Why do some teams thrive while others struggle? The secret often lies in their team’s core values, the guiding principles that shape a team’s culture and drive success.
Establishing clear core values allows your department to break free from outdated practices, unify employees, and foster innovation. You’ll also attract top talent that aligns with your company’s overarching mission.
In this article, we’ll explain what core values are, how to create them for your department, 10examples of team core values to consider (including sales team core values), and more. Let’s get started!
Key Takeaways
- Team core values are foundational principles that guide behavior and must align with company values.
- Creating core values involves selecting team members, brainstorming, narrowing the list, crafting statements, and sharing widely.
- Top core values include communication, collaboration, creativity, learning, organization, passion, respect, balance, leadership, and goal alignment.
- Increase staff visibility through office signage, team meetings, employee recognition, and social media.
- Strong values promote positivity, encourage teamwork, and improve employee performance.
What Are Team Core Values?
Team core values are the fundamental beliefs that guide a team’s actions and decisions. Essentially, they represent the essence of your group’s culture and work environment.
For example, values like collaboration and mutual respect will shape how team members interact. Values like creativity and organization, on the other hand, shape how they perform.
Your team’s core values should always align with your company’s corporate values. This will help create consistency and foster a cohesive environment across your brand. When team core values reflect your organization’s core principles, it strengthens unity and purpose.
Simply put, core values represent the foundation of a successful team, influencing motivation and overall effectiveness. Now you just need to know how to create them…
How to Create Team Core Values
Now that we know what team core values are, we can start creating them for our individual departments. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds. Just follow this five-step process.
Choose Team Members
First, choose team members to help define your core values.
These individuals should embody the spirit of your team and reflect the principles you want to promote. They should also be passionate, open-minded, and willing to contribute.
If possible, gather a diverse group. If each team member represents a different role and perspective, you’ll give yourself access to more ideas. Your entire team will feel valued as well. After all, you considered them throughout this important process.
Brainstorm Values Together
Once you’ve picked your team, you can start brainstorming.
Start with each team member’s personal values.
- What do they care about?
- Which aspects of the current team culture do they like and dislike?
- What did they appreciate about past teams they were a part of?
- Which companies and/or business leaders inspire them to achieve more?
This simple exercise will give you a ton of core values to work with. And if it doesn’t, dig deeper. Ask yourself, “What does the perfect team look like to me?” Then go from there.
Narrow Down the List
At this point, you have a large list of team core values. Now you need to narrow it down.
Cut out every principle that contradicts your company’s core values. If your team isn’t aligned with the organization’s objectives and beliefs, you won’t succeed. Don’t make this mistake!
Next, look for similarities. If multiple people on your team have the same values, you should incorporate those principles. Otherwise, you risk marginalizing your team.
Create Value Statements
You now have your core team values in place.
Bonus points if your entire team agrees on the values and feels like they represent their fundamental beliefs. This isn’t always easy to accomplish. But your work isn’t finished yet…
Turn your core values into memorable value statements. For example, the value of “team collaboration” could become “teamwork makes the dream work”. While the value of “continuous learning” could become “stop learning, stop growing”. You get the idea.
Why is this important? Value statements are easier to remember than basic values. Your team is more likely to adhere to your chosen principles over time.
Share Values With Employees
Host a department-wide meeting to let everyone know what your team core values are. Send emails and Slack messages to get the word out. If you share a physical office space with your team, create posters with your value statements and hang them on the walls of the company Headquarters.
This is important because your team won’t embody your values if they don’t know what they are. And if they don’t embody your values, your department won’t achieve success. So, do whatever you can to broadcast and instill your chosen values in your employees.
10 Examples of Core Company Values
Strong teams are built on clear and meaningful core values. These examples will help you identify principles that inspire performance and unity:
1. Open Communication
Core Value Statement:
We encourage honest, respectful, and transparent communication so every team member feels heard and informed.
Open communication creates a safe space where everyone can share their thoughts and ideas.
Employees are more likely to express themselves when they feel comfortable. This can lead to deeper engagement, higher productivity, stronger collaboration, better problem-solving abilities, and more valuable feedback. Basically, open communication is critical to team success.
If you choose this core value, remember to also emphasize active listening. Open communication won’t do your department any good if team members don’t listen to each other.
2. Team Collaboration
Core Value Statement:
We work together across roles and responsibilities, combining our strengths to achieve shared goals.
