April 10 2026
Eric Douglas

A Key Trait of Successful Leaders: Leading with Core Values

A Key Trait of Successful Leaders: Leading with Core Values/ LRI

A colleague asked me recently what I saw as the most important traits of successful CEOs. I
began ticking through the things that I have written about, especially in my book The Leadership
Equation. One thing stands out, I said. A great CEO takes the time to articulate and then lead
from a set of core values. These are the values that the organization itself would say are
essential to the long-term, sustainable success of the enterprise.

“Too often,” I said, “I see a list of core values that feels hollow, that doesn’t really reflect what drives the organization. You see a nice set of statements, but there’s no genuine commitment that these are the drivers of everything we do.”

Leading with core values means taking the time to engage in a deep exploration of what truly is essential to your organization’s success. It begins with exploring questions like these: “What would someone who is acting in the best interest of this organization say is most important to ensure its success?” “What would the organization tell us, if it had a voice, is essential to its success?”

The diagram shows some examples of what values might emerge from this exploration. We see these values surface repeatedly when we facilitate discussions about core values with leaders and their teams.

A Key Trait of Successful Leaders: Leading with Core Values / LRI

This set of core values is a good starting point for exploring what is essential to the success of
your organization. This is just the starting point, however. You have to develop your own
understanding of what is meant by each core value, including what behaviors are necessary to
support each. (I sometimes refer to them “we statements.”) These are the behaviors the
company identifies as necessary to uphold each core value – and are inculcated throughout the
organization.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’ve identified customer satisfaction as a core value. The
supporting behaviors that are prioritized include:


“Treat every customer as if they were our only customer, giving them the very best, most
memorable experience we can imagine.”


“Ask every customer for their feedback – and act upon any feedback that will improve
the customer experience.”


“Regularly use ‘secret shoppers’ to gain objective insights into the quality of our service
and use their feedback for quality improvement.”

When a CEO genuinely leads from core values, they are reflected in everything the company
does. They are the framework for your business planning. They are how you evaluate talent and
decide who gets promoted. They inform your communications with customers, investors, and
other stakeholders. In short, they are your “everything.”

When you lead from core values, you can use them to push decision-making deeper into the
organization, empowering people and creating a more decentralized organization, which in turn
will accelerate innovation and growth.


As you deepen people’s understanding of your company’s core values, it’s important to explore
areas where values may come into conflict. At a certain level, a core value of maximizing
financial profitability will collide with a core value of maximizing customer satisfaction. In the
articulation of the core values, leaders need to figure out how to balance the core values, using
their best judgment.

For example, a manager might say: “To increase our customer satisfaction levels, I’d like to
invest in a secret shopper program. While it will add expense, it will pay off in the quality of the
feedback we receive and ultimately, assuming we use the data to drive improvements, it will
make our customer experience better and result in higher sales per customer. But it could put
pressure on our core value of financial profitability.”


And as the leader you might say: “That’s an excellent point. So how do you think we should
make that decision? How should you make decisions when two or more or our core values are
in tension?”

There’s no right answer to the question. The best response is that you’ve thought it through and
have a logical approach. For example, this leader might say: “We plan to a three-month pilot of
the secret shopper program in two locations. If it results in increased customer satisfaction and
increased sales, then we would expand the program to other sites.

I told my colleague: Imagine what would happen if everyone in an organization shared a deep
understanding of the company’s core values – and felt a deep ownership for them. Imagine if
the company’s initiatives were all aligned around those core values, so that people could
connect their work every day to those values? What if everyone participated regularly in
discussing the meaning of those core values and how to better translate them into practice?
What if everyone talked about making decisions consistent with the core values – even when
there is tension between them? What specifically might that do? What would it result in?”

“I think that would be an amazing place to work,” she replied. “I would applaud that CEO for
having the vision to lead with core values.”

Have a question for an LRI consultant?

Book a free consultation!