By David Mammano, an EO Western New York member, founder and CEO of Next Step Education Group, and author of “Make Love in the Workplace”

The Latin word for heart is “cor.”
The Italian word for heart is “cuore.”
The French word for heart is “coeur.”
The Spanish word for heart is corazón.”

Are you beginning to understand where the English word “core” comes from and how it relates to your values? I laugh when I hear about a business owner who gets his team together and says, “OK, this meeting is about creating our core values. Let’s decide what they are and then work toward living them.” You can’t invent your company’s core values at a meeting. They are inherently intertwined in the DNA of your organization. You can’t decide to have integrity and then strive to make it happen, just like you can’t be a little pregnant (you are or you aren’t). You either have integrity or you don’t.