According to a recent Stanford University study, teams that work well together are 50% more productive than teams that don’t.
It makes sense when you think about it. Effective collaboration combines everyone’s ideas, skill sets, and preferences. When this happens, employees are able to work on projects they’re good at and enjoy. How could they not be more productive in this kind of scenario?
Collaboration also helps foster a sense of belonging. Once your employees feel like they’re working towards the same goals, team morale will improve.
3. Individual Creativity
Core Value Statement:
We value original thinking and empower team members to contribute ideas that drive innovation and improvement.
The value of individual creativity encourages team members to think outside the box.
When your team is empowered to share their unique ideas and perspectives, your company will experience massive innovation. Why? Because your employees will have the freedom to explore new tactics and processes. This will lead to fresh solutions.
Plus, a focus on creativity will ensure your work environment is dynamic and exciting at all times. More often, this will help drive success in all projects.
4. Continuous Learning
Core Value Statement:
We commit to ongoing growth by seeking new knowledge, developing skills, and learning from experience.
The term “continuous learning” refers to the ongoing pursuit of knowledge.
By making this one of your team’s core values, you’ll encourage team member growth and satisfaction. When people get better at their jobs, they usually produce better results for their organizations. And when they produce better results, they usually enjoy their time at work more.
Because of this, continuous learning is an important value. In fact, you should consider adding it to your company’s core value list, too. Doing so will improve performance across the board.
5. Clear Organization
Core Value Statement:
We prioritize structure, clarity, and accountability so everyone understands their role and how their work contributes to success.
Clear organization is essential to success. When tasks and responsibilities are well-defined, everyone knows their roles. This clarity reduces confusion and keeps projects on track.
An organized approach will also help your team communicate with each other and prioritize their efforts more effectively. These things tend to boost morale and productivity.
In a nutshell, clear organization will transform the way your team works and improve its ability to achieve goals. As such, it’s a worthwhile core value for most departments.
6. Passion for Work
Core Value Statement:
We bring energy and purpose to our work, taking pride in what we do and striving to make a meaningful impact.
Do your employees care about the work they do?
If you want to impact your company in a positive way, you need to stoke the fires of passion inside your team. This will lead to higher engagement levels and better business outcomes.
The good news is that passion is often contagious. If you can get one employee to care, they might be able to get their colleagues to care too. So, consider making passion for work a core value. It might just be the inspiration your team needs to reach its goals.
7. Mutual Respect
Core Value Statement:
We treat one another with dignity, professionalism, and empathy, creating a workplace built on trust.
There’s no doubt about it, mutual respect is a game-changer.
When employees are treated like capable individuals, they’ll gain confidence in the workplace. This confidence will lead to better communication and creativity. After all, they won’t feel self-conscious about sharing their ideas with their colleagues.
Respect for leadership matters because employees are more likely to follow leaders they trust, especially during difficult times.
Ultimately, mutual respect improves individual performance and enables team success.
8. Work-Life Balance
Core Value Statement:
We support healthy boundaries and personal well-being so our team can perform sustainably and thrive long term.
Surprised to see work-life balance on our list of example core values? Don’t be.
While some managers want their employees to work 24/7, the good ones know that balance is key to performance. Your team will produce subpar work if they’re always burned out.
So, the question is, “What does work-life balance look like as a core value?” Start with paid vacation time for your employees. That way, they can rest and recharge. Then invest in things that boost company culture. Catered lunches? Comfy office chairs? Swingin’ office parties? Find ways to make the work experience more enjoyable, and your employees will thrive.
9. Strong Leadership
Core Value Statement:
We lead with integrity, clarity, and accountability, guiding our teams with fairness and purpose.
You should definitely have core values for specific factions on your team. This is especially true when it comes to leadership or sales team core values for revenue-focused departments. How should you and the rest of your managers behave?
For example, you might want your leaders to hold employees accountable. Or delegate tasks based on employee strengths and interests. Or encourage employees to work harder and achieve more. Or build an enjoyable work environment that employees want to be a part of.
If you make “strong leadership” one of your core values, make sure you define what that looks like. If you don’t, your team won’t have a tangible target to aim for.
10. Focus on Company Goals
Core Value Statement:
We align our efforts with company objectives, ensuring our work contributes to shared success.
We said it before, but we’ll say it again…
Your core team values need to align with your core company values. If they don’t, your department will be working at cross purposes with the other departments in your organization.
