In my 30+ years operating natural product businesses, I’ve discovered that many brand founders and owners often take core company values for granted. They assume that their values will permeate through the company and will automatically be adopted by their team members and will suffuse throughout their marketing materials so that their customers simply “intuit” what their values and mission are.

This, tragically, is not the case.

It takes dedicated effort to bring all your team on board with strong, bold, resonant company values, and it takes even more to identify and implement a company-wide purpose that creates a positive impact in the world.

Well-organized and engaging corporate training in core values and mission or purpose is pivotal for this to happen. A strong training session establishes guidelines and parameters that build company strength, devoted employees, and aligned (and loyal) customers.

Why You Should Invest in Values Training

Not all brands are savvy to the incredible transformation that training in core company values and purpose can bring. Many companies invest in training that covers supply chains, leadership, conflict management, and sales. But they are missing one of the most crucial types of training: core company values and purpose implementation.

Many companies think values will just happen… on their own. Or they expect un-trained team members to generate relevant values and just stick to them without any sort of guidance. Or, most often, the idea of a larger purpose seems daunting and companies ignore a larger mission in pursuit of profits.

Good corporate training goes a long way toward helping your teams do their jobs well. The whole point of a training retreat or workshop is to provide tools they otherwise wouldn’t have, or streamline a process that otherwise would be stagnant.

Core value training is no different and—in fact—values often become the cornerstone for every issue or challenge your employees face. For instance, when leaders face a problem, they make their best decisions when they have a solid framework of core company values to guide them. When team members seek to design compelling marketing materials, they develop their best narratives and phrasing when centering it on core company values. And when a procurement executive searches for a new vendor, she develops the strongest relationships when she seeks suppliers who match the company’s core values.

In other words, establishing strong company core values is paramount to your team being able to execute their best work and move the company in the right direction. Value identification and agreement is the catalyst—the map--that moves every brand toward your north star.

Corporate training can support this process, by aligning team members and executives with the tools they need to make decisions, build relationships, and communicate with customers. Without core values to guide them, each employee is operating with his or her own perspective and with goals that are developed “in silos.” He or she also feels disconnected from others and feel a sense of isolation when a common goal or value is not identified. Company culture benefits from core value training on many levels. 

Benefits of Core Value Training

Your team feels valued.

Employees who work within a structure based on commonly shared core values have a higher morale and loyalty to their employer. In fact, ProPurpose.org states that 90% of employees value greater meaning at work.

Attract and Retain Top Talent

A lack of meaningful values and purpose means teams dissolve. Team members feel lost and without unity, leading to costly employee turnover. In fact, Microsoft’s 2024 study shows 46% of professionals currently want to quit, and LinkedIn states that 85% of professionals are considering new jobs this year. There are many factors that contribute to employees wanting to leave – and a lack of commonly shared values, a lack of company purpose, and a dearth of company culture can be a significant piece.

Strong Values Guide Clear Decision-Making

When leaders have a structure based on values, they make smart decisions quickly and confidently. Values serve as a compass pointing leaders toward a north star, which is the company’s higher goals and mission. When decisions could lead away from this, the leader understands the ramifications and centers his or her decision based on agreed-upon values. These values are often discussed, identified and adopted during corporate trainings and retreats where a facilitator guides the team members, executives, or board members through a carefully curated process of self-inquiry, learning, and strategic thinking.

Collaboration Increases

Employees who feel a common core purpose or set of values work together seamlessly, and for a longer duration. Company culture improves and supports team members through challenges and serves as a foundation to alleviate conflict, mismanagement, and other issues. A shared belief system and set of aligned values is paramount to successful product development, supplier procurement, human resource development, marketing, leadership, and team growth.

Strategic Planning Is Relevant, Long-Term and Aligned

A strategic or business plan is your blueprint for the next 3-5 years, and it outlines what your company wants to do and how you’re going to do it. Today’s thriving companies know that a well-executed strategic plan includes not only sales metrics and goals but CSR (corporate social responsibility), ESG and data collection, impact measurement, and—increasingly—a solid path toward an environmental or social purpose.

