ONCE WE HAVE determined our Core Values, we must then define them. The leader determines the Core Values, but at the very least, the leader, the executive team or coaching staff, and possibly a few team members whom we consider “best”, should help define those Core Values.

Ray Lipsky is a friend and U.S. Naval Academy classmate of Program founder Eric Kapitulik. Ray was a member of the Navy football team and then served honorably as a Marine Corps Infantry Officer. His battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Lefebvre, would often remind Ray, and the rest of his battalion, “Man [ Woman] is a sum of his [her] experiences.”

Humans are the sum of their experiences. Why is this important for our discussion on defining Core Values? Because we can’t simply state that one of our Core Values is, for example, “Toughness,” or that we expect our team to behave in a tough manner without defining what “tough” means to our organization.

The Program had the privilege to work with Coach Tom Izzo and the Michigan State men’s basketball team many years ago. Michigan State is annually one of the best college basketball teams in the country and, although they do have an incredible number of very talented student athletes, they are not usually thought of as the most talented team in the country. They are known, however, for consistently being one of the toughest. Coach Izzo is tough and his team exemplifies it.

During one of our conversations with Coach Izzo, he reminded us of the importance of trying to recruit kids who are already tough and then demanding that they be tough every single day in practice. The challenge for Coach Izzo, as it is for all leaders, is that we are all a sum of our experiences.

Eric was born to Louis and Louise Kapitulik and grew up on a Christmas tree farm. His father was a Connecticut state policeman and his mother was a high school teacher. He played sports well enough that he had an opportunity to play one of them in college and was fortunate enough for that college to be the U.S. Naval Academy. He then served as a Marine Corps Infantry Officer and a Platoon Commander with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. In his free time, he competes in the world’s longest endurance events and climbs the world’s tallest mountains.

He had the great fortune to have parents, and then friends and mentors, who were tough people. He did tough things and saw others doing tough things in the military and outside of it. Based on the sum of his experiences, Eric has a certain mental picture of who tough people are and what tough people do. Our teammates at The Program share very similar personal experiences. Based on all those experiences, we have our definition of tough.

This is true for everyone and their own Core Values. Based on our own life experiences, we all have a certain mental picture and a definition of those values. The members of our team may not have grown up with a dad who is a policeman and a mom who is a school teacher (or a grandfather who grew up during the Great Depression and worked in a mill his entire life). Our team members may not have grown up on a Christmas tree farm in Connecticut. As Coach Izzo highlights, our team members may have grown up with no parents, in a car, never even having a Christmas tree. By the same token, our team members may have grown up in a country club lifestyle, vacationing in Switzerland. In any case, team members have their own mental picture of tough and of what tough people do.

The Program’s concept of tough may or may not be the same as that of the Michigan State men’s basketball team, but if both share that Core Value, then the “best” people in both organizations must embody it. A world-class culture is founded on the “best” people. Those “best” people have talent and embody the team’s Core Values. We must first select those Core Values and then define them for our team.