So, why not make this an actual, set-in-stone value for your team? Commit to making every goal something that will benefit your entire organization. Hard work, customer satisfaction, higher revenue numbers… Get behind the things that your company wants to achieve.
How to Increase the Visibility of Company Values
Now that you’ve settled on a few values, you need to share them with your team. Skip this step, and your employees won’t know how to behave in the workplace. Here are some ideas:
Office Signage
Print your value statements on a few poster boards, plaques, etc. Then hang them up around the office. That way, your employees see them regularly. Consistent reminders like this will help build positive habits.
Eventually, your staff will naturally embody team values.
Team Meetings
Reinforce your values in team meetings. After you receive reports, give next steps, or acknowledge standout employees, tell them to “prioritize open communication,” or “have mutual respect for each other,” or whatever you stand for.
Again, these little reminders will do wonders for team morale and employee performance. Take every opportunity to promote team principles.
Employee Recognition
Team members who receive great recognition are more likely to engage in their work than team members who receive poor recognition. In other words, you should acknowledge your employees’ efforts regularly. When you do, take a moment to share values.
You can even make it a part of your praise. For example, you can say, “Well done, Jamie! Your collaboration with John was a huge success. Keep working that way with others on the team.“
Social Media Content
Level up your social content by communicating the company’s core values in your posts. What would this look like in a real-world scenario? Take a picture of your team working and publish it on LinkedIn.
Then caption the post with something like, “Hard at work today. Love to see the passion these people have for our mission. I couldn’t ask for a better team to work with!” This will promote team values to your current staff and show future staff what your team cares about.
The Benefits of Using Team Core Values
Strong company values will guide your organization to success.
Team values will do the same thing, just on a smaller scale. Here are a few specific benefits you’ll experience after you choose and implement core values for your department:
- Promotes Positivity
As we alluded to, strong values will help your team achieve more. When employees consistently reach their goals, they tend to be more positive. This is important because positivity improves company culture, which will ensure your team enjoys their jobs and gives their all. At the end of the day, a happy, harmonious work environment is beneficial to everyone.
- Encourages Teamwork
Team values will improve employee collaboration as well. When team members work towards the same goals, they tend to be more engaged in their careers and motivated to perform. These things will benefit your business too. Engaged and motivated workers are more productive, do their jobs more effectively, and achieve more success for their employers.
- Improves Employee Performance
Last but not least, your organization’s core values will lead to better employee performance. Your team will know exactly what to do and how to do it. They’ll also know the traits and behaviors that your company appreciates. Armed with this knowledge, your workers will be able to reach new levels of success on an individual level and as part of your department.
Make Employee Recognition a Core Value
Strong team values will supercharge your company. When your employees have positive attitudes, work well together, and perform at a higher level, greater success is almost inevitable.
But there’s one important value we haven’t talked about yet: employee recognition.
Employee recognition will help you engage your team, improve satisfaction, and reduce turnover. In other words, it will help you reach your goals more consistently. Why is that? Because employees want to feel valued and appreciated. By acknowledging your team’s efforts, you’ll encourage them to put in more effort and elevate their performance.
Use Kudoboard to create group cards that everyone can sign. Add photos and videos for a personal touch, then send the card to thank employees for their efforts.
Simplify Employee Recognition
Show your team how much you value their efforts with timely group cards
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is teamwork a core value?
Teamwork drives productivity and results. Stanford University found that teams that collaborate well are 50% more productive. When employees combine their skills toward shared goals, they accomplish more and build stronger workplace connections.
Why are core team values important?
Core team values provide clarity and direction. They guide decision-making, shape workplace culture, attract aligned talent, and keep teams unified during challenges. Without them, departments lack focus and consistency.
What are the 6 values of a team?
Six team core values include open communication, collaboration, mutual respect, continuous learning, accountability, and innovation. The best values genuinely reflect what your specific team cares about.
What are good team values in a successful project?
Good team values for successful projects include clear organization, accountability, collaboration, adaptability, and goal alignment. These values maintain focus, reduce confusion, and help teams work efficiently toward completion.
What are some sales team core values?
Sales team core values often include customer-centricity, resilience, competitive drive, integrity, goal orientation, and adaptability. These values help sales professionals build trust, overcome rejection, and consistently hit targets while maintaining ethical standards.
About the author:
