look at where your time, energy, and money actually go.

Compare those choices with the values you say are important. Your calendar and spending often reveal your real priorities more clearly than your intentions do.

This is where I caught a gap when I was at Kidorable. I could see whether my schedule reflected what I claimed mattered most. The same check can reveal where your daily life or business practices are out of alignment.

Let Values Decide

Your values become practical decision-making tools.

They help you move from knowing what matters to acting on it, especially when the easier choice conflicts with what you believe.

So, when facing a difficult choice, ask, “What does this value require of me?” Then identify the action that best reflects that value.

Asking what you “should” do can leave you weighing endless options. A value gives you a clearer standard for making the choice.

Turn Values Into Action

Core values aren’t a poster on the wall.

They’re the filter behind every decision you make, whether you’ve named them or not.

Get clear on yours, personally and in business, and hard decisions start to feel obvious. You’ll stop asking “what should I do?” and start asking “how do I live this value out loud?”

That’s exactly the kind of untangling I help with.