How Do You Define Values That Aren't Generic?
You define non-generic values by aligning them with intrinsic personal values and making them specific and relatable enough that people can connect them to their daily work under pressure. Generic values fail precisely because no one can see themselves in them — and they offer no anchor when the planning horizon gets hard.
The foundation is the link between personal and company values. Personal values drive behavior — they express people's underlying wants and motivations — so grounding company values in them produces a richer, more actionable set. People execute with energy when their values align with their employer's, so values built with that alignment have real pull, which matters most when the work is demanding.
This means grounding values in stable, fundamental human values rather than abstract corporate aspirations. The values people most want to associate themselves with are remarkably stable over time, which makes them a strong benchmark for defining company values that endure across a multi-year hold rather than reading as a passing slogan.
The clearest test for whether a value is too generic is the connection test. When values are too big or abstract for people to feel connected to, or aren't described well enough to feel relevant to daily work, that's a strong signal to revise. A value that can't be linked to actual behavior on an actual workday won't shape conduct when the cadence is under strain.
So defining real values is iterative: draft from the traits of your best people, align them with the stable personal values that motivate people generally, then pressure-test each against whether someone could recognize it in their own daily work. The ones that pass are specific and lived; the ones that fail get rewritten — and only the lived ones will hold the team together through the pressure of the planning horizon.
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