Core Values: More Than a Poster on the Wall
Many of us have worked for companies that proudly display a set of core values. They’re often printed on posters, showcased on the website, and mentioned in all-hands meetings. But if they only exist in those spaces, they're little more than decorations.
A company's values shouldn't be artifacts in a museum; they should be tools in our hands. They are the compass that guides our decisions when no one is looking and the standard we hold ourselves to when things get tough. As leaders and contributors, our job is to translate these abstract principles into the practical, everyday actions of our specific roles.
At my company, Conversion Logix, we rally around five core values: hustle, focus, kindness, toughness, and service. Here’s how I see them coming to life within our Engineering department.
Hustle
As an engineer, I show hustle by embracing a tenacious urgency to solve problems and deliver value.
Hustle in engineering isn't about frantic energy or chasing burnout. It’s a posture of proactive engagement. It’s the refusal to be a passive observer of a problem. When a production issue flares up, the hustling engineer doesn't just create a ticket and wait; they dive into the logs, trying to understand the blast radius and uncover the root cause. Hustle means that when you’re blocked on one task, you don’t just stop—you pivot to the next most important thing, always pushing the mission forward. It’s an internal drive that sees a closed door not as a wall, but as an invitation to find a key or build a new door altogether.
Focus
As an engineer, I show focus by building the right thing, the right way, without getting sidetracked by distractions.
In our world, focus is a superpower. The modern workplace is a minefield of distractions, and the cost of context-switching for a developer is immense. Focus is the discipline to silence the noise and dedicate uninterrupted blocks of time to deep, meaningful work. It’s also the wisdom to resist "shiny object syndrome"—the temptation to use a new framework or technology just because it's exciting. Instead, a focused engineer deeply understands the why behind a feature before writing a single line of code. They are like a sculptor with a clear vision of the statue within the marble. Every tap of the chisel is deliberate, moving them closer to the finished form, not just chipping away randomly.
Kindness
As an engineer, I show kindness by assuming the best intentions in my colleagues and leaving the code better than I found it.
Kindness on a technical team is the grease in the gears; it makes everything run more smoothly. It’s not about avoiding hard conversations, but about creating an environment of psychological safety where those conversations can happen constructively. It manifests in a code review where feedback is framed as a question, not an accusation ("What if we tried this approach?" versus "This is inefficient."). It’s the act of writing clear, thorough documentation, which is a gift to your future self and every teammate who follows. It’s leaving the code just a little cleaner, a little clearer, and a little more robust than when you found it—a simple act of service to the next developer.
Toughness
As an engineer, I show toughness by embracing challenges, learning from failure, and holding myself and my peers to a high standard of excellence.
Toughness is the resilience required to thrive in a field where you are constantly confronted with what you don't know. It’s not about being harsh; it's about being strong. It's the grit that keeps you digging into a thorny bug for hours, not with frustration, but with the determined belief that a solution exists. Toughness is about radical ownership—when you ship a bug, you own it, you fix it, and you learn from it without blame or shame. It’s the courage to have a respectful debate about a technical path, knowing that the friction isn't personal; it's the very thing that forges better solutions. Like steel in a fire, our skills are sharpened and strengthened in the heat of these challenges.
Service
As an engineer, I show service by remembering that my code is not the end product; it is a tool to empower our customers and support my teammates.
It's easy to fall in love with the elegance of our code, the cleverness of our algorithms, or the beauty of our architecture. But a service mindset lifts our gaze from the code to the person it serves. We are not just building software; we are building solutions for human beings. This perspective changes everything. It compels us to ask, "How will this feature make our client's life easier?" It pushes us to build internal tools that unburden our support team. It means we see our work not as an end in itself, but as a contribution to the success and well-being of others. We are not just architects drawing blueprints for our own satisfaction; we are building a shelter, a tool, a bridge for someone else.
Your Turn
These values provide the blueprint for the culture we want to build. They are the measure of not just what we accomplish, but how we accomplish it.
I want to challenge you to do the same. Take your company's core values off the wall and bring them into your work. Ask yourself: What does [insert your company value] look like in my specific role? How can I turn that principle into a practice?
When we intentionally align our daily tasks with a higher purpose, our work is transformed. We build better products, foster stronger teams, and create a culture where everyone is empowered to do their best work.