Make your values non-negotiable and find the ones you really hold

1. A value is a line you do not cross

Think of your values as non-negotiables: the place where you draw the line. Break any one of them and you are gone. The reason is what putting up with a breach does: once it goes unpunished, people stop treating the line as fixed. That what you put up with ends up being your rule is section 3 of SOP 257.

The tests that go with it:

• The best-performer test. Each non-negotiable ought to be something you would let your top performer go for. If a value fails that test, it is not a real one.
• The stand-behind test. There is no gray area and no creeping around the edge of the line. If you cannot stand behind a value, and cannot make a statement of it, then it is not real.

What 'gone' allows in the way of warning, notice or process is not settled here (section 6). Ending someone's employment without it landing as a shock, and arranging for their work beforehand, is SOP 153 — Fire without surprise and plan who covers the work. Acting on a person whose results are strong and whose values are weak, and the grid's own label that reads differently from the notes beneath it, is section 5 of SOP 259, on where each person falls for values and for performance.

2. Start broad, then get specific

In one example, a founder did not begin with values this clear; honestly, the first ones were not easy to follow. At the founder's first company, the list was made of broad words, integrity and excellence among them, and others of that sort: qualities that, of course, everyone wants in their people.

Then someone was let go for breaking one of them. Afterward, the value turned out not really to be the reason for the firing. How much it mattered is not settled: the founder did not actually care about that value, or did not care about it much. The real reason was another thing, far more specific. So the values were rewritten to be far more specific, and the list got shorter.

Building systems around values is said to be what big companies do. If you are struggling to tell whether your values are the ones worth building your systems on, turn to the exercise on your firings, in section 4.

Where stated values sit among the layers of a culture, and why they have to agree with what people do every day, is SOP 258 — Build culture in layers from behaviors up, then audit it.

3. Name what you cannot stand

Sometimes, a great way to find your values is to ask yourself what you would refuse to become. Take each value you are weighing, picture its opposite, and ask yourself whether that is something you truly detest. When you work through this, it is often easier to picture the reverse of a value than to picture the thing you want.

In one example, a founder worked through their own values this way: for each one, naming the kind of workplace or colleague they would hate to have, the value being the reverse of it. Those values are not on this page. The examples below are made up to show the method; they are not that founder's.

What you cannot stand	The value it points to
People who hide a mistake until a customer finds it	Mistakes are raised early and owned openly
Deadlines missed without a word of warning	People keep their word on timing, or say early that they cannot
Blaming another team when a job goes wrong	Whoever touches the job owns how it turns out

4. Read your real values from your firings

An exercise for anyone unsure of their values: take the three to five people your company fired most recently, and write down, right away, why each of them went. The reasons show you what your values really are.

Maybe, for some of you, the answer is performance: maybe your rule is that anyone who misses quota is out, and that missing it is not tolerated. That is fine. It will not suit everybody, but it is fine; the point is to be honest about it.

How one leader speaks of people let go. Of people fired, the view offered is that they will probably do well somewhere else. That is not dislike of them as people. It says that what they did does not work on that team, and is not tolerated there.

Combine the methods. Set the things you hate beside the reasons people get fired. Their reverse is probably the reason you keep people and the reason you hire them.

5. When a value is broken in front of the team

One leader reports always having done this. When a value is really broken by someone, with others watching, the leader makes a statement of it, without saying why the person was fired. Instead the statement lists every reason for which the leader might fire a person that bears on that incident, so the team knows the culture is being protected at that moment. The message: the leader might not be able to share details or say exactly why, but is acting because it is best for the whole group.

The leader does not enjoy doing it, is no masochist, does not like acting as the authoritative one, and the team knows that. But protecting the culture matters a great deal. In this leader's view, upholding it is the leader's job, and so is setting the line: if the leader sees people doing the thing and does not draw the line, nobody else will. The aim is not to be permissive.

Leaders who keep quiet instead of standing up for the culture are described in section 6 of SOP 258. That tolerating a person who fails to live the values tells people more than any claim, and that your hiring, promoting and firing tell a team almost more than your words do, is section 8 of SOP 168, where a larger company keeps restating its values.

6. What this page does not decide for you

• What 'gone' permits. Whether someone gets a warning, notice or improvement plan before leaving over a value: Not established on this page.
• How many values. The founder's list in section 2 got shorter over time; this page gives no figure for how many values a company should hold.
• Which values. The founder's own are not offered as a model, and this page names none of them.
• What else the statement to the team contains. Beyond the reasons that bear on the incident and the message given in section 5: Not established on this page.

7. The checklist

Step	What to do
1	Treat each value as a non-negotiable: breaking one means leaving
2	Ask of each value whether you would let your top performer go for it; if not, it is not real
3	Check that you can stand behind each value and make a statement of it; if you cannot, it is not real
4	If a value is broad, you can do as the founder in section 2 did and look for the more specific thing you actually care about
5	For each value you are weighing, picture its opposite and ask whether you truly detest it
6	Write down why each of the three to five people you fired most recently went, and read your real values from the reasons
7	If the answer is performance, be honest that it is
8	Set what you hate beside the reasons people were fired; their reverse is probably why you hire and keep people
9	When a value is broken where others can see it, you can do as the leader in section 5 does: list the reasons that bear on the incident, while keeping the person's own reason private

8. What this page does not cover

Testing whether a candidate lives your values during the interview is SOP 269 (Test a candidate's values live instead of asking about them); checking culture fit against the core values you have written, as one part of a single interview, is section 9 of SOP 149. Recognizing the people who live the values is SOP 261 — Build a recognition rhythm that rewards values, not results. The rules one sales team runs on, set out in order, are section 8 of SOP 257.

Employment law is not covered on this page.