What is a core value in a founder-led company?
In our judgment, a core value is a standard the company already keeps when keeping it costs something. The founder should be able to point to a decision where the standard changed the outcome, at a price in revenue or in an awkward conversation with a customer.
A goal describes something the company has yet to do. Say the founder wants delivery to get faster. Until the company has evidence that it already behaves that way, faster delivery belongs in this year's milestones as an improvement. Listing an ambition as a core value gives the team an inaccurate account of how the company operates.
Some behavior is expected of every business, such as paying people correctly and on time. A value of that kind earns its place only when the company has written what it does when meeting the obligation becomes inconvenient. Without that detail, it belongs in the operating policies.
How many core values should a company have?
The Founder Blueprint captures three to seven core values and one core purpose, written as a single sentence. The limit exists because the plan should hold no more than a team can remember, and the plan fits on one page, two at most.
When the founder has more candidates than that, check for overlap first. Two entries that describe the same behavior and settle the same decisions for the same reason are one value, so combine them and keep the stories behind both.
A candidate that describes a future improvement belongs in the discussion of this year's milestones. Check whether a routine requirement is already covered by the operating policies. Keep the leftovers in the founder's working notes. The published plan should give the team one vocabulary it can remember, which our guide to why a founder's operating system stops being used covers for every part of the plan.
Who should write the values?
In the Founder Blueprint, the founder sets the core purpose and the values with the coach at the one-day Founder's Vision Session, before the leadership team is involved. Purpose and values are worked as one block of that day, and the coach tests every entry against the business as it stands. Our guide to setting the vision alone or with the team covers why the founder writes this part, and the exceptions.
As with the rest of the vision, equal co-founders write the values together. In our judgment, each should bring examples from the company. A disagreement about whether to accept the cost a value carries needs settling before the value reaches the team.
Where do the candidate values come from?
The founder's written pre-work for the session draws candidates from what the founder has done under pressure and from what people in the company repeatedly do.
What would you refuse to compromise in a brutal quarter?
The pre-work asks: "What will you refuse to compromise, even in a brutal quarter?" Picture the hard quarter. Cash is tight and a big client is wobbling. The answers become candidate values, and the coach tests each one against how the founder has behaved under pressure.
Write the action you would still take and what it would cost. Then recall a decision where you faced that cost. A claim about what you would protect is weaker evidence than a decision you have already made.
What do your best people repeatedly do?
The pre-work asks who represents the best of the company and what they repeatedly do, with two or three names and the behavior each one repeats. These examples are part of the founder's preparation for the session.
Describe the action and the situation that brings it out. A repeated action gives a value a practical meaning. Praise such as "great attitude" gives the coach nothing to test.
Who has failed on values, whatever their results?
The pre-work also asks for two or three people who have failed, or are failing, on values, whatever their results. Strong results with the wrong behaviors belongs on that side. Describe what each person repeatedly does, and add the cost to the company where you can identify it.
In our judgment, this part matters most where revenue has made a behavior easier to excuse. If the founder has tolerated the same behavior from a high performer, the proposed value may describe the company the founder wants more than the company as it operates today. Settle that with the coach before the value goes in the plan.
How do you turn those examples into candidates?
The pre-work asks for names and specific behaviors in place of value words, and tells the founder to skip "integrity". Write what the person does.
The pre-work's own example reads: "Maria calls the client before the client spots the issue." Anyone in the company could recognize that action. The next useful detail is what made the call uncomfortable, perhaps the risk that the client would hold back further work. The action and its cost give the founder something to test.
How do you write each value?
Write each value as a short label followed by one sentence describing behavior someone could observe. Use words the team already uses. The sentence should say when the value applies and what a person does.
As a hypothetical illustration, say a commercial roofing company starts with the word "integrity". Its founder has examples of crews reporting defects before customers found them. The value could read:
- Report problems early. We tell the customer about a defect as soon as we confirm it, including when the news could delay payment.
The reference to payment states the cost the company accepts. Detailed procedure, such as who makes the call, stays in the process documents. Test the label on someone new to the company. If it needs the founder's explanation before it connects to the sentence, replace it with plainer words.
How do you test a value?
