How to set core values for a moving company.

After Part 1 you may have thought: fine, I wrote a mission statement, now what? It still feels abstract. That’s normal. Part 2 is where it starts to click, and Part 3 is where it clicks completely. Right now you’re about halfway to a system that runs the company.

Core values are not a separate exercise from the mission. They come out of it. Take your mission and vision and ask one question:

You’re not inventing a new personality for the business here. You’re finding what is already there, the way you already make decisions, and putting a system around it so it survives without you in the room.

Start with how you already behave under pressure. How do you compromise? In a crisis, what decides it? What do you refuse to bend on even when bending would make you money?

If you look honestly and find you’re not consistent, that is the bigger problem, and it’s worth knowing now. People can see it. When the rules can go either way depending on the day, the team plays it that way.

1. 1

   Ask what you'd never compromise on

   Even if it costs you a job, a client, or your best salesperson. If you'd give it up to save the company, it was a preference, not a value.

2. 2

   Stop at five

   Everyone has to be able to remember them without a cheat sheet. If you need a card in your wallet to recall your own values, they're a wish list.

3. 3

   Check each one against the mission

   Every value should trace back to a line in your mission or vision. If you can't say which line forced it, it probably came from someone else's website.

This is the honest version of the exercise, and it’s the one most owners skip. Forget what’s on the poster. Look at what actually happens in the company this week.

When what you tolerate contradicts what you wrote, one of them has to change. Either the behavior goes or the value goes. A value nobody enforces is worse than no value at all, because it teaches the team that words here mean nothing.

The industry is full of companies with copied mission statements and copied values, the same way they copy each other’s emails and pricing. Nobody connects them to anything. That’s why they all look the same. Here are two that did it differently: every value traces back to something real.

1. 1

   “Best for our customers” forced Ownership

   Best means the job gets done right, on time, within budget. When something goes wrong, you fix it. You don't point at someone else. A company where people point fingers can't be the best.

2. 2

   “Best” forced Raise the Bar

   Best isn't a finish line. What's best today is average tomorrow, so everyone is expected to take on challenges, not just accept them. You can't stay the best by staying comfortable.

3. 3

   “Best for our employees” forced Commit to Growth

   Best for your people is more than a paycheck. It means they get better every year. Every person is expected to learn and add skills, with no exceptions.

4. 4

   “Community” forced something most companies skip

   Most companies write community into the vision and do nothing. JK's founder, Chuck Kuhn, built a 150-acre nonprofit farm on his own land that grows organic food and gives all of it to children, seniors, and families facing hunger. Not a check to a charity. A farm. Because the vision said community and he meant it.

1. 1

   “Exceed expectations” forced the Grandma Rule

   In moving, expectations are low. Customers expect things to break and calls to go unanswered. So what does exceeding that look like? Treat people the way you'd want your grandmother treated: with patience, care, and respect. Not “be professional.” Grandma. That's a feeling, not a standard.

2. 2

   “High standard of satisfaction” forced Integrity

   No hidden surprises, no fine print that moves the price, no excuses when something goes wrong. You can't exceed expectations while misleading people about what to expect.

3. 3

   Who the founder was forced Give Back

   This one didn't come from the mission statement. It came from a moment. At the end of her first year, Mary Ellen Sheets made $1,000 in profit and gave all of it away: ten nonprofits, $100 each. She had almost nothing and gave it all. That set the standard from day one. The franchises combined have since donated over $260 million to their communities.

Take the mission and vision you wrote in Part 1 and read it again. Then work through this, on paper, not in your head.

1. 1

   Ask what behavior it demands

   For each line of the mission, what does it require from every person here? Write the behaviors down before you name them.

2. 2

   Ask what you'd never compromise on

   Even if it costs you money. Even if it means losing your best salesperson. Those are the candidates.

3. 3

   Cut to five or fewer

   Make them real and make them yours. If any of them came from another company's website, throw them out and start again.

4. 4

   Walk the building

   Look at what you tolerate today. Where the tolerated behavior contradicts a value, decide which one changes. You can't keep both.

• Core values come out of the mission. Ask: what behavior does my mission demand from every person here?
• A value is something you'd enforce on your top salesperson. If you wouldn't, don't write it.
• No more than five. If you can't remember them, nobody else will.
• A value you'd abandon to avoid bankruptcy was a preference, not a value.
• Your real values are what you tolerate, not what you say. Fix the gap or drop the value.
• JK Moving: customers → Ownership, best → Raise the Bar, employees → Commit to Growth, community → a 150-acre nonprofit farm.
• Two Men and a Truck: exceed expectations → the Grandma Rule, high standard → Integrity, the founder's first $1,000 → Give Back.
• Write yours on paper, then walk the company and check whether you live them before moving to Part 3.