Core Values Are Hire/Fire/Promote Criteria...Not Table Stakes

Walk into any MSP and you'll find the same three words on the wall.

Integrity. Excellence. Teamwork.

Maybe in a nice font. Maybe with a little icon next to each one. Sometimes framed.

Those aren't core values. They're the minimum you'd expect from a functioning adult. Putting them on a wall doesn't make them values any more than printing "breathes oxygen" makes it a core value. They're job posting words. And they do exactly nothing for your hiring, your culture, or your team.

A real core value is specific. It's a belief your company holds that not everyone agrees with. It's something you're willing to enforce when enforcing it is uncomfortable. And here's the part most MSP owners miss: it's something that can't be trained.

Values aren't skills. You can't put someone through a certification program and have them come out the other side caring whether a client's problem is actually solved. That either shows up in the interview or it never shows up at all.

THE HIRE/FIRE/PROMOTE TEST

Before you write a single value down, run it through this test: would you fire someone for repeatedly and deliberately violating it?

Not a one-time mistake. Not a bad week. Repeatedly. Deliberately. After you've had the conversation.

If the answer is no, take it off your list. Not because firing is the goal. Because enforcement is what makes a value real. A value you won't enforce isn't a value. It's a preference. And preferences don't run businesses.

The same test applies to hiring and promotion. Would you pass on an otherwise strong candidate because they failed to demonstrate this value in the interview? Would you hold someone back from a promotion because they excel technically but consistently fall short here? If not, it's not a value. It's a hope.

WHAT YOU CAN TRAIN VS. WHAT YOU CAN'T

Here's where most MSP owners get into trouble. They assume the wrong things are trainable.

You can absolutely train someone on:

• ConnectWise, Autotask, or any PSA tool

• How to run a QBR

• Ticket documentation standards

• Escalation procedures

• Client communication scripts

• Security protocols and certifications

• How to read a network diagram

• Time tracking and billing accuracy

• How to use your field guide

That list is long. Those are real skills. The fact that you can train them is good news, because it means you can hire for potential on the technical side and build competency over time.

Now here's the list that looks trainable but isn't:

• Owning a mistake without being asked

• Telling a client bad news directly instead of avoiding the call

• Asking for help before a situation becomes a crisis

• Treating a $500/month client with the same urgency as a $5,000/month client

• Admitting "I don't know" instead of guessing and getting it wrong

• Following a process even when no one is watching

• Caring whether the client's problem is actually solved vs. whether the ticket is closed

Read that second list again. Really sit with it.

You can enforce "follows process when no one is watching." You can monitor it. You can write it up and have a performance conversation about it. But you can't train someone to care about doing the right thing when there's no consequence for doing the wrong thing. That's character. It either walked in the door on day one or it didn't walk in at all.

The second list is your actual core values list. Not the words on the wall. The behaviors that, when violated, make you want to end the employment relationship. Those are the ones worth documenting.

YOU HIRED FOR THE RESUME AND FIRED FOR THE VALUES

Here's what that looks like in practice. We hired a tech once who was exactly what we were looking for on paper. Certified on the stack. Good references. Showed up for the interview prepared. Said all the right things about client service and taking ownership.

First few months were fine. Then the tickets started coming back wrong. Not constantly, not catastrophically, but consistently. Every one had an explanation. The client hadn't given him the right access. The documentation in the system was out of date. The escalation took too long to get a response. There was always a reason. And the reason was always pointing somewhere else.

The value we had on the wall was "own it." We never screened for it. We never asked a single interview question designed to surface whether this person, under pressure, took responsibility or handed it off. We assumed a professional adult would own their mistakes. That assumption cost us two client relationships and a year of team friction before the person was gone.

After he left, one of our senior techs said something I never forgot: "We all knew in the first 90 days. We just kept hoping it would change."

It doesn't change. Character doesn't change through management. It either shows up or it doesn't. And the only time you can screen for it is before you hire.

THE SCREENING GAP NOBODY TALKS ABOUT

The traits on that second list are invisible in a standard interview. Nobody asks "would you tell a client the truth even if it made you look bad?" Nobody puts "owns mistakes without prompting" in the job posting. They're assumed. And because they're assumed, they never get tested.

