What are the 3 core values for work?

In today’s working world, organizations and employees alike are searching for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment beyond just a paycheck. Research has shown that workers who feel connected to an organization’s core values and mission are more engaged, satisfied, and productive. So what exactly are the core values that should drive today’s workplaces and professionals? Based on studies of high-performance companies and motivated employees, three core values rise to the top:

Integrity

Acting with integrity encompasses being ethical, honest, and transparent. For organizations, this means operating ethically at all levels, from leadership down. Policies and behaviors should reinforce transparency, accountability, and trust. Moreover, integrity applies to an organization’s products and services. Anything produced should align with ethical business standards.

For individuals, behaving with integrity is about maintaining strong personal ethics. Actions should match values, demonstrating consistency even when no one is watching. Integrity also means taking responsibility for mistakes rather than blaming others.

Why Integrity Matters

Integrity is foundational because it establishes trust. Employees need to trust leadership and believe an organization acts ethically. With trust comes engagement, discretionary effort, and retention. Externally, customers must trust that a company deals honestly in order to build loyalty. Vendors and stakeholders also need to rely on an organization’s transparent communication and follow-through.

At the individual level, colleagues want to work with team members who keep their word and own their actions. Consistency between someone’s stated values and behaviors promotes trust. Accountability matters too – passing blame destroys trust quickly. Integrity allows relationships, goal achievement, and reputation to flourish.

How to Foster Integrity

Organizations can model integrity through codes of conduct, ethical audits, transparency in decision-making, and protecting whistleblowers. Hiring people with character and recognizing those who exemplify desired behaviors also helps. Explicitly rewarding core values makes them concrete.

Individuals demonstrate integrity by matching words and actions. Being accountable instead of passing blame and sharing credit shows integrity. Making ethically complex decisions with consistency and character also matters. Seeking feedback and self-reflection helps individuals understand when integrity lapses occur.

Collaboration

Collaboration means working together toward shared goals through synergistic behaviors. At an organizational level, it involves breaking down silos, sharing resources, and aligning teams across boundaries to optimize success. Collaboration allows different perspectives, knowledge bases, and skill sets to fuse for the greater good.

For individuals, collaboration involves contributing fully to collaborative efforts. This means being a team player – listening, compromising, and assisting others. Collaborative professionals enhance group outcomes by providing unique viewpoints and expertise.

Why Collaboration Matters

Collaboration unlocks potential. As people pool together diverse strengths, they can solve problems and accomplish more than any individual could alone. Organizations reap benefits like innovation, improved customer experiences, and operational efficiencies when they connect previously isolated teams.

Collaboration multiplies opportunities for individuals too. Being known as a collaborative partner opens doors to exciting projects and important assignments. The exposure and experience then accelerate professional growth. Plus, collaborating builds relationships and support systems that enhance work experiences.

How to Foster Collaboration

Organizations can enable collaboration by eliminating silos, setting shared goals, and creating physical and digital spaces for people to come together. Providing collaboration skill training and platforms for ongoing dialogue also helps. Recognizing and rewarding cooperative behaviors motivates collaboration.

Individuals demonstrate a spirit of collaboration by actively participating in brainstorms, team projects, and communities of practice. Making time for 1-on-1 conversations to understand needs and offer help shows collaboration too. Seeking diverse perspectives beyond just those already known improves collaborative experiences.

Continuous Learning

Continuous learning emphasizes growth, improvement, and development. At an organizational level, it means fostering cultures of perpetual learning and investing in employee advancement. Continual skills refresh and retraining must underpin workforce agility and resilience.

For individuals, continuous learning is a way of life both on and off the job. Curiosity leads to reading articles, listening to podcasts, taking courses, and more during work and personal time. Learning agility helps people adapt and innovate as environments change.

Why Continuous Learning Matters

Organizations must keep learning to keep pace with change and disruption. Fostering an appetite for learning across the workforce keeps skills fresh and relevant. Investing in continuous learning ultimately boosts performance, productivity, and retention.

For individuals, the most employable and successful professionals view learning as vital and ongoing. Learning new skills makes people more adaptable as industries evolve. Sustained learning also builds expertise to tackle novel challenges. As a bonus, learning brings personal fulfillment and exposes professionals to new people and ideas.

How to Foster Continuous Learning

Organizations demonstrate commitment to continuous learning by allowing time for development, removing barriers, and investing in learning resources. Options like tuition assistance, training programs, and online libraries provide ongoing learning fuel. Assigning mentors and growth-focused managers also propels continuous professional development.

Individuals take responsibility for self-directed learning by proactively seeking opportunities aligned with goals and interests. This means reading books and articles, listening to podcasts, and signing up for courses or certificate programs. Pairing with mentors and networking to learn from others’ journeys helps too.

Conclusion

Integrity, collaboration, and continuous learning are core values that enable organizations and professionals to thrive in today’s complex, rapidly evolving work environment. While additional values matter too, these 3 foundations are essential for building trust, unlocking potential, and driving progress when integrated at organizational and individual levels.

With integrity, organizations and people foster ethical, honest conduct and trusted relationships. Collaboration helps unlock synergies and accomplish more together than alone. Continuous learning enables adaptation and innovation in a world of accelerating change. Organizations that bake these 3 core values into culture and individuals who act upon them daily gain key advantages for success.

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