Category Archives: Values

What are values anyway?

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What are values?
Values are the motivational keys that cause people to choose to follow a particular person, path, goal, career. 
Think for a moment of the value that brought you to the work you do now. Were you motivated by curiosity? Prestige? Success? Financial reward? Security? Enterprise? Community? Service? Advance? There are many other values that may be your personal drivers.
Edgar Schein identifies 10 key values that a people have and the sort of associated goal that helps us understand the value:
Value
Description
Power    
The motivational goal of power values is the attainment of social status and prestige, and the control or dominance over people and resources.
Achievement
The primary goal of this type is personal success through demonstrated competence. Competence is evaluated in terms of what is valued by the system or organization in which the individual is located.
Hedonism
The motivational goal of this type of value is pleasure or sensuous gratification for oneself. This value type is derived from physical needs and the pleasure associated with satisfying them.
Stimulation
The motivational goal of stimulation values is excitement, novelty, and challenge in life. This value type is derived from the need for variety and stimulation in order to maintain an optimal level of activation. Thrill seeking can be the result of strong stimulation needs.
Self-
Direction
The motivational goal of this value type is independent thought and action (for example, choosing, creating, exploring). Self-direction comes from the need for control and mastery along with the need for autonomy and independence.
Universalism
The motivational goal of universalism is the understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection of the welfare for all people and for nature.
Benevolence
The motivational goal of benevolent values is to preserve and enhance the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact. This is a concern for the welfare of others that is more narrowly defined than Universalism.
Tradition
The motivational goal of tradition values is respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that one’s culture or religion imposes on the individual. A traditional mode of behaviour becomes a symbol of the group’s solidarity and an expression of its unique worth and, hopefully, its survival.
Conformity
The motivational goal of this type is restraint of action, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms. It is derived from the requirement that individuals inhibit inclinations that might be socially disruptive in order for personal interaction and group functioning to run smoothly.
Security
 The motivational goal of this type is safety, harmony, and stability of society or relationships, and of self.

 

You will use the words that best describe your values for you – each will fall into one of Schein’s key values but you may not like the word
  • “I do this for fun” for example – would come under “Hedonism” – though I have yet to meet anyone who tells me, “well I do it because I’m a hedonist”.
  • “I like a challenge” could be about several: “Power”, “Achievement”, “Self-direction” or “Stimulation” – it would be what you mean by “challenge”.
What about money?
A great many people will consider that “money” is valuable to them, but in and of itself, money does not have value. Strictly speaking, any form of “money” is simply a promissory note or coin (or just a number on a bank statement). “Money” is a means of exchanging it for other things that are valuable. 
Each of us further has our own hierarchy of values. Values that are more important to us than other values.
Our order of values is our order of values. Just because I consider self-direction to be more important than universalism (for example) does not make my hierarchy wrong or right. We are not judging anyone’s values here. We just want to understand them.

LeaderShift – Delegate the fun stuff

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Delegate the fun stuff!

Many of you will have already read an article of mine called “Loosen Your Grip to Stay in Control!” Well, one of the areas that many of my coaching clients struggle with is effective delegation. So, this LeaderShift!, I’m going to get you to delegate. And to delegate something that you like to do yourself!

“But John, I don’t have anyone that I can delegate to!” Nonsense! You do, they might not be your staff, it could be your friends, colleagues, boss (yes your boss), spouse, kids…

  • Are you overburdened?
  • Do you have any problems with giving other people control over something?
  • Do you ever find that others were expecting something different even after you clearly communicated?
  • Is time your friend?

6 Steps to Delegation

Delegate [del-i-geyt]: to send or appoint (a person) as deputy or representative; to commit (powers, functions, etc.) to another as agent or deputy.

There’s a simple six step process to follow to delegate to someone successfully. You need to:

  1. Establish exactly what to delegate to whom
  2. Clarify the specific outcomes you want
  3. Clearly define responsibilities
  4. Communicate the scope and authority
  5. Establish a time frame
  6. Monitor progress

You know this right? Your challenge this LeaderShift! goes beyond this.

Leadershift!

Delegate something you really like doing!

  1. What’s the favourite part of your job?
  2. Delegate it!

Something that you personally enjoy. Perhaps it’s meeting a favourite client. Making that presentation. Cooking your best recipe. Taking the applause. Speaking to the team. Sitting in your office… Delegate it!

It’s easy to delegate (usually abdicate) stuff we don’t like doing. But to be the great leader I know that you are, you will give your best away to develop others. You will lose control… and once lost, you will find that you actually have more. Let me know how you get on.