Without established core company values (or a mission or purpose that drives force-for-good profit sharing and employee commitments), a strategic or business plan is full of holes. The best planning comes with an overview of beliefs, targets, and a past-profit vision that sets a company up for success. A company’s board of directors and its leadership team are crucial in defining its north star and how to reach it. The most successful strategic planning retreats MUST include training in core values and purpose implementation.

Strengthen Customer Relationships and Alignment

The ProPurpose study mentioned earlier found that 72% of adults believe companies should be mission-driven. This means that in addition to establishing core company values, the company works toward an achievable external purpose, such as donating money, volunteering, or establishing active programs for environmental and social issues.

For Gen Z in particular, that number is even higher. Anthem found that 85% of Gen Z consumers believe that a brand’s social support of an issue positively affects their impression of that brand. Values are at the heart of a company’s mission and purpose—something that doesn’t naturally just happen. Values and purpose must be carefully cultivated and developed through short- and long-term training, conversation, learning, and positive reinforcement. It must be integrated into your HR onboarding process and included in weekly (if not daily) communications in a meaningful and educational way.

Change Management Centers on Core Values

The next pandemic, economic downturn, supplier shuffle, or crisis could make or break your company. But core values and an established purpose at the heart of your brand serve as a beacon for team members and customers alike. Purposeful companies outperform the market by 42% and weather storms more successfully. And Anthem Awards notes that companies who utilize an ESG (environmental, social and governance)-focused brand experience 28% cumulative growth over a 5-year period, higher than companies who ignore ESG.

How to Leverage Corporate Training to Build Core Values in Your Company

A corporate retreat can provide a sense of camaraderie among team members and allow for brainstorming that can feel stifled during a normal workday. Retreats allow people to share ideas, learn more about each other, and feel connected in a positive atmosphere.

Core Values Training

Training that focuses on core values provides employees with the skills, tools, mindset, and conviction they need to do their jobs well. Core value training complements many other types of training, such as team building and team unity exercises, leadership training, change management training, conflict management, strategic planning, and much more. It sets the framework for all other learnings and situations that an employee may experience.

Purpose & Mission Training

Similar to core values training, purpose training goes a step (or three) further. Training that focuses on purpose identification and implementation connects all departments with a shared vision of a bigger-than-profit purpose or mission. This type of training is more in-depth, with sessions providing a broad scope of learning that brings partners, stakeholders, leaders, customers, community members, nonprofits and foundations together to create a specific long-term positive impact.

Purpose training inspires but it also provides a solid framework so that every person on the team and in every department understands exactly how they will contribute to achieving the company’s purpose. Again, this does not happen on its own and must be facilitated to achieve the right balance of grassroots engagement and leadership oversight.

Selle Impact Consulting is a corporate trainer that provides both: core value corporate training as well as purpose ID and implementation, effectively strengthening your strategy and enhancing team unity across the organization.

Who Do We Support?

Our corporate trainings strengthen executive teams, company leaders, nonprofit boards, and boots-on-the-ground team members. We work with companies (especially in the health, wellness, organic and natural industries) as well as environmental, social and health nonprofits.

Strategy Consultant

I help businesses work strategically to identify core values, implement a company-wide, indelible purpose, and develop alignment strategies that are bold, progressive, and world-changing. If your company needs transformation, talk with me about team training, strategic planning, and next steps.

About the Author

Holly Bellebuono, MPA, is the founder of Selle Impact Consulting and is a fierce advocate for revolutionary company missions that elevate business and culture. She is a global speaker, 8X author, and strategist for values-based leadership. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration: Environmental Policy from Appalachian State University, and executive certificates in Nonprofit Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Impact Measurement & Management of the UN Sustainable Development Goals from Cornell, London Business School, and Duke University. She has served on the Martha’s Vineyard Climate Action Plan Steering Committee (Economic Resilience) and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Community of Practice, among others. She is known for celebrating the human experience and empowering business leaders seeking a worthy purpose.