Most companies say they hire for values.
Far fewer are willing to lose a great candidate because of them.
That’s the difference between values and preferences.
Preferences are nice to have. Values change decisions.
I’ve seen business owners spend weeks trying to fill a critical role, find someone with all the right technical skills, then ignore concerns because “we really need this person.”
In the moment, it feels practical.
A few months later, they’re managing behaviors they knew were there during the interview process.
The cost wasn’t making the wrong hire. The cost was abandoning the standard they had already established.
Your values become real the first time they cost you something. A candidate you didn’t hire. A person you did hire and then had to manage out because you ignored what you already knew.
Until then, they’re mostly aspirations.
Not intentions. Not guidelines. Aspirations.
What decision has your values actually changed recently?
Not hypothetically. Actually.