By Robert Glazer, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Acceleration Partners

When I first founded my company, I was like many entrepreneurs: full of passion and ideas but lacking a clear leadership roadmap. I made a ton of mistakes and learned from them. But what would have helped me most in my startup journey was this: identifying my personal core values.

Core values are your closely held, non-negotiable principles. They form the backbone of your authentic leadership style and drive your key decisions. These values are distinct from company values, as each leader has their own personal principles even if they cannot clearly articulate them today.

If you’re building a startup without having done the work to get clarity on your values, know that you’re missing a crucial piece to success as a founder and leader. Here’s why.

The Patchwork Quilt

Many startup founders don’t start with extensive leadership experience. Instead, we become leaders by necessity, building a team quickly and figuring it out as we go.

When leading for the first time, it’s common to follow a patchwork approach to leadership. Founders emulate traits from leaders they admire and do the opposite of the traits they disliked in other managers. This seemingly logical approach leads to inconsistency and inauthenticity.

I learned this the hard way many times. For example, I once was at an industry conference with my team in Las Vegas. Several employees partied way too hard and were unable to function the next day. Struggling to respond, I asked another leader at the conference for advice, copying his hard-handed approach. Immediately, I knew it wasn’t me and felt horrible.

When you lead without knowing your values, you’re running other people’s playbooks and getting subpar results. Trust erodes among your team, as people can always tell when a leader’s style is inauthentic.

But when you know your personal core values and confidently craft your leadership style around them, everything changes. Values serve as the non-negotiable guardrails that make your leadership consistent and authentic, inspiring trust and cohesion.

Culture Setters

As a founder, one of your highest priorities is setting a healthy, high-performing culture grounded in clear, consistent company core values. Typically, the best way to do that is identifying company values tied to your own personal values, ensuring you can stand by those cultural tenets in tough circumstances.

I used to think company core values were BS platitudes designed to look good on a wall or webpage. But once I defined my personal core values, I recognized how naturally they could extend into my company’s DNA.

For example, these are my company values:

1. Own It, which naturally connects to my core value of Self-Reliance.

2. Embrace Relationships, which is in harmony with my personal value of Respectful Authenticity.

3. Excel & Improve, which is very close to my top core value of Find A Better Way and Share It.

By rooting the company’s culture in my own values, I could lead more authentically and identify employees who thrived under my leadership style. Over time, they shaped hiring, performance, and decision-making across the company.

If you’re a founder, culture starts with you. If your company’s values don’t align with your own, they will ring hollow and fail to inspire you or your team.

Values as a Decision-Making Compass

As an entrepreneur, one of the most exhausting parts of the job is the sheer volume of decisions. Every day brings forks in the road: Do we hire this person or wait? Do we pursue this client or pass? Do we pivot or stay the course?

Without a clear compass, decision fatigue sets in quickly. You agonize over choices, second-guess yourself, or make decisions that you regret later.

This is where core values become indispensable. They act as a rubric that allows you to make decisions with clarity and confidence. If a choice aligns with your values, it’s likely the right call. If it conflicts with one or more of your values, don’t do it, no matter how easy or convenient it may seem.

I found that once I defined my values, difficult choices became clearer. For example, my value of Long-Term Orientation often pushed me to decline opportunities that offered short-term revenue by could’ve compromised the company’s future. Instead of agonizing over the decision, I could confidently say no, knowing I was staying true to what mattered most.

Find The Compass Within

As a founder, when you have clarity on your values and can articulate them clearly, you will be able to lead authentically, shape a culture that truly reflects you, and make better decisions in the face of constant uncertainty.

Many startups fail because their founders lack an internal compass to guide them through the inevitable storms of entrepreneurship. Your core values are that compass.

That’s why I wrote my new book, The Compass Within: A Little Story About The Values That Guide Us. It’s a business parable that outlines the importance of discovering your personal core values and provides a practical framework to do so, and it’s been endorsed by leadership experts like Patrick Lencioni, Annie Duke, and Medtronic CEO Bill George. My hope is that it will help founders and leaders avoid years of friction by getting aligned from the start.

If you’re building something new, don’t overlook this critical step. Take the time to identify your core values early and lead from them. It’s the single most important thing I wish I had done earlier as a founder — and the one thing that can make all the difference for you.

Want to find your core values? Techstars readers can get Robert’s core values discovery course for free if they order a hardcover copy of The Compass Within. Learn more.

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