Most Company Values Are Just Expensive Wallpaper: How CEOs Can Make Them Measurable (2025)

Company values have a performance problem.

The glossy statements hanging in your lobby might look impressive, but they're failing to drive results. According to Leadership IQ’s study of 4,360 employees and leaders, only 13% feel everyone lives their company values on a daily basis. Even worse, only 24% of organizations have detailed the specific behaviors needed to actually live those values.

Let that sink in: three out of four companies are expecting employees to “live the values” without ever defining what that means.

And yet, the upside is massive. When companies do define those behaviors, employee engagement is 107% higher. Values aren’t the problem. Execution is.

The Company Values-Performance Gap

Corporate values get treated like corporate décor—framed, quoted, and forgotten. When employees see top performers violating values without consequence, the hypocrisy is obvious. Only 33% of employees believe their manager holds people accountable to values. A third say star performers routinely get away with breaking them.

The result? Company values become a joke—slogans nobody respects. And that’s a shame, because when values are done right, they drive performance, culture, and competitive edge.

So what’s missing?

The Missing Piece: Word Pictures

CEOs keep asking: How do I actually operationalize our company values? This is where Word Pictures deliver. Word Pictures turn your values from vague ideals into observable, teachable, and coachable performance standards.

Here’s the big idea: for every value, you build a behavioral continuum—what it looks like when someone is doing "Needs Work," "Good Work," or "Great Work."

Take a common corporate value: “Customer Focus.” Here’s how one company—that wanted to improve customer satisfaction scores—defined specific behaviors using a Word Picture:

Armed with these behaviors, managers can do what’s been missing for years: coach in real time, with real clarity.

Picture a team huddle where a manager says, “Let’s talk about follow-up. Yesterday I saw a hand-off that didn’t include background info—classic ‘Needs Work.’ Let’s walk through how that could’ve moved into ‘Good Work’ or even ‘Great Work.’”

Now you’re not just coaching—you’re building a shared language. Everyone knows what good looks like, and they can self-correct before problems escalate.

Training sessions use these behaviors as scenarios. Performance reviews reference them line by line. New hires are told on Day 1: “Here’s how we define great customer focus—and here’s what won’t fly.”

The fog is gone. Now you’ve got precision—and with it, accountability.

Why Word Pictures Fix Corporate Values

Word Pictures solve the biggest corporate values problem: ambiguity.

When company values say “integrity,” what does that mean? To one person it’s whistleblowing. To another, it’s showing up on time. To a third, it’s being honest in feedback. Without definition, your values are Rorschach tests.

Word Pictures erase ambiguity. They clarify expectations so employees know exactly what behaviors are expected of them. They standardize coaching by giving managers a clear, shared definition of what concepts like “accountability” or “integrity” actually look like in day-to-day work. And they reinforce fairness by eliminating the excuse of “I didn’t know that was wrong,” ensuring everyone is held to the same transparent standards.

And Word Pictures are built from your high performers—which gives you an aspirational but attainable benchmark.

Real-World Impact

Let’s talk results. According to Leadership IQ’s research:

• Companies that define value behaviors see 107% higher engagement.
• Companies that discuss values daily see 37% higher engagement than those that don’t.
• Companies that embed values into performance reviews enjoy 80% higher employee satisfaction.
• Companies that hire based on value behaviors? They’re seeing 135% higher engagement.

One manufacturer embedded a Word Picture around “Excellence” into daily huddles. In 90 days, their defect rate dropped 17%. Not because of fancy tech—but because employees finally knew what “excellence” looked like.

What changed? For starters, they eliminated vague feedback like “Pay more attention to detail” and replaced it with observable behaviors:

• Needs Work: Leaves tools or materials out after use; skips checklist steps during inspections; ignores small irregularities assuming “someone else will catch it.”
• Good Work: Follows checklists consistently; fixes minor issues when spotted; maintains clean and organized workstations.
• Great Work: Identifies recurring sources of error and suggests fixes; double-checks peers’ work when safety is involved; mentors newer employees on precision techniques.

Those once-fuzzy standards and values became crystal clear. And when people knew exactly what “Needs Work” looked like, they stopped doing it.

Moving From Platitudes to Performance

The process for creating Word Pictures is deceptively simple, but incredibly powerful. It starts by gathering your best people—your leaders, top performers, and culture carriers. These are the folks who already model the values you want to scale across the organization.

Next, take each of your core values and ask a set of critical questions: “What does this value look like when someone is falling short—what’s ‘Needs Work’? What does solid, reliable performance—‘Good Work’—look like? And what behaviors represent ‘Great Work’—the kind of performance we’d want to clone across the company?”

Then, document real, observable examples for each level. Use specific language—what people actually say and do—not generic HR-speak.

Once your Word Pictures are built, the final step is integration. These aren’t posters for the breakroom—they’re tools for action. Embed them into performance reviews, hiring criteria, onboarding, recognition programs, and even casual daily conversations. When a manager can reference a Word Picture mid-coaching session or use it to evaluate a candidate in an interview, that’s when values start driving performance.

Company Values as Competitive Advantage

Let’s stop pretending values are soft stuff. Word Pictures aren’t about creating a “kumbaya” culture. They’re about precision coaching, real accountability, and performance clarity.

Want to raise engagement? Want to reduce quality issues, improve customer service, and hire better people? Want to be the kind of CEO who doesn’t just hang values on the wall but builds them into your legacy? Start with Word Pictures.