Why Mission, Values, Vision & Behaviours Matter — And How to Make Them Real

The difference between words on a wall and a culture that actually works.

The Problem With Most Organisations' Values

Most organisations have values.

They're on the website. On a poster in reception. In the employee handbook. Maybe on a mug.

And most of the time, that's where they stay.

They sound good. They look professional. But they don't live anywhere real. They don't influence decisions. They don't shape behaviour. And when pressure comes — when things get hard, when standards slip, when nobody's watching — they're nowhere to be found.

That's not a values problem. It's an implementation problem.

Values only matter when they show up in behaviour. Everything else is decoration.

MVVB: A Framework That Actually Works

At Be Fearsome, we work from a framework called MVVB: Mission, Values, Vision, and Behaviours.

I adopted this framework from Helen and Kate Richardson-Walsh's book Winning Together, which tells the story of the GB Women's Hockey team's journey to Olympic gold in Rio 2016. They use VVB as the backbone of how they built their team culture, and when I read it, it immediately clicked. I added Mission to the front end.

Previously, I'd been working with mission, vision, values, and guiding principles. It covered the right ground, but it was clunky. Hard to remember. Hard to implement consistently. MVVB simplified everything — four clear elements, easy to recall, easy to apply, and easy to hold people accountable to.

The underlying thinking wasn't new to me. The Royal Marines instil values and standards from day one. Start With Why gave me the philosophical foundation. Traction gave me the operational mechanics. But MVVB gave me a clean, practical framework I could apply across everything — business, coaching, events, and life.

The order matters.

Your mission is your purpose — why you exist beyond making money. It answers the question: what are we here to do?

Your values are your anchor — the non-negotiable principles that guide how you operate. They don't change when things get difficult. They're tested when things get difficult.

Your vision is your direction — where you're heading and what you're building toward.

Your behaviours are the accountability layer — the observable, measurable actions that prove whether your values are real or just aspirational.

Mission gives purpose. Values give standards. Vision gives direction. Behaviours give proof.

Without behaviours, the rest is theory. Behaviours are what happen when nobody's checking in on you. They're what people see, what teams feel, and what culture is actually built from.

Where This Thinking Starts — Check Your Flashes

In the Royal Marines, from day one, week one, two things are instilled: the commando values and the commando spirit.

The commando values — excellence, integrity, self-discipline, and humility — define who you are as a commando.

The commando spirit — courage, determination, unselfishness, and cheerfulness in the face of adversity — drives how you apply those values under pressure.

These aren't optional. They're not aspirational. They're the standard. And they're reinforced constantly.

There's a phrase used in the Marines that captures this perfectly: "check your flashes."

The commando flashes are worn on the uniform. They represent everything the commando values and spirit stand for. And "check your flashes" is a shorthand way of saying: remember what you stand for. Remember the standards. Remember who you are and how you're expected to behave.

It's quick. It's direct. And it works — because everyone knows exactly what it means.

At Be Fearsome, we've adopted the same approach. "Check your flashes" is something I use with my team as a rapid reset — a reminder to come back to our values and behaviours when things get busy, when pressure builds, or when standards start to drift.

It's not a lecture. It's not a long conversation. It's a signal that everyone understands. And that's what makes it powerful — because the values behind it are shared, understood, and lived, not just written down.

Start With Why — Then Make It Visible

Simon Sinek's Start With Why, which I've reviewed recently, lays the philosophical foundation for this thinking. People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it. The same applies inside organisations — people don't commit to a job description. They commit to a purpose they believe in.

But knowing your why is only the starting point. The why has to flow into something tangible.

That's where MVVB comes in.

Your mission articulates the why.

Your values protect it.

Your vision gives it direction.

Your behaviours bring it to life every single day.

Sinek's Celery Test captures this perfectly. If your why is clear, every decision you make should prove what you believe. If someone looked at your decisions, your hires, your partnerships, your priorities — could they see what you stand for without you having to explain it?

That's the test. And behaviours are what make it visible.

Traction: Getting a Grip on the Practical Side

Another book that heavily influenced how I think about this is Traction by Gino Wickman.

Where Sinek provides the philosophy, Wickman provides the mechanics. Traction is about getting a grip on your business — creating clarity, accountability, and structure so that purpose doesn't just sit in the founder's head but gets embedded in how the organisation actually operates.

The combination of Start With Why and Traction is powerful. One gives you the why. The other gives you the system to execute it.

That pairing directly shaped how I've built the MVVB framework at Be Fearsome — purpose-led but operationally grounded.

Winning Together — Where the Framework Came From

As I mentioned, the (M)VVB framework came directly from Helen and Kate Richardson-Walsh's book Winning Together.

Their central message is that successful teams are built on shared values, genuine connection, and a culture where people are valued as human beings — not just performers.

The GB Women's Hockey team didn't win Olympic gold because they had the most talented squad. They won because they built a culture where honesty, vulnerability, accountability, and ambition could coexist. Where the strength of the team was the entire squad — not just the players on the pitch.

