Most heart-felt leaders and service providers know that to be effective and ethical in their role, they need to stay in integrity with themselves and others.
While integrity itself is important, in my opinion it is not integrity alone that keeps us on track and in connection with ourselves and others. That comes, in large part, from knowing and living according to our unique set of personal values.
As a leader, you are going first. That means you need to be able to make your own decisions and take action of your own accord. Your values help you to do this. They support you to live in integrity with yourself and remain strong and true to who you are, regardless of the circumstance and irrespective of what others around you might be doing or saying.
What are values anyway?
Values are the qualities or ways of being that feel most important to us and are integral to who we are as an individual. They help to inform our decisions and behaviours, and are part of what gives rise to our unique and authentic expression.
Some examples of common values include: honesty, compassion, playfulness, pleasure, joy, devotion, vulnerability, growth, self-discipline, balance, adventure, security and freedom.
Our values are not just activities we enjoy or areas of life that are important to us. Rather, our values are the qualities of being that are essential to who we are as an individual, without which we do not truly feel like ourselves.
When we do not know our values, it is easy to become overridden by the ideas and opinions of others. If we take action or blindly follow the advice of others, without first checking in on what is most important to us, we can lose connection to our self and end up heading down a path that does not truly align or feel right for us.
Our values are the guideposts that help us to act in accordance with our truth, and stay on track with what is right for us as an individual - and as a leader.
One way to assess your values is to ask: What qualities or principles are you simply not willing to compromise on? What qualities, if you were take them away, would leave you feeling inauthentic or no longer like yourself?
Another way is to imagine yourself 10 years from now. See the vision of who you are and how your life has unfolded. What is important to this person? What qualities do they embody? What standards of living or ways of being do they uphold and maintain?
To help you make the connection between your values and your role as a leader, here are three ways your values can support you in your leadership:
1. Who you are and what you represent as a leader
Part of being a leader is being confident and secure in who you are. This comes, in part, from having a strong inner compass that guides you in all moments, and being the same person behind closed doors as you are in public. When these two levels are congruent, there is a feeling of cohesion and sincerity to who we are, and that gives rise to confidence.
For many people there is a disconnect between who they feel themselves to be on the inside and how they act on the outside and the life they are living. This creates a sense of insecurity and uncertainty due to a lack of authenticity. We feel shakeable, rather than unshakable.
Even with the best of intentions, if you do not know and live your values to the best of your ability, you will find it hard to trust and believe in yourself. This can lead to a feeling that something is ‘off’, even if you don't yet know what that is, or lingering sense that you are a fraud and really the person you make yourself out to be - both of which give rise to a gnawing sense of instability and uncertainty that erodes your confidence and ability to show up powerfully as a leader.
Our values are meant to be present both internally and externally. When these two levels are congruent, there is a feeling of cohesion and sincerity to who we are.
To show up confidently and consistently across the board, you must know who you are and what is important for you, and act in accordance with this. You must match the inner with the outer, and your help you to stay connected to what is important to you, how you want to show up, and ultimately what you become known for.
For example, if joy is one of your values and you are not authentically seeking joy in the challenges of your life as much as the high points and good things, you are likely to feel out of integrity with yourself and this does not bode well for your confidence as a leader.
When you choose to live with joy, and bring this into all areas of your life, regardless of circumstances you create a level of consistency and stability that grounds you into your experience of yourself. You know you can rely on and trust yourself to live authentically and in accordance with your values.
When you take consistent action based on your values, you build up a level of self-trust and confidence that cannot be shaken. You will come to trust yourself as a person and a leader, feel more confident in who you are and what you have to offer, and those who resonate with what you represent will be drawn to you as a leader.
Repeated over time, action taken made with the value of joy in mind eventually gives rise to a life that is steeped in joy. What you have built on the outside, is a reflection of who you are on the inside, and becomes part of what you are known for by your community.
2. Decision making
As a leader you will be faced with many decisions, some of which you may need to make on behalf of others or a group of people. When faced with two or more options, our values help us to choose the path that is most aligned for us. They give us a lens to see and assess our decisions through.
With clear values in place, the decision-making process is simplified. Imagine that one of your core values is health, and the decision in front of you is likely to detract from your personal definition of health. Knowing that you have a core value of health in place makes it so much easier to take the life-giving decision, and not just the easy way out.
