A senior HR leader recently shared this with me: “We talk a lot about values when we hire. But then when it comes to promotions, it’s performance that usually tips the scale.”
I appreciated hearing this honesty. Because let’s face it, performance is more visible. It’s measurable. It’s the numbers, and it’s what drives business outcomes - which is what leaders are accountable for. It makes sense why people get promoted on performance.
But this is also where the tension lies: when values are treated as entry criteria but not advancement criteria, people start to notice. The external story the organisation wants shared with the world is different to what is happening internally. And the first people to notice this are the people on the ground working at the company.
"Just 23% of employees strongly agree that they can apply their organisation’s values to their everyday work." (from a Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2023 survey). This often slowly leads to a breakdown in trust.
When people see performance consistently outweigh values, especially in leadership, they may stop believing the values really matter. This won’t necessarily happen from one decision. Values and employees’ belief in them erodes over time through the micro-choices leaders make and the behaviours that get rewarded.
From a coaching perspective, values-based leadership is about creating cultural congruence: the consistency between what we say, what we signal, and what we reward.
The most self-aware leaders ask:
- Where are we most out of alignment between what we say and what we signal?
- What are the unspoken rules people follow to succeed here?
- What behaviour are we tolerating that quietly rewrites our values?
Values aren’t soft; they’re structural. They shape who speaks up, who steps back, and who stays. They influence how fast you move, how you manage risk, and how you navigate complexity.
For HR Managers & Leaders: If you're responsible for shaping leadership culture at scale, here are three moves to make values practical, not performative:
1. Audit the alignment between stated values and rewarded behaviours → Use leadership 360s or peer feedback to ask: “What does this value look like in practice?”
2. Coach leaders through values trade-offs → When speed, growth, or innovation are in tension with fairness, inclusion, or well-being then slow the decision down and name the tension. That’s where real leadership happens.
3. Create real-time feedback loops that flag values drift → Think pulse checks, exit interviews, onboarding surveys—then listen for patterns in what people feel they can’t say.
If you’re seeing cracks in alignment between what your company says it values versus how they’re lived out. Or if values are showing up in the wrong ways, or fading in the face of growth then this isn’t about rebranding what your company values are. It’s an opportunity to develop and lean into leadership development.
One of our core learning modules on our LeadMe Academy programmes is about unearthing your values as a leader and aligning them with your company’s values and behaviours. This is pretty foundational to successful organisations. So if you're exploring how to reconnect your values with everyday leadership, at scale and under pressure, let’s talk. I’d love to hear what you're seeing inside your culture and share what’s working with other HR and exec teams right now.
Onward and upward,
Creating leaders at every level.
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