How To Write Your Company's Core Values

Walk into any Whole Foods grocery store and you'll see that company's core values proudly presented on a large sign.

Business leaders can learn a lot from the chain's core values:

1. Its values are what are truly important to Whole Foods.
2. The values remain constant and don't change from time to time, situation to situation or person to person.
3. The values clearly set the company's culture. As Whole Foods explains, their core values are the "soul" of its company.
4. The values address the company's product, customers, vendors, and the communities in which it operates.

Note, too, how for each of the company's six core values, it further explains what that core value statement means. Without these additional explanations, the values could be no more than just words on paper.

As you craft your company's core values, carefully study the approach and language used for Whole Food's, found here.

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