We are at our best when our work is well-aligned with our values, and leaders are no exception. Yet in the fray of day-to-day challenges, rarely do we stop to reflect on what we hold most important, and/or how that might have changed over the years. If you don’t take time to do that, you may miss an important insight, solution, or an area or two where compromises have led to some level of enduring unease. Consider your values from time to time, and reconcile them to what you are doing (and not doing) in your work. A relatively small investment in this area can lead to big jumps in your own development as a leader—and that will position you well for being at your best most days.
Self-coaching:
- What ARE your values? If you were to list only those things that you hold to be most important, what would—without hesitation—definitely be on your list?
- Considering your day to day tasks and relationships, where are you well-aligned, and less-well-aligned with each item on your values list?
- What can you do to increase your commitment to or engagement in the areas of your work where alignment is stronger?
- Considering those areas where your values alignment is not as strong, what needs changing, and how you will hold yourself accountable to making those changes?
David Peck
Executive Coach and President
Leadership Unleashed
Twitter: recoveringleadr
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Based on client experiences / lessons learned, our weekly LeaderTips have been offering self-coaching themes and topics of interest to leaders since 2004. They are often published in BusinessWeek Online, sent weekly to our clients, and hundreds of other corporate leaders worldwide. I invite you to forward them to others, who are also welcome to subscribe using the link below. Note that over 100 of these tips appear in my book, Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click here to subscribe to LeaderTips via email.