The Best 3 Core Values for Success at Work and in Life

In our last blog, we talked about three simple things you can do to build a great organizational culture.

The three steps were to:

Identify your core values
Develop an ethos to practice your core values to create your culture
Continually improve your core values, ethos and culture

The point is that if you take each of your core values and transform them into 2-3 specific behaviors that practice that core value, you can intentionally create your organizational culture. You can align and synergize your culture so you get the best performance from your team.

It’s simple. You become what you do, what you practice. If you practice 2-3 behaviors for each core value, your core values will become your culture.

That sounds good, but what core values should you choose? What are the right core values?

One organization I work with has nine core values and 30 corresponding statements.

Another I know has six core values, but very few employees know them, much less intentionally use them.

Are core values supposed to guide team behavior or function as little more than a public relations statement? Few companies transform the values into specific practices. Even fewer measure whether their values are being practiced or not.

So, what are the answers?

Let’s start by understanding the broader context around core values.

We know from earlier blogs that the key to success at work is having high-trust relationships with your team and with your clients. High-trust relationships with your team increases employee engagement and productivity. High-trust relationships with your customers brings more business.

That means that you want to choose core values that build the highest-trust relationships with your team and customers.

It gets better. Remember, you achieve Happiness in your personal life and success in your work life the same way: by developing high-quality, high-trust relationships with others. The same values that will bring you success in your personal life will bring you success in your work life.

If you do it right, you’ll choose a single set of core values that cover success in all aspects of your life.

If you choose a lot of core values, you get the advantage of a long, inclusive list of values. No values get left out.

On the other hand, if you have too many core values, then the values lose strength because there are too many to learn and practice.

Your average person is max’ed out at three core values. Three is the most people can understand and actively apply. To be most effective, limit yourself to three core values.

How do you balance a desire for a long list of values with a limit of three?

The answer is this: Choose three core values that can be easily unpacked into all the other values in your company and in life.

Putting all of this together, you want three core values that build high-trust relationships in your work and personal lives, and can be unpacked into all the other important values.

That brings us to the three core values that are critical for developing great relationships: Wisdom, Performance and Love.
The Best 3 Core Values
Wisdom: Knowledge + Character
So, what is Wisdom? Wisdom is the combination of knowledge and character. That means that wisdom unpacks into knowledge and character.

More specifically, wisdom is your knowledge of the Truth combined with your ability to live the Truth. It can be as simple as having the knowledge that cigarette smoking is bad for your health combined with the strength of character to avoid smoking.

The more knowledge you develop about the Truth and the more you develop your character practicing that knowledge, the more wisdom you gain. It’s a continuously improving cycle. That’s why wisdom comes through experience.

The more people trust your knowledge about something, the more they will follow you and the better your relationships. The more people trust your character—especially in difficult situatio...