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Leadership
Living and Leading From Your Values
Get clear on your values with this exercise.
Posted September 19, 2024 Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
Our values shape our behaviours, inform our decisions, and ultimately define our paths in our personal and professional realms. Recognising and aligning with these values is critical not only for personal satisfaction but also for effective leadership.
Effective leaders understand that their values are pivotal in shaping organisational culture and inspiring others. As noted by Bill George, a former CEO and leadership specialist, “The best leaders are authentic and true to themselves, their values, and their principles.”
Values in Leadership
Understanding our leadership values allows us to make value-based choices and be intentional about how we want to show up and lead. Having a clear picture of your values also allows you to communicate and model your values to your team and create a values-driven culture where team members feel encouraged to embrace similar principles and values. When team members align with these values, they work collaboratively toward common goals, enhancing overall effectiveness.
Values are not just important in the workplace, however; everyone can benefit from identifying their values and understanding how living in accordance with them (or not) can affect our lives and happiness.
Values: The Foundation for Meaningful Choices
Values are the things we most value in life and work: what is most important to us, the principles we cherish, the qualities that give our lives meaning—such as family, integrity, creativity, community—and more. They are personal to every individual, so each of us has a distinct list of values.
How often do you sit down and reflect on your values and consider how much you are living in accordance with them? By identifying what is most important to us, we can make choices about how we live and lead. However, it’s important to recognise that our values can differ depending on our context; our work values and home values may not be the same, for example. Also, values are not set in stone; they evolve as we gain new experiences and insights about ourselves. Regularly revisiting and reassessing our values allows us to live and lead in relation to and alignment with what is most important to us.
Clarifying Your Values
There are many exercises to explore values, but I’m sharing one that is simple and easy, designed to help you uncover and understand your core values. It’s a self-reflection exercise I like to do with my leadership coaching clients, but it’s useful for anyone. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach; the goal is to discover what resonates with you.
1. Identify your values. Decide the area in which you want to examine your values. You can approach this from a broad perspective—reflecting on your overall values in life—or focus on a specific role, such as a leader or a parent. For my leadership clients, we often start with their leadership values, but choose the area you want to explore.
Review the list of values below. Highlight/check the ones that resonate with you most. Your list might include words or concepts that are not featured here: If so, add them to your list.
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2. Prioritise your values. Next, choose your top five values—those that resonate most strongly with you. These are your core values—the ones that mean the most to you at this particular time, place, and space in your life. Remember: Your values may differ across the various domains in which you operate.
3. Assess your alignment. Consider how closely your actions align with your identified values. Rate your alignment with each of your top five values on a scale from 1 to 10, reflecting on how well you embody each one in your daily life. For example, if you rate “integrity” as 9 out of 10, you are confident that you uphold this value in your life. However, if “honesty” receives a score of 4, you could improve in this area and enhance your alignment with it (and your score) by devising specific strategies, like openly sharing your thoughts in meetings or providing constructive feedback to others.
4. Reflect on impact. Think:
- What will my leadership/parenting/family look and feel like when I thoroughly live up to my core values?
- What can I do to live more in accordance with my values?
- What needs to change for me to live my values?
If what you’re doing and how you’re acting don’t match your values, you can feel uncomfortable, dissatisfied, and even unhappy. When the things you do and how you behave are in alignment with your values, you tend to feel harmonious and fulfilled.
One of my coaching clients, Elise, used to be ambitious and keen to succeed in a highly paid leadership post. But now, she feels “strangely dissatisfied.” Reflecting on what is important to her these days, she realised that her values and priorities had shifted and were not in alignment with her current role. She wants to write. And family is really important! To get aligned with her dearest values and goals, she decided to cut her hours at work, devote time to her passion, and prioritise quality time with her children. Evaluating her values was an important step for Elise to start living the life she wanted.
In a rapidly changing world, values-based leadership is a beacon for effective, responsive, and compassionate leadership. By engaging in self-reflection to understand and align with our core values, we can navigate the complexities of leadership (and life) with clarity and purpose. Embrace your values to live and lead in alignment with what matters most and inspire those around you.
