Value

This post is connected with Worldview and Self-Awareness

Our values are shaped by our worldview.

If our worldview reflects our core beliefs around the deeper questions of life, our values are the principles through which w express those core beliefs.

Uncovering your values can help you understand your worldview.

Values are typically few but firm. They are nonnegotiable. And, of course, they drive behavior.

Some values are universal, and could just easily be described as public virtues.
The most obvious are

• loyalty
• humility
• justice
• commitment
• trustworthiness
• patience
• forgiveness
• generosity

People follow leaders who keep their word, who show respect, and who act with humility.

Other values are more individual. People typically hold these closest and voice them the most promptly. They ma be widespread but they are not universal. Education, for example, is a value for many, but not for everyone, and not holding such a value carries no moral condemnation. For others, it might be the importance of family, or the value of work, or the pursuit of financial security.

Great leaders know their own individual values, and articulate them well to the people they lead.

Real values are lived out with conviction. They define boundaries: they prescribe what we will do and won’t do. The ultimate measure of a value is the price we are willing to pay to live by it.

Your behavior shows your real values!

Whatever your values, if you can’t point to sacrifices you have made to live by them, question the sincerity of those values.

The stronger your values, the easier those tough choices become.

Character in leadership is expressed mainly trough the public virtues. The battle for character is won or lost in the leaders commitment to the public virtues.

Great leadership seeks primarily the good of the organization, the good of the people in it, and the good of those touched by it.

Strong, clearly articulated values are far more powerful than charisma in effective leadership.

Great leaders gather followers because of their values and because of the consistency with which they apply them. This may in fact be the single most liberating concept in leadership: you don’t have to be charismatic to be a great leader; you simply need to have a clear set of values, articulate them often, and live by them.

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This post is connected with Worldview and Self-Awareness