The Value of Values
If this is your first experience with CityLead, or your first time reading our CityLead TakeAway, we want to welcome you! Here at CityLead, we believe that by coming together once a month as a business community, we can make each of our cities a better place to live, work, worship, play, and raise a family. In every CityLead session, we look at one of three types of leadership through a Biblical lens: self-leadership, team leadership, and organizational leadership.
Today, we’re talking about values – the foundational principles that guide everything we do in business and in life. As you go through the content in this CityLead TakeAway, we encourage you to identify one value – either personal or professional – and consider how you think about it, feel about it, and act upon it.
Some of the content in this CityLead session was inspired by the book, The Value of Values, by Daniel Aaronson.
Values Infuse Everything We Do
Even if you don’t consciously think about your values, you have them. They may be unstated or buried beneath the surface, but they influence everything – your work, your home life, your relationships, your generosity, and your involvement in the community.
Three Ways to Engage with Your Values:
- Think: Do you agree with the value? Is it valid? Is it something you want to uphold?
- Feel: Does this value resonate with your heart? Does it benefit your team, your customers, your family?
- Act: How do you put this value into practice daily?
Most people skip from having a value straight to acting on it, without truly thinking it through or integrating it into their lives. When values are only surface-level, they crumble under pressure. All three elements – thinking, feeling, and acting – must work together.
When Values Collide
Corporate values and personal values can sometimes conflict with each other. Consider a company that values both excellence and care for employees. What happens when a team member faces a personal crisis and their performance declines? Excellence goes down as care goes up – and at some point, these values collide.
Values are an art, not a science. Different seasons of business and life require navigating these tensions thoughtfully. The key is awareness and intentionality.
The Why, the What, and the Values
Think of your business in three parts:
- The Why – The purpose behind what you do
- The What – The actual work or product you deliver
- The Values – The bridge that connects why and what
Simon Sinek says to start with the “why,” while others say start with the “what.” Either way, both must be present – and values are what hold them together.
Example: The YMCA teaches children to swim. That’s the what. The why is that children are drowning – South Florida has pools, canals, lakes, and oceans everywhere. But the value that connects them? We treasure our children. We want them to grow, thrive, and become healthy adults.
Without clear values, you risk doing the wrong things or doing the right things for the wrong reasons.
Building Values in Business: The CORE Framework
Use the acronym CORE to examine how values apply across your organization:
C – Customers (or Clients)
Your values shape how you find, serve, and retain customers. Loyalty matters – it costs 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.
Example: Chick-fil-A may not have the best chicken sandwich in a blind taste test, but their hospitality is second to none. Customers return because of the experience, not just the product. Values drive that consistency.
O – Operations
What happens behind the curtain matters just as much as what’s in front of it. Your back-of-house team, your internal culture – these are people and families too. Values build culture, and culture builds reputation.
R – Risk (and Crisis)
Crises will come – whether it’s a pandemic, an economic shift, or a disruption in your industry. There are three components to risk:
- Threats – External factors
- Vulnerabilities – Internal weaknesses
- Magnitude – The size of the problem
The simple answer? Row toward the crisis. Avoidance doesn’t make problems disappear.
Examples:
- Isaac Newton was sent home during the Great Plague of 1665. Instead of wasting time, he developed his theories on gravity, calculus, and optics. He rowed toward the crisis.
- Dyson disrupted the vacuum industry by eliminating bags and improving design, while Hoover – once the dominant brand – failed to adapt. Today, Hoover vacuums look like Dysons because Dyson set the new standard.
In a crisis:
- Stay calm – everyday activities build confidence
- Act – inaction is not the answer
- Care for people – they’re confused and need leadership
- Learn new skills – be a lifelong learner (yes, including AI)
E – Employees
Good people want to know your values. They don’t just want to know what you do or why you do it – they want to understand the principles that hold it all together. Values attract the best people and inspire their best efforts.
Clarify Your Personal Values
Do you know what your core values are?
Pastor Bill wears his on a ring – three Hebrew words representing:
- Act justly
- Love mercy
- Walk humbly
Everything else builds on those. When he strays from them, he knows he’s acting against his core.
Steps to strengthen your values:
- Clarify your personal values – write them down
- Value your people – whether you lead them or work alongside them
- Exhibit your values in behavior – thinking and feeling aren’t enough; you must act
- Share your values with others – help them see what you see
- Listen and learn – none of us knows it all
The Ring in the Road
Pastor Bill once found a ring while biking – dirty, cracked, and run over countless times. After a jeweler cleaned it up, it turned out to be extremely valuable. He and his wife gave the proceeds away to their children and local nonprofits.
Here’s the point: Your values may be buried beneath something. Maybe you’ve lost them, forgotten them, or let them get run over by the busyness of life. Pull them out. Clean them up. They have great value – and they will help you lead your business, your family, and your community well.
Reflection Questions
- What is one value your company holds? What is one value you hold personally?
- Do you think about, feel deeply about, and act upon your values – or do you skip steps?
- Have any of your values collided recently? How did you navigate that tension?
- Are you rowing toward a current crisis, or avoiding it?
- Can you articulate your core values clearly enough to share them with others?
We hope you took something valuable away from today’s CityLead session. Go back through your notes, identify your top takeaway, and decide: What are you going to do about it this week?
We can’t wait to see you at the next one!