By the time you find out someone doesn't have them, they're already on client sites. Already representing your brand. Already making decisions in your name that you don't know about until the complaint comes in.

A values-based hiring screen changes this. It means building 2-3 behavioral interview questions specifically designed to surface each untrainable trait before day one. Not hypotheticals. Real questions that require a real story.

"Tell me about a time something went wrong on a client engagement and walk me through exactly what you did." That question tells you more about ownership than any certification ever will. Listen for whether they describe their own role in the problem or everyone else's. Do they tell you what they'd do differently or explain why it wasn't really their fault?

The answer to that one question will tell you more about who you're about to hire than everything else in the interview combined.

WHERE THIS LIVES IN YOUR FIELD GUIDE

Your field guide's people system has one job: put the right people in the right seats and make sure they know exactly what's expected. Core values are the filter at the top of that system.

Without them documented and operationalized, every hiring decision is a gut call. And gut calls don't scale. When you're at five people, you can feel it when someone doesn't fit. When you're at twenty, you're trusting other people's gut calls. That's when it gets expensive.

Every value in your field guide needs four things: the value stated in plain language, what it looks like when someone is living it, what it looks like when someone is violating it, and the interview question that tests for it before day one. One page per value. Specific and behavioral throughout.

Your hiring system's interview questions need to be built to surface the untrainable traits, not just verify the trainable skills. Every question that tests a skill is a question that isn't testing a value. If your entire interview is skills-based, you've screened for the resume and left character to chance.

THE CLOSE

Your core values are only as real as the last person you held accountable to them.

Not the last time you put them in a presentation. Not the last time you mentioned them in a team meeting. The last time enforcing them was uncomfortable and you enforced them anyway.

If you can't remember that moment, the values aren't operational yet. They're decorative. And decorative values don't build the team that runs without you.

Start with the second list. The untrainable one. Pick the three traits that, if a tech violated them consistently, you'd have no choice but to let them go. Write those down. That's your real values list. Build your hiring screen around surfacing them before day one.

That's the system. That's what goes in the field guide. And that's what the owners who built teams they can actually trust did before they trusted anyone.

Ready to build a people system that screens for the traits that actually matter? Start your field guide at builttorunmsp.com

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What's the difference between a core value and a standard expectation?

A standard expectation is something you'd expect from any professional: shows up on time, meets deadlines, communicates clearly. A core value is specific to your company and your culture. It's a belief that not every business holds, that you're willing to enforce when enforcing it is uncomfortable, and that you'd use to make a hiring or firing decision. "Owns mistakes without being asked" is a core value. "Shows up on time" is a minimum standard. If you put minimum standards on your values list, you'll attract people who hit the floor and call it excellent.

How many core values should an MSP have?

Three to five. Any fewer and you haven't thought hard enough. Any more and nobody can remember them, which means nobody uses them to make decisions. The test is simple: can every person on your team recite them unprompted right now? If not, you have too many or the wrong ones. The goal isn't a comprehensive list of things you care about. It's a short list of non-negotiables your team has genuinely internalized.

How do you interview for core values you can't train?

Behavioral questions that require a real story. Not hypotheticals. Ask: "Tell me about a time something went wrong on a client engagement and walk me through exactly what you did." Listen for whether they describe their own role in the problem or everyone else's. Ask: "Tell me about a time you had to deliver bad news to a client. What did you say and how did it go?" Listen for whether they avoided the conversation or had it directly. The stories tell you who the person actually is. The hypotheticals tell you who they think you want them to be.

What do you do when a high performer violates a core value?

You enforce it anyway. This is the hardest part and the most important part. A high performer who violates a core value and isn't held accountable teaches every other person on your team that the values are optional for people who hit their numbers. That message spreads faster than any culture initiative you'll ever run. Have the conversation, document it, give it a fair runway to change. If it doesn't change, you already know what the value says to do.

How do core values connect to the field guide?

Your field guide's people system is where values stop being wall art and start being operational. Each value needs a written definition, behavioral examples of what living it looks like, behavioral examples of what violating it looks like, and the interview question designed to screen for it before hire. Without that documentation, values enforcement depends on whoever is doing the managing that day. With it, the standard exists independent of any individual. That's what makes it a system instead of a personality.