You are What You Do – Values Are Seen in Behavior
I have been reading a lot of articles these days about personal and corporate values. Our values have really been put to the test in the last 14 months when the whole world started talking about and respond to COVID-19.
The global pandemic has really tested who we are as individuals, in our relationships, and in our organizations.
We faced some extraordinary challenges, and I suspect you found solace and security in your core values.
Are Core Values More Than Words?
This is an important question to answer because values are not just words; they are actions.
I think a company’s core values are witnessed in the way the people behave inside the business. Despite the posters in the staff room and etched words on lighted glass in the reception area, how people respond and act mirror the organization’s actual values.
You should be able to see values in peoples’ behaviors.
The conversation around the importance of values is not an annual meeting or strategic plan discussion; it’s the everyday conversation. This is a conversation demonstrated more than spoken. We treat one another, customers, vendors, partners, and the public in alignment with our values.
People Know You By Your Values
Values are recognized by the behaviors you and your team exhibit as you work AND the character traits that other people know of you.
They are signposts to guide us and keep us on track – especially when we are under pressure and facing challenges.
Everything we do is tied back to our values.
Brené Brown, in her terrific book, Dare To Lead, has a great exercise on encouraging you to consider your values.
Her quote says it all:
“Living into our values means that we do more than profess our values, we practice them”
I have another great resource for you regarding a values exercise. The authors of The Leadership Challenge, James Kouzes and Barry Posner, created a useful series of guided coaching sessions designed to identify our personal values. They help us to align them with the five leadership practices and commitments within their seminal work. It is contained within the Facilitator’s Guide of The Leadership Challenge Values Cards.
Below is a list of 132 values I use in my Leadership Accelerator Program. Please scan them without thinking too hard, and select the values that immediately resonate with you, and write the words down in a list somewhere.
- abundance
- adaptability
- achievement
- accountability
- acceptance
- adventure
- advocacy
- ambition
- altruism
- authenticity
- balance
- beauty
- being the best
- belonging
- bravery
- caring
- challenge
- comfort
- collaboration
- commitment
- community
- compassion
- competence
- competition
- confidence
- contentment
- contribution
- cooperation
- courage
- creativity
- curiosity
- dedication
- dignity
- diligence
- diversity
- drive
- efficiency
- environment
- equality
- ethics
- excellence
- faith
- family
- financial-stability
- forgiveness
- freedom
- friendship
- fun
- future-generations
- generosity
- giving back
- grace
- gratitude
- growth
- harmony
- healthy home
- honesty
- hope
- humility
- independence
- inclusion
- individuality
- initiative
- innovation
- intelligence
- intuition
- joy
- justice
- kindness
- knowledge
- leadership
- learning
- legacy
- leisure
- love
- loyalty
- making a difference
- mastery
- nature
- openness
- optimism
- order
- originality
- parenting
- patience
- patriotism
- peace
- perseverance
- personal fulfillment
- playfulness
- power
- pride
- recognition
- reliability
- resourcefulness
- respect
- responsibility
- risk-taking
- safety
- security
- self-discipline
- self-expression
- self-reliance
- self-respect
- serenity
- service
- simplicity
- spirituality
- sportsmanship
- stability
- status stewardship
- structure
- success
- teamwork
- thrift
- time
- tradition
- transparency
- travel
- trust
- truth
- understanding
- uniqueness
- unity
- usefulness
- wonder
- wisdom
- wholeheartedness
- well being
- wealth
- vulnerability
- vision
Let’s Narrow The Field
Now look at your selections and select the 5 that truly mean something important to you.
If you have trouble reducing your initial list down to 5, then consolidate them into a broader term, or recognize that some may be saying almost the same thing, for example, community and connection or self-expression and creativity.
(If communities, or families, create a Coat of Arms, those Coats of Arms will usually consist of 5 things (quotes or something graphically represented) that are important to that community or family.)
We try to encourage people to select 5 things that they believe represent who they are: their values.
How Well Do Your Daily Actions Match Your Stated or Perceived Values?
Once the list is down to 5 values, rank them in order of importance.
And finally, when you think about yourself and your behaviors, ask yourself whether your listed values match your actions.
That will be the litmus test of whether you truly practice your values (as Brené Brown would tell us to do).
For those Not Faint of Heart
Feeling brave? Wanting to grow in your level of self-awareness?
Then ask someone else to do this exercise for you and then have a conversation about the differences between the 5 you came up with and the 5 that the other person came up with for you.
The real test happens when things aren’t going well. Do you stick to your core values even when you’re not getting the results you want? Even when external pressures may weigh you down?
Carry that list of your 5 core values with you and look at them often.
Remember, our core values act as our compass, as our North Star.
And this past year, we have all needed a North Star.
