Core values are a set of fundamental beliefs, ideals or practices that inform how you
conduct your life, both personally and professionally. Businesses can also have and
maintain core values. These can help an organization determine how to allocate
resources, make important decisions and grow.
People and companies typically select a set of 10 or fewer core values to focus the
ways they hire and maintain staff, approach daily business practices, conduct
communications and more. These values can inform how people interact (humility,
respect, honesty), the focus of a person or business’ work (ingenuity, creativity, datadriven) or the individual responsibilities one will hold (consistency, quality and reliability).
Identifying core values for yourself or within a company can provide structure and
guidance, especially when dealing with a challenging decision or dispute. If one of your
core values is honesty, for example, you would refer back to it when deciding whether
or not a certain piece of information should be kept secret.