Core values are the cardinal precepts or tenets held by organizations or individuals. They are a small set of essential maxims that serve to mold and guide individual or corporate conduct as they are identified with and followed. Here is an offering of some thoughts on the subject.
I am a curious person by nature, and I often invite individuals to share their core values with me. While that may sound a bit strange, I have found it to be a valuable relationship builder when done appropriately. More often than not, I initially get a guarded response but then with a little prompting some words like integrity or truthful or patriotic will emerge. In my past professional capacity, I made the final decision on many applicants for various law enforcement positions and the subject of core values was always purposefully visited.
During one particular interview, when asked about core values, the applicant confidently gave me his seven core values, including honor, courage, loyalty, and self-less service. I knew from his application that he was a sergeant in the National Guard and, from my study, recognized these to be the army’s core values. More importantly though I was impressed with his familiarity, identity with, and comfort level with them. The applicant explained that these were not just idle words but powerful concepts that had served him well in combat as well as a family man. I offered him a position on the spot!
Just after this interview I was thinking about core values and happened to be eating my daily apple, a very tasty Red Delicious. As I came to the core, I realized the core of that apple was more than the physical center. I sort of had an epiphany that the core really was the essence of the apple and that these few seeds had the potential to produce many apple trees. Our core values do contain the seeds that will produce fruit, either good fruit or bad fruit.
Core comes to us from the Latin root word cor which literally means “heart”. It is interesting to note that the words courage and coronary are derived from the same root. It follows then that core values are not obtained by intellectual ascent but rather are deeply held “heart” issues. Core values in fact do define our core, not only what we ought to be, but what we can be…..who we must be—and in reality, who we are! They require no external justification and stand alone as intrinsic values to guide and silent sentinels to guard our thoughts and actions.
In our present culture some may scoff at or even mock those who espouse good core values and say they are but sophistry—idle, meaningless words. However, for the warrior, core values such as “honor, courage, loyalty, and selfless service” resonate deep within them. In that way core values serve to build our basic character; to govern and refine our personal and professional temperament; to sustain and refresh us when we grow weary; to guide us through the fog, the difficult challenges, and often unfamiliar passages of life itself. Finally, they serve to bond us with those who, in the past, established the heritage, traditions, and values that we now have embraced and cherish.
If you cannot readily define your personal core values, I would encourage you to prayerfully do so in the near term. There are some web sites dedicated to assisting you in identifying your core values and I recommend you check them out and “adopt” 3 to 5 core values. Three core values, Duty, Honor and Service have sustained me in many arenas for over 50 years. What are your core values?
Barney Barnes, 09-06-23, Warrior Spirit Ministries