How important are your personal values to your leadership? Incredibly important! When I work with leaders – either in an Executive Leadership Coaching capacity, or as a facilitator for our Executive Leadership Program, I find that most leaders either haven’t thought to, or haven’t taken the time to work out their core personal values.
Business Values and Personal Values
They will most likely have done some work on business values – often writing value nouns (Integrity, Honesty, Courage, Innovation etc) without really considering whether they are their own personal values.
(We can talk on the fault of nouns rather than verbs as values, absolutes as values and writing aspirational rather than actual values at another time!).
Our personal values drive our behaviour. For those that haven’t considered putting those values into words or actions, it is often described as a ‘gut feel’.
When you consider what is really important to you, and take the time to evaluate, weigh up and consider hundreds of value propositions to sift through to your Top 3 – leaders end up with a huge sense of clarity.
Are There ‘Good’ Or ‘Bad’ Leadership Values?
Often we need to discuss whether they feel like their values are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ values for a leader. Quick tip – there are no good and bad values for a leader, just what you feel and believe.
When you know your personal values, a whole bunch of things fall into place from a personal and professional level.
When it comes to what you see as ‘good team behaviours’, they will most likely align with at least 1 of your top 3 values. Similar for what you see as ‘poor team behaviours’ – they will ‘cut across’ at least 1 of your top 3 values.
As a leader, when you understand the key values that drive you, you develop a sense of clarity regarding your behaviours and the behaviours you accept (or don’t accept) with others.
Good Leaders Share Their Values
As a good leader, you have the opportunity to share those values with your team members, to develop a better understanding of you as a leader, and what your expectations are. That clarity serves the team in numerous ways, not least in being able to anticipate what you may want or need in your absence, based on those values.
When your values are expressed as verbs rather than nouns, you get even greater clarity, as both you and your team understand more clearly the actions and behaviours that are required.
So yes, personal values are important for leaders!
If you haven’t thought to work out your top 3 values and don’t know where to start, reach out via email or DM. We have worked with dozens of leaders just like you to develop the value and behaviour clarity that you need to bring yourself and your team to the next level of performance.
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The Velocity Leadership CheckPoint Is The Start
If you are unsure of your impact on your leader / team, perhaps you should complete the Velocity Leadership CheckPoint? 25 behavioural leadership traits, focussed in 5 distinct leadership capabilities – a ‘must know’ for any leader or team looking to drive high performance. If you haven’t completed the CheckPoint, get in touch with us today to arrange an appointment. Read through the comments and feedback from those that have – many say that it has had a profound effect on how they lead and perform within a team.
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