When Are We at Our Best? Developing Core Values That Drive Educational Leadership

Core values often get posted like flyers on a wall. The challenge is making sure they’re lived.

This is one of a series of articles for school and district leaders about strategic planning, organizational change, and how to operationalize a school district's mission, vision, and core values.

If you walk through most schools or districts, you’ll likely see core values somewhere, whether on a wall, in a handbook, or on a website. Words like integrity, respect, equity, or excellence are common.

Where did those values come from? Who shaped them? Do they actually guide decisions? Too often, the answer is unclear, and the values risk becoming wallpaper instead of culture.

With more than 20 years of leadership experience, including service as Deputy Superintendent in Bellflower, Superintendent in Monrovia, and Assistant Superintendent in Paramount, I’ve learned how critical it is to get this right. My earlier writing has focused on living out core values in daily practice and embedding them into leadership systems, but this piece steps back to the beginning: before core values can guide culture and educational leadership, they must be developed with care.

I suggest starting with a simple but powerful question: When are we at our best?

Educational Leadership and Shared Ownership of Core Values

Core values only last if they belong to everyone. At the district level, the Board of Education gives them legitimacy by formally adopting them. But legitimacy is not the same as ownership. If values are developed only in the boardroom, they rarely take root.

Educational leadership means creating the conditions for ownership. The superintendent and leadership team can guide the process for developing values, but they must ultimately reflect everyone the district serves: teachers, staff, students, and families. When the broader school community helps shape values, they carry greater credibility and meaning.

This shared ownership also makes values sustainable. Leaders and board members will come and go, but values that have been co-created with the school community endure. They become cultural anchors that guide decisions and behavior even as leadership changes.

Listening First

The most important step in developing values is listening. Ask people when they’ve seen the district or school at its best. Ask what they hope every student experiences every day. In those stories, certain words and themes will surface, such as belonging, respect, innovation, and collaboration. Those themes provide the raw material for values that truly reflect the culture.

Listening also creates ownership. People are more likely to embrace values they helped shape. That’s why the process itself is just as important as the outcome.

Clarity, Definition, and Authenticity

Words alone aren’t enough. Transparency, for example, can mean very different things to different people unless it’s defined. Without clarity, values risk being interpreted in ways that are inconsistent or even contradictory.

Pairing each value with a clear, simple statement makes it actionable:

• Transparency: We communicate openly so our community understands not just what decisions are made, but why.

  
  

• Collaboration: We seek and respect diverse perspectives, believing the best outcomes are built together.

  
  

• Equity: We ensure every student is seen, supported, and given the opportunities they need to succeed and reach their full potential.

  
  

• Trust: We follow through on our commitments and act with integrity so that students, families, and staff know they can rely on us.

Definitions like these turn values from slogans into expectations for daily practice. They give clarity to new staff members, reassurance to families, and a shared language for leadership teams.

Clarity alone is not enough. Values must also be authentic. If they describe only aspirations, what we wish we were, they risk coming across as hollow. If they describe only what we already are, they don’t push the organization forward. The strongest values strike a balance: they reflect the best of who we are today while pointing us toward who we want to become.

When Values Are Inherited

Many leaders don’t get to begin with a blank slate. They often inherit a set of values that already exists. The question is not only whether to keep or replace them, but how to determine if they need to be refreshed, reshaped, or reimagined entirely.

In practice, this might mean revisiting the values with your staff, board, or leadership team and asking whether they still reflect the best of who you are. In some cases, they may need clearer definitions or fresh examples. Other times, the school community may find that some values no longer resonate and a new set must be created.

There’s also another challenge: sometimes people don’t even realize the values exist, or they know them but feel they aren’t being lived up to. In those cases, the task is less about rewriting and more about rebuilding trust by showing through actions, communication, and consistency that the values are more than words on paper.

Whatever the circumstance, the key is involving people in the conversation. Revisiting values together restores credibility and renews ownership.

Living the Process

If you want your organization to live values like collaboration and respect, then the way you develop or revisit them should model those same behaviors. Invite feedback. Share drafts. Be transparent about how input shaped the final product.

This is where leaders are tested. If you say you value collaboration but the process is closed-door, the message won’t land. If you say you value transparency but don’t circle back to show how input shaped the outcome, trust is eroded. The process must mirror the values, or the values themselves lose credibility.

When done well, the process becomes more than a means to an end. It shows stakeholders their input matters, validates those already living the values, and encourages others to join in, so the school community embodies them even before they are officially adopted.

More Than Words

Core values aren’t wallpaper. They aren’t a list to memorize or a slogan to hang on a wall. They are culture. They come alive in how decisions are made, how leaders act under pressure, and how students and staff feel each day.

In my own leadership journey, I have found that when values are developed with care and lived consistently, they become a steady compass in challenging moments and a common way for everyone to talk about expectations, decisions, and culture.

Start by asking your school community when it has been at its best. The answers will point you toward values that are lived every day, and those are the values that drive educational leadership.

Dr. Ryan Smith, with more than 20 years of leadership experience in public education, is dedicated to ensuring every student receives an outstanding education and reaches their highest potential. Through his current service as Deputy Superintendent in the Bellflower Unified School District and previous experience as Superintendent of the Monrovia Unified School District, his commitment to putting students first has driven success and positive change across various schools and districts. Learn more about Dr. Smith at his website, on LinkedIn, or X.