In the same vein, if one of your core values is passion, the most authentic choice for you will likely be the one that evokes the most passion. Your value of passion becomes a gatekeeper or guidepost that helps to keep you on track with what is real for you and ensures you are living in integrity with your innermost truth. This is how you ensure you honour and stay in alignment with your inner truth, even as you navigate the outside world.
Our values can also help us to navigate, and even rectify, situations that have gone awry.
A few months ago a situation arose within a group container I was facilitating. One of the participants was navigating a challenging experience which escalated, in part, due to a lack of integrity on my part, and ended up impacting everyone in the group in some way or another. As the leader, I was called to lead us through it.
My instinct was to schedule a follow-up call where we could get together and unpack what had happened, and talk through any question or concerns. It would also be used as a teaching tool where I could to highlight how and why I had chosen to navigate things the way I had. It was a leadership training after all, and what better way to model authentic leadership than in real time?
However, my mind had other ideas. It told me that what I felt called to do was unnecessary, I was creating a problem out of nothing and no-one else cared as much as I did, anyway. “You’re making it all about you,” it said.
I turned inward and asked: What sort of leader would I like to be? It was immediately clear. I wanted to be a leader who was not afraid of making mistakes, was transparent, and took radical ownership of my part in situations that arose. My core values meant I wanted to lead with honesty and integrity, and to honour what was right for me, as much as anyone else.
We went ahead with the meeting. Along with the time for participants to voice their questions, concerns and learnings, and I had the opportunity to model the sort of leadership I wanted to stand for. It ended up being a valuable experience for all, myself included, and each of us walked away feeling more complete, uplifted and connected than before the situation had even arisen.
As it turned out it was only my ego, doing its best to protect me from potential danger and ridicule, that had tried to talk me out of leading with the honesty and transparency that is so important to me.
Next time you are faced with a decision, whether in a moment or crisis or simply deciding what option is right for you, refer back to your core values and ask: What is important to me? How do I want to show up in this situation? Then see how you feel about moving forward.
3. Designing your offers
A sustainable business that feels authentic and satisfying for you is one that is built by and steeped in your values. This includes your marketing message and voice, systems, structures, policies, and the design and format in which you choose to deliver each of your offers.
Clients often ask me whether it would be wise for them to set up an evergreen offer that is available for purchase 24/7. On the surface, the idea seems like a no-brainer: you create a readily accessible way of helping people, don’t have to repeat the work over and over again, and open up a potentially limitless income stream. So, why not?
Surprisingly, the answer is not so clear cut. It is unique for each person and making the decision that is right for you comes down, in large, to knowing your values and ensuring you are honouring them in everything you do.
When met with the evergreen question, I tend to respond by first asking: What are your values? What is important to you? And how does an evergreen model fit within your value structure?
What many people quickly realise, is that the model does not in fact light them up. Many of my clients hold core values such as connection, intimacy, depth, transformation and vulnerability, and an evergreen model often does not align with these values.
With that said, this may not be the case for everyone, or every offer. It comes down to your values and the promises you’re making with your offer. Some offers may well be transferable and able to be delivered within a short, repeatable evergreen framework. Often this is the case when values such as time, freedom, family or accessibility are at the fore.
At the end of the day, your business model and the design of your offers needs to sit easily with you and light you up in a way that can only come from living authentically and in alignment with your values. When an element of your business does not, it is unlikely to ever bring you the degree of satisfaction and success you hope it will - no matter how much you’re able to justify it on paper.
Clear values are foundational to your leadership. They give you strength and help you to know and remain true to yourself as you grow as a leader and in your business.
Take some time to tune in and identify the 3-5 core values that truly represent who you are and what you wish to stand for. Then commit to living them on the daily. Doing so consistently, from the inside out, will transform your sense of confidence, connection to your value, and integrity as a leader.
If you would like some help identifying your core values and developing your vision and offers around your authentic expression, I invite you to book a free 1:1 Dream Biz Clarity Call with me.
In this call we’ll dive deep into where you’re currently at, where you want to be, and what is holding you back, as well as what it might look like to work together on developing your vision so you can step forward confidently into your leadership.