Values are thoughts, beliefs or a philosophy that are meaningful to us. Theoretically, they drive our behavior—for it is our behavior that reveals our true values.

Inspirational values add a sense of contribution and legacy to your family, business and community. Whatever your values, when you take them to heart and implement them in the smallest details of your lives, great accomplishment and success are sure to follow.

Just as individuals subscribe to values, so do organizations and institutions.

Google: Never settle for the best. Google has persistently pursued innovation and pushed the limits of existing technology. By stating it places the interests of the user first, Google has built the most loyal audience on the web. That growth has come not through TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from satisfied users. Indeed, “Google” has become a verb.

Apple: Belief in the value of solving problems of society. The company created the iPod audio player and the iTunes online music store to overcome a conflict between those who sought to download copyrighted music for free and the music industry, which sought to protect its artists and its revenues.

My company (Third Level): Belief in the power of making the world better through honest communication and common purpose. We’d like to help you to deepen the connection for yourselves and your teams to these values and the behaviors required to truly live them as well as to develop your own key values as a team and a division.

Truly embracing and living our core values energizes everything and everyone concerned.

When companies adopt clear values and embody those values in policy and action, individuals working at the organization become energized, as do its customers, as they identify with its purpose and values.

When we make the determined effort to implement those values, good fortune is sure to follow—in the form of new opportunities, new sources of revenue and income, and other forms of material and psychological benefit.

Think about what the values you aspire to live—personally, professionally, as a team, and as a business. Take the time to have these discussions, and what those values mean to you, to your teams and to the business. It can transform your own engagement, the attraction and retention of talent—even more than money, benefits and/or the pool table.

Culture based on shared and inspirational values is fun, powerful, and chews up strategy. ♦

Stephen Garber is director of Third Level Ltd. Contact him at 561.752.5505 or sgarber@thirdlevel.com.