The Blueprint sets two requirements. In the Vision Session the coach holds every value to the rule that "a value needs enough meaning to settle an uncomfortable decision." Before the first team day, the founder prepares one true story from the company for each value, a moment someone lived it. We recommend looking for that story while the value is still a candidate, because a value with no story is hard to present. The other rows of the table are our own practitioner checks.
| Test | Question to ask | Sign it fails | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision rule (Blueprint) | Which uncomfortable decision does this value settle? | The wording supports either choice | Rewrite the sentence around the action the company takes, then test it again |
| Company story (Blueprint, before the first team day) | Which true company story shows someone living it? | The founder can offer only an imagined example | Review the candidate with the coach |
| Observable behavior (our check) | What would we see someone do? | The sentence names a virtue without an action | Rewrite it around an action the team would recognize |
| Founder consistency (our check) | Has the founder kept this standard under pressure? | The founder makes exceptions when they are commercially convenient | Settle the contradiction with the coach before claiming the value |
| Distinct meaning (our check) | What does this value settle that the others do not? | Another value already governs the same behavior | Combine the two and keep the stories behind both |
In the roofing illustration, the uncomfortable decision is whether to report a confirmed defect before the customer has paid, and the sentence settles it. The value still needs a true company story before the founder presents it. In our judgment, a story about a pleasant, easy job says little about behavior under pressure, so we recommend a moment that shows what made the decision difficult and what the person did.
How does the core purpose relate to the values?
The Blueprint captures one core purpose in one sentence. The founder's pre-work asks for the story of why they started, bought or chose to lead the company, and the purpose usually sits inside that story.
We treat the values as the standard for how the company behaves while it serves that purpose. Write the purpose sentence first, from the founder's reasons, then check each value against it. The customer side of the plan is a separate section, covered in our guide to what a founder's plan should say about the customer.
How does the leadership team use the values?
At the first team day, the founder presents the finished vision with one true company story for each value. The leadership team then builds the execution against it: this year's milestones, the critical functions, the people moves, the core processes, the weekly scorecard and the meeting cadence.
When a hard call comes up, name the value it turns on and read its behavior sentence. Decide the action that follows and state the cost the company is accepting. Record the decision with the value it rested on, so the next leader facing a similar choice has a precedent to consult.
The values stay stable between annual reviews, when the founder refreshes the vision. In our judgment, a value that proves costly in a dispute is a reason to apply it with care, and a question about its wording waits for the review. Rewriting a value in the middle of a dispute makes the standard harder to rely on.
Where should we start this week?
Four steps produce a working draft:
- Write what you would refuse to compromise in a brutal quarter, with one past decision that shows how you behaved when cash or a client relationship was under pressure.
- In private notes, list the people who represent the best of the company and the people whose behavior has cost it, with the action each one repeats.
- Draft each candidate as a short label and one behavior sentence. Combine the overlaps and move future improvements to the year's milestones.
- Test what remains against an uncomfortable decision, and find one true company story for each value.
Bring the candidates you cannot settle to your vision work with the evidence behind them. In the Founder Blueprint, the values are set in the founder's session with the coach and become part of the plan the leadership team builds the year against. Our guide to how founders scale past $5M covers the other parts of the one-page direction.
Frequently asked
Give each value a short label and one sentence describing behavior someone could observe, including what a person does when following the standard costs something. Test the wording against an uncomfortable decision in your business. Before presenting a value, prepare one true company story that shows someone living it.
The Founder Blueprint captures three to seven core values and one core purpose written as a single sentence, because the plan should hold no more than a team can remember. Combine candidates that describe the same behavior and settle the same decisions for the same reason, and consider future improvements when setting the year's milestones.
In the Founder Blueprint, the founder sets the core purpose and values with the coach at a one-day Founder's Vision Session, before the leadership team is involved. Equal co-founders write them together. The founder presents the finished vision at the first team day, and the leadership team builds the execution against it.
The Blueprint's session rule is that a value needs enough meaning to settle an uncomfortable decision, and before the first team day the founder prepares one true company story for each value. We also recommend reviewing any value the founder has set aside under commercial pressure, or has let a high performer break.
When a hard call comes up, name the value it turns on, read its behavior sentence and decide the action that follows. Record the decision with the value it rested on. In the Blueprint the values stay stable between annual reviews, when the founder refreshes the vision.
Next step
If much of the company's direction is still unwritten, the Leadership Scorecard is a ten-minute self-assessment across twelve leadership dimensions and the six drivers of founder-led growth, and it shows where the company still depends on you.