Values Matter
- nicolemarshallmcla
- Apr 21
- 4 min read
Especially when you're back's against the wall...
Mission, vision, and values often get dismissed as corporate buzzwords. I’ve worked for companies where they were just words on a wall - referenced once a year during annual appraisals, and quickly forgotten.
But when you're in the trenches - when uncertainty is high, morale is low, and tempting options are pulling people away - these things matter more than ever. A clear mission and vision give you a reason to keep going. And values? They guide how you show up - for your teammates, your customers, your board, and yourself. Sometimes even more powerfully than strategy.
A STORY FROM THE TRENCHES
A few years ago, I joined a remote-first scale-up with a clear personal “why”: I wanted to help build an award-winning culture. I imagined us becoming the Google or Virgin of big data - a place people aspired to join, with sky-high engagement, strong financials, and proud shareholders.
But if I’m honest, we weren’t fully aligned. We didn’t have a shared view of our place in the world - and we weren’t pursuing a common vision with all our energy. The means were clear: we wanted to grow and separate from our parent company. But the why behind it all? That was still fuzzy. Our north star wasn’t fully defined.
THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED.....
Early in the new year, our CEO stepped down - followed by our CFO and, later, our CTO.
It sent a ripple of uncertainty through the company. People started to question whether they knew something others didn’t. Was it time to leave? What did this mean for our direction? Who was going to lead?
And that’s when something powerful happened: people stepped up.
We regrouped. We reflected on how we got here - and how we wanted to lead going forward. One of our first acts as a newly formed leadership team was to align on a set of values. These would guide how we’d behave with each other, our teams, and the board.
We began by reflecting on our individual core values and where we aligned as a group.
THE VALUES THAT GUIDED US
The four values we landed on became our compass:
Care - for each other, our customers, and our shareholders.
Transparency - about what we could share, what we couldn’t, and why.
One Team - not just the leadership team, but the whole company.
Impact - focusing relentlessly on what would move the needle.
These weren’t just posters on a wall. We shared them with our board and introduced them to the business, referring to them in every company meeting. And we doubled down on embedding them in our ways of working.
“Impact” helped us say no to distractions. “Care” emboldened us to challenge each other - hold ourselves accountable, and push for what was right. “One Team” grounded us during pressure-filled moments, encouraging us to debate behind closed doors but stand united in public. And “Transparency” forced us to keep showing up - even when the only update we had at our fortnightly all-hands was “no update.”
Even with the fire at our feet, we stayed committed - to each other, and to the wider team.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
In those few months, with renewed focus and values - led leadership, we:
Launched more products than the previous year
Closed more deals
Improved collaboration between key departments
Raised customer satisfaction, and
Exceeded the previous year’s engagement scores
The outcome we had hoped for didn’t materialize - but the pride I felt for what we achieved together has never left me.
WHY VALUES MATTER
I think of company values as your behavioral guide. If your mission and vision are the “what” and the “why,” your values are the “how.”
They shape every part of the employee experience: who you hire, reward, recognize, promote - and who stays or leaves.
They’re integral to your Employer Brand and the psychological contract between leaders and employees.
When your values align with your team’s, things just flow more naturally.
Clear values also enable faster decision-making. When articulated and applied consistently, they empower people across the organization to act with clarity.
WHEN VALUES GO WRONG
But values can be a double-edged sword. In an HBR article, "When Company Values Backfire", Amy Edmondson and Sandra Cha share the story of Maverick, an advertising firm where company values were interpreted in wildly different ways.
Over time, employees extended the original values far beyond the founder’s intent—equating “belonging” with the removal of hierarchy and “empowerment” with a lack of leadership structure.
We experienced this too. Even among our leadership team, “transparency” meant different things. Some believed in full disclosure, even when legal or ethical considerations made that impossible. Others saw boundaries as essential. The mismatch created tension.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Yes, we all remember cliché values tucked in a handbook or plastered on an intranet page. But when values are authentic, co-created, and lived - not just laminated - they become the thread that holds a company together when everything else is at risk of unravelling.
If you're a leader navigating change, take a moment to reflect:
Are your company values helping you move forward - or holding you back?
Values don’t need to be lofty to be meaningful. They just need to be real.
If you'd like a sounding board, or you’re wondering how to bring your values to life inside your organization, I’d love to connect.
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