Personal Values vs Leadership Values

As a leader, we really need to start asking ourselves, what kind of outcomes we want to see, it's not good enough anymore, to just have the day by day, it's not good enough to not know what your vision is.

Values essentially are what's important to us. It's the emotional state that we want to experience on a consistent basis. And I think a lot of us know, intuitively know what's important to us and what kind of values we have but and as a leader, we don't just ask ourselves, what's important. We ask ourselves, what outcome do we want to achieve for our mission? And what do we need to value to get there?

So I trust that you can distinguish that it's not just about what's important to you as a person now, But it's asking yourself a higher-level question. What do I need to value in order to achieve the success that you (and your team) want to achieve? What do I need to make important to me to achieve that level of success?

As a leader, we really need to start asking ourselves, what kind of outcomes we want to see, it's not good enough anymore, to just have the day by day, it's not good enough to not know what your vision is. Because the definition of a leader is to have a vision, and the ability to bring people along on the journey with you to achieve the vision and the mission.

So when we're asking ourselves about values, it's always with the outcome in mind. Now, as a leader, you might not personally value discipline. But when you look at your big picture of what you are trying to achieve, maybe discipline needs to be something that you value in order to get there.

So, we're going to have it as an aspirational value to start off with. An aspirational value is something you know you need to bring into centre focus but you are not living it on a consistent basis. We're not quite there yet, it's going to take us some time to value that. I like to think that it takes about 6 months for an aspirational value to become a lived value.

And there is also a huge difference between personal values and leadership values. Because I don't expect that when you're at home, you're going to have to always live the value of discipline. It's also okay when you're at home to kick off your shoes and put your feet up on the counter. That's absolutely normal. And that's what we need to really understand as a leader that there is a distinction between you at home with your family, and you being the leader that you need to be for your organization or for your company, and wearing a different sort of set of values, wearing different hats for different outcomes.

As we talk about values and who we need to be as a leader, it's really important to recognize that it's going to be hard. That these values are growth values for a reason that we are going to be growing into them that they won't necessarily be easy for us at the beginning. Now, I'll tell you what it's not. It's not striving for discipline. And then every single time you notice that you're not being disciplined, beating yourself up about it. That's not how we roll here. We are setting an intention to grow into something and know that we are just putting one foot in front of the other every single day and that we will get better and we will start to value that thing more and more. Because it's in the front of the forefront of our minds. It's in our awareness that we need to show up with discipline in mind.

So I'm trusting that that's making sense to you and that you can't set an aspirational value and then beat yourself up about it. It's about setting an aspirational value that you know is going to bring you to your outcome. And then knowing that your future self will become that, and right now you're not there yet. Because you've got to make decisions that our future selves will thank us for. We've got to make decisions in line with who we want to be, and not with how to be comfortable now.

Because as leaders, we're not going to be comfortable, sometimes we have to make tough decisions. And when we're living true to our values, we become great leaders. So if you establish today, for example, some great leadership values could be discipline, it could be structure could be adventure. It could be valuing risk more. It could be authenticity so you're being really true to who you are. It could be growth and really valuing stepping outside of your comfort zone.

And yes, those things are hard. And yes, you're not supposed to already be doing them really well. But imagine, in six months time, how much progress there would have been. And if you start valuing those things today, who you could become in six months time.

I love that you are able to stretch yourself because that's really what it's all about.

One of the major downfalls that I find is that there is resistance to growth within our society. When people say “it doesn't work for me” they are really letting themselves off the hook for not developing that part of themselves…. Deep down inside they might know “I need to value structure” but tell themselves “oh, I'm not a structured person.” or “It doesn't really work for me. “

And if you think about that, it's kind of a cop out.

Because claiming that it doesn't work for you, is really going to limit you in your growth possibilities in expanding you to all that you could possibly be. So that you can show up as the leader and the business owner that you want to be. So just take responsibility for the fact that it might not be your natural strength. And we're going to grow into it. And I know that some of you needed to hear that message. Because it's really, really important that we put ourselves outside of our comfort zones. And the things that we start to value today will make us into the leaders that we want to be.

I remember having a conversation with one of my amazing mentors. And he said to me, “Dani, if you don't value structure, value structure!”

It was that simple. He just said that one sentence, and it changed my whole world. Because I wasn't valuing structure. And I needed to own the fact that I had been copping out and not actually growing that muscle inside of me. And that it was so far out of my depth. But when I started to just show up with that awareness in mind, and I could see the value in structure, I could see what it was going to bring me.

I could see that when I create structure in my business and in my life, it would allow me time to step back and focus on other things that matter more. Focus on getting higher quality clients. And it's so amazing the difference when you just have that one little truth bomb, that awareness bomb, and you just start thinking about it. And then it starts to make sense. And then it settles. And then I started noticing, “hey, I've got some really awesome structure here.” And I started seeing the results of structure. And then I started to really value structure.

So I wonder what your example would be. When was that moment that you had a little truth bomb hit you? And you knew that was the moment you were going to change? that you started valuing something that was going to bring you closer to the future that you want to live…