A lot of companies have core values. They are on the website, painted on the wall, or included in an employee handbook.

But ask five employees what those values actually mean in practice and you may get five different answers.

That is the problem with values by themselves. They can be vague.

Integrity sounds great. So does teamwork, service, excellence, or accountability. But what does any of that actually mean when someone has to make a decision on a Tuesday afternoon?

That is why we prefer Core Behaviors.

Core Behaviors take the things that matter to your organization and turn them into clear expectations for how people actually behave.

Instead of saying your value is Integrity, you might say:

We always tell the truth, even when it is uncomfortable.

Now there is much less room for interpretation.

Why Core Behaviors Matter

Core Behaviors help create clarity around what is expected from the people in your organization.

They influence how people make decisions, how they work together, how they interact with customers, and ultimately the culture of the business.

Without that clarity, you tend to see the opposite.

Decisions become inconsistent. Employees are unsure what is expected. Leaders find themselves addressing the same issues over and over again. Accountability becomes difficult because everyone is working from a slightly different definition of what "good" looks like.

Think about your own organization:

Are similar situations handled differently depending on who is involved?
Do employees sometimes seem unclear about what you expect from them?
Are there behaviors that frustrate everyone but continue to be tolerated?
Do you keep having the same conversations with the same people?

Those may be signs that what matters to your organization has never been translated into actual behaviors.

And leadership is critical here.

You cannot define Core Behaviors for everyone else and then ignore them yourself. If leadership does not model them, the organization will quickly figure out that they are just words.

What Makes a Good Core Behavior?

A good Core Behavior should be clear enough that people know what it looks like when they see it.

A few examples:

We always tell the truth, even when it is uncomfortable.
Be a fanatic about response time.
Leave your ego at the door.
View the world through another person's eyes.
Listen to understand and be present.

These are different from words like integrity, responsiveness, humility, empathy, and listening.

Those words describe an idea.

The Core Behavior tells someone what to do.

That distinction matters.

The Accountability Test

One of the tests we use for Core Behaviors is simple:

Would you hire, fire, promote, or discipline someone based on this behavior?

If the answer is no, it probably is not really a Core Behavior yet.

That sounds harsh until you think through what "core" is supposed to mean.

If you say a behavior is fundamental to the organization but are willing to keep someone who repeatedly violates it because they happen to be a great salesperson, manager, or technician, then you have told the rest of the organization what actually matters.

Performance won.

The behavior did not.

That does not mean someone gets fired the first time they make a mistake. It means the behaviors have to matter enough that you are willing to coach around them, evaluate people against them, and ultimately make difficult decisions when someone consistently refuses to live them.

Otherwise, they are decoration.

Core Behaviors and Having the Right People

Core Behaviors also give you a much better way to think about whether you have the right people in your organization.

It is easy to say someone "isn't a culture fit."

But what does that actually mean?

Core Behaviors make that conversation much more objective.

Instead of saying:

John just isn't a fit here.

You can ask:

Does John consistently demonstrate the Core Behaviors we expect from everyone in this organization?

That is a much more useful question.

Someone can be incredibly talented and still be the wrong person for your organization. Conversely, someone may strongly align with who you are as an organization but need coaching, development, or even a different seat.

Those are different problems and should lead to different conversations.

That is one reason Core Behaviors are an important part of how we think about the Right Person in Orca's Right Fit framework.

Putting Core Behaviors to Work

Defining the behaviors is only useful if you actually use them.

They should show up throughout the employee lifecycle.

Use them when you hire. Talk about them during onboarding. Include them in performance conversations. Recognize people when they demonstrate them particularly well.

And use them when things are not going well.

If an employee consistently violates one of your Core Behaviors, that should be part of the conversation. Not as some vague cultural issue, but as a specific expectation they are not meeting.

The same thing applies to leadership.

In fact, leaders probably need to be held to a higher standard because the behaviors they tolerate and demonstrate are ultimately what the organization will follow.

They Can Change

Core Behaviors should not change every six months.

But they also do not have to be carved in stone forever.

Businesses grow. Teams change. Leadership matures. Sometimes you realize the words you originally chose do not quite capture the organization anymore.

That is okay.

Review them periodically and ask whether they still accurately represent how you expect people to behave.

The goal is not to create the perfect list.

The goal is to create clarity.

Because every business already has a culture. The question is whether that culture developed accidentally or whether you are intentionally shaping it.

Core Behaviors give you a practical way to do that.