John

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Values LeaderShift 3 – Believe in someone else today!

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This is a story of two leaders. We worked with the organisation on team leadership because one of their sales teams was "highly successful" and another was "doing poorly, with a very low morale". The organisation wanted us to "find out what’s working in [the high-performing team],fix the [low-performing team] and run a training program for all the other sales teams to be as good as [the high-performing team]."

· Ann, the leader of the high-performing team had joined the company 5 years previously as a sales representative. She was good at her job and always exceeded her targets. She was promoted to team leader after 3 years and had infused her own enthusiasm, determination and will to her team. Her team members were happy, hard-working and also successful, most exceeding targets.

· Joe, the leader of the low-performing team had similarly joined the company 5 years previously, though as sales team leader. Joe’s team were, by contrast, unhappy and unsuccessful in achieving targets. This had been the case for all 5 years. The team members had changed frequently over this time, only one member remained from the original team that Joe took over.

Ann was enthusiastic when we spoke with her about her success. Saying "It’s great to have such a wonderful team.I enjoy working with them and we’re doing well." She went on, "My boss is great, really believes in me and lets me run things the way I want. I like that, and I try to treat everyone in the team the same way. When they are down about something, maybe their kid is in trouble or sick, I let them take time out if they need to, so long as the work gets done sometime, it doesn’t have to be 9 to 5. I trust them to make up the time, and they do, and more!"

Joe was belligerent when we spoke, "I have tried everything possible to make these people work harder and make target. They’re always moaning that their kid’s sick or they have to visit the doctor. Always skiving off, taking toilet breaks, going for coffee. If I turn my back for one instant, they’re gone." When prompted, Joe continues, "My boss is pretty useless. Only ever comes round at the end of the month to [tell me off] for not making target. To be honest, I’m fed up, I don’t ‘think I’ll ever get this team to perform and the stress is making me sick."

There are of course, several things here we could expand on, but what was clearly apparent was that Ann’s boss believed in her and she in turn believed in her team and their abilities, that she could trust them and that they would deliver. Joe’s boss, didn’t appear to be that concerned for Joe and didn’t help. Joe in turn, trusted staff to ‘skive’ and believed that she would never get the team to perform.

When someone else, particularly someone in authority over you (a leader, parent, boss, teacher) believes in you and your abilities it helps you to believe in yourself and your team. What you believe on the inside, becomes manifest on the outside. This is usually the attitude that you portray and the way you communicate.

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Leadershift!

Tell someone that you believe in them!

If, by some chance you are wishing that your parents, teachers, boss etc showed their belief in you… or even vaguely tempted to go "if only…" Go forth right now, find someone that you care about and say the following:

"I believe in you. You can achieve anything you want to achieve."

Values LeaderShift 1 – What’s your story?

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Great leaders are individuals who have successfully developed (or taken over) a story that appeals to the values of their followers.

A leader needs to know and understand his or her own values and the values of their followers.

You do not necessarily need to know the detail of their values, but some real knowledge will greatly help you weave the story that will work best.

Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying "You can please some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time."
And that is probably the issue that many leaders face. Each individual in your team, your organization, your community, even your family – has their own set of personally held values and their own hierarchy of those values.

Let’s consider a fairly typical situation, one that I have heard in slight variations many, many times from leaders I have worked with:

"In my team I have 8 direct reports, one person is a real star performer – always hard working, always achieves the goals and targets. One person  is always calling in sick, looks miserable all  day, just about makes the target, one is a real  low performer and  complains about too much work. The rest, are OK. I’ve tried everything but what can I do about these two low performers?"

This informs us several values of the leader.

  • That performance or is important for them.
  • That to be seen to do hard-work is important.
  • That they are not keen on people who look miserable and complain.
  • That they value doing something about the situation and are willing to learn.

Whilst you would benefit from more information to be more certain, the leader’s values might map thus:

Leader’s words

Core Values

Performance

Achievement

Hard-work

Achievement

Not complaining/miserable

Hedonism

Desire to help others 

Benevolence

Willing to learn personally

Self-direction

For the two "low-performers" – whatever their personal values, it is likely that their own hierarchy of values does not include ‘Achievement’ at such a high level. It may be that ‘Self- direction’ is low also.

In such situations, the responses I have heard in one-to-one coaching sessions form ‘low-performing’ staff is myriad but most show a core theme when asked about their performance at work.

