Making Values Mean Something — The Bridge Between Behaviour and Profit

By the end of January, the “New Year” energy often begins to flicker and fade. This is the danger zone where organizational values retreat from daily operations and are relegated to ornamental posters on a boardroom wall. To maintain the momentum of your “Clean Slate,” you must move beyond high-level aspirations and begin the hard work of directly linking leadership behaviour to the bottom line.

The Profitability Gap

Most leaders mistakenly view “company culture” or “values” as a luxury reserved for good times. I disagree. My 2026 strategy emphasizes that culture is soft, but profit is hard—and the bridge between them is measurable. If your team’s “Inner Circle” is misaligned or your strategic clarity is clouded by poor communication, you are leaking profit every hour through lost productivity and delayed decisions.

In my work with various organizations, we have found that poor facilitation isn’t just an annoyance; it is a measurable drain on resources. This “Profitability Gap” arises when there is a disconnect between what a company says it values and how its leaders behave under pressure.

Moving from Aspiration to Execution

Authentic leadership culture is built on resilience and the courage to confront complexity. To bridge this gap, your leadership must pass the “Profitability Test.” This means evaluating whether your strategic guidance and governance structures deliver the intended outcomes or merely create administrative hurdles.

As you look toward the remainder of Q1, ask yourself:

Are our values active or ornamental? Do they guide decision-making when the “December rush” or a Q1 crisis arises?

Is our governance driving execution? Does your framework empower decentralized decision-making grounded in trust?

Read about delegating leadership

Are we closing the “Hidden Number” gap? Are you measuring the actual cost of unfocused meetings and misaligned priorities?

The Bottom Line: Strategic guidance and professional governance are essential to transforming abstract values into measurable success. Without a focused effort on these behaviours, your “Clean Slate” will quickly be overwritten by the same frictions that slowed you down last year.