What struck me most was how they used VVB as a practical tool, not a theoretical concept. It wasn't a poster on the wall. It was how they made decisions, how they held each other accountable, and how they built the identity of the team over years — through setbacks, through selection battles, through everything that comes with competing at that level.

That's what convinced me to adopt it. Not because it was clever. Because it was simple, memorable, and it worked.

I'd already been shaped by the commando values and commando spirit from the Royal Marines. I'd already read Start With Why and understood the importance of purpose. I'd used Traction to build operational discipline. But VVB brought all of that together into one framework that I could use everywhere — with my team, with my clients, with myself.

That's rare. Most frameworks are either too academic to remember or too vague to apply. (M)VVB is neither.

Why We've Just Updated Ours

We recently updated our mission, vision, and behaviours at Be Fearsome.

Not because our values changed. Our values have remained constant for six years. They've been the anchor through everything — growth, setbacks, new ventures, team changes, the post-COVID years, and the evolution from a fitness business into a multi-brand leadership and performance company.

But a lot has changed around those values.

The business has grown. We've launched four distinct branches. We've developed the C8 Leadership System. We've moved into leadership coaching, team development, and experiential events alongside fitness and performance. The scope of what we do and who we serve has expanded significantly.

The mission, vision, and behaviours needed to reflect where the business is now and where it's going — not where it was six years ago.

The values stayed. The framework around them evolved. That's exactly how it should work.

How We Use MVVB in Our Work

MVVB isn't just an internal framework for Be Fearsome. It's central to the development work we do with others.

In every leadership development programme, team development project, and company alignment session we deliver, we talk about the client's MVVB. We encourage founders, key stakeholders, and senior leadership teams to articulate theirs clearly — and then to talk about it constantly.

Not once a year at an away day. Constantly.

In meetings. In one-to-ones. In debriefs. In hiring decisions. In how they recognise good work and how they address poor standards.

Because if leadership doesn't talk about values and behaviours regularly, nobody else will. And if nobody talks about them, they don't exist in practice — no matter how well they're written.

MVVB gives leaders a shared language and a practical framework for keeping culture alive, not just documented.

The Behaviours Are the Bit That Matters Most

If there's one thing I want people to take from this, it's this: behaviours are the most important part of MVVB.

Values tell you what you believe. Behaviours tell you whether you're actually living it.

I constantly ask my team — and myself — after events, after programmes, after delivery:

How did this value show up today?

Did we live to this value?

Did we behave in this way?

That's not a box-ticking exercise. It's a framework for understanding how well we did and how we can do better next time.

I do this across every part of the business — events, fitness, leadership, coaching — and in life generally. As a father, as a husband, as a leader.

And I can't always answer yes to those questions.

That's the point.

I don't expect perfection. We're human. But I do expect awareness. I expect the question to be asked. Because if you're aware of where you fell short, you can try to do better next time. If you never ask the question, you never grow.

Values in Action — Not Just on the Wall

One of the most powerful examples I've seen recently was during an event we delivered.

Before the session, their senior leadership team asked us to observe their four company values in action throughout the day and identify individuals who best displayed each one.

At the end, we fed back to the leadership team and presented the people we'd identified with a mug engraved with the value they'd demonstrated.

That might sound small. But it's incredibly rare.

Most organisations have values written somewhere. Very few actively observe them, talk about them in the moment, and recognise people for living them.

This team didn't just state their values. They put them at the forefront of a real experience and celebrated the people who embodied them.

That's how values move from a poster to a culture.

Jim Collins — Getting the Right People

Jim Collins reinforces this in Good to Great. His principle of getting the right people on the bus isn't primarily about skill. It's about whether people "get it" — whether they understand and believe in the purpose, share the values, and align with the culture.

People who get it don't need to be tightly managed. They make decisions that align with the organisation because they understand what drives it. They hold themselves to the standard because they believe in it.

People who don't get it — no matter how talented — create friction. They make decisions that feel off. They undermine culture without necessarily meaning to.

MVVB gives you a framework for defining what "getting it" actually looks like. The mission is the purpose. The values are the principles. The vision is the direction. The behaviours are the proof.

If you can articulate all four clearly, you can hire for them, develop against them, and hold people accountable to them.

Why This Matters for Every Organisation

Whether you're leading a business, a team, a department, or a family, the principle holds.

People need to know why they're here.

They need to know what the standards are.

They need to know where they're heading.

And they need to see those standards lived — especially by the people at the top.

When leaders live the values visibly and consistently, culture builds itself. When they don't, no amount of posters or away days will fix it.

MVVB isn't a branding exercise. It's an operating system.

And the behaviours — the bit most organisations skip — are the part that makes everything else real.

Final Thought

Values that aren't tested aren't values. They're preferences.

The question worth asking — regularly, honestly, and without ego — is simple:

Are we living this? And if not, what needs to change?

That question, asked consistently, is worth more than any mission statement ever written.

What's Your Next Move?

If you're thinking about working with a coach or leadership development company, start with a conversation.

A good leadership coach can offer an objective view of how you're showing up — not just in one area, but across every aspect of your leadership.

If that's something you'd find valuable, reach out. We're always happy to have that conversation.

👉 Get in touch