  • Most frequently: "I don’t see/understand why this is so important." And that’s right; they do not see it or understand it. The leader may not be communicating the value of performance to them.
  • Often: "I try to do the job but I don’t ‘have the right support/tools/resources." This may or may not be accurate and it is the leader’s role (as manager) to ensure that the right resources are available and how to get them and use them. 
  • Too often: "There’s nothing wrong with my performance, it’s the market/ environment/ economy/ etc.”  Shifting blame to something outside of one’s personal control is possibly a favourite ‘excuse’ and in my experience and with further probing, this usually relates to either a security value (if I blame someone else, I’ll remain secure), or a hedonistic value (I don’t gain enjoyment from this, or I dislike doing this, and I feel better if I blame someone else for my failure to achieve).

At this point I want to stress that understanding your own values and those of others is NOT about judging the merits of those values. One individual’s values are not better than another person’s values – they may be more aligned with your own and thus you would consider them to be ‘better’, but they have worked well so far for that individual. Once we begin to know and understand another person’s value we can weave our story to appeal to them.

clip_image002

Leadershift!

Make your "story" compelling

  1. First. What is truly important for you? (work, career and life)
    • Write this down.
  2. Second. What is important for your people, customers, suppliers, shareholders?
    • Ask them! And write it down.
  3. Third line up the lists. Look for the matches and the mismatches.
  4. Now write your "story" that is compelling to your audience. Communicate your "story" again and again and again and again and again… and yes you are saying the same thing over and over and over again. Live it, love it, tell it.

Values LeaderShift 1 What’s your story?

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Great leaders are individuals who have successfully developed (or taken over) a story that appeals to the values of their followers.

A leader needs to know and understand his or her own values and the values of their followers.

You do not necessarily need to know the detail of their values, but some real knowledge will greatly help you weave the story that will work best.

Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying “You can please some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

And that is probably the issue that many leaders face. Each individual in your team, your organization, your community, even your family – has their own set of personally held values and their own hierarchy of those values.

Let’s consider a fairly typical situation, one that I have heard in slight variations many, many times from leaders I have worked with:

“In my team I have 8 direct reports, one person is a real star performer – always hard working, always achieves the goals and targets. One person  is always calling in sick, looks miserable all  day, just about makes the target, one is a real  low performer and  complains about too much work. The rest, are OK. I’ve tried everything but what can I do about these two low performers?”

This informs us several values of the leader.

  • That performance or is important for them.
  • That to be seen to do hard-work is important.
  • That they are not keen on people who look miserable and complain.
  • That they value doing something about the situation and are willing to learn.

Whilst you would benefit from more information to be more certain, the leader’s values might map thus:

Leader’s words

Core Values

Performance

Achievement

Hard-work

Achievement

Not complaining/miserable

Hedonism

Desire to help others 

Benevolence

Willing to learn personally

Self-direction

For the two “low-performers” – whatever their personal values, it is likely that their own hierarchy of values does not include ‘Achievement’ at such a high level. It may be that ‘Self- direction’ is low also.

In such situations, the responses I have heard in one-to-one coaching sessions form ‘low-performing’ staff is myriad but most show a core theme when asked about their performance at work.

  • Most frequently: “I don’t see/understand why this is so important.” And that’s right; they do not see it or understand it. The leader may not be communicating the value of performance to them.
  • Often: “I try to do the job but I don’t ‘have the right support/tools/resources.” This may or may not be accurate and it is the leader’s role (as manager) to ensure that the right resources are available and how to get them and use them. 
  • Too often: “There’s nothing wrong with my performance, it’s the market/ environment/ economy/ etc.”  Shifting blame to something outside of one’s personal control is possibly a favourite ‘excuse’ and in my experience and with further probing, this usually relates to either a security value (if I blame someone else, I’ll remain secure), or a hedonistic value (I don’t gain enjoyment from this, or I dislike doing this, and I feel better if I blame someone else for my failure to achieve).

At this point I want to stress that understanding your own values and those of others is NOT about judging the merits of those values. One individual’s values are not better than another person’s values – they may be more aligned with your own and thus you would consider them to be ‘better’, but they have worked well so far for that individual. Once we begin to know and understand another person’s value we can weave our story to appeal to them.

Leadershift!

Make your “story” compelling

  • First. What is truly important for you? (work, career and life)
    • Write this down.
  • Second. What is important for your people, customers, suppliers, shareholders?
    • Ask them! And write it down.
  • Third line up the lists. Look for the matches and the mismatches.
  • Now write your “story” that is compelling to your audience. Communicate your “story” again and again and again and again and again… and yes you are saying the same thing over and over and over again. Live it, love it, tell it.