Being true to your personal values releases energy and unfolds your power in a way that will inspire both you and others. When you get a taste of making decisions and setting priorities based on your personal values, (Step 1) (Step 2) you will experience how this alignment slowly increases your energy.
You might know the feeling of trying to motivate yourself to work hard towards your goals. If instead you make sure that the activities you pursue are the ones that are aligned with your personal values, you will automatically feel engaged. I have coached many leaders that, through making this shift, experience a level of engagement they have never encountered before.
Being this energetic and inspired will open the door to becoming a leader that others want to follow. Leadership is something you exhibit when you are true to your personal values and not something you do. This is what authenticity is.
If you are like the leaders I meet in my coaching, this will take practice, and little by little you will find ways to be more true to your personal values right where you are. Slowly it will become clear how it feels uncomfortable and meaningless to be misaligned.
This process will unfold as you become more and more disciplined about focusing on fulfilling your personal values. Though there will be times when you feel unfocused, lazy or even caught up in your old habits. Be patient with yourself! In my experience, every time you lose track and feel the longing to get back in focus, your commitment will grow stronger. I encourage you to see losing track as a possibility for increasing your commitment and not as a sign of failure.
For your commitment to slowly increase, you need to get a clear picture of where you are going:
Step 3
The clearer the picture you have of how your work life will look when you have realized your personal values (Step 1) (Step 2), the easier it will be to achieve. Any good process starts with the end in mind.
Thus the next enquiry is focused on creating a visualization of a work life organized around your personal values.
Start by describing how you would imagine your work life if it were based on your personal values, in terms of:
- Activities/responsibilities
- Relationships
- Time spent
Don’t let your current situation limit you in this process; Think big!
Other relevant themes might be:
- How does my leadership look when aligned with my personal values?
- What kind of organizational work climate matches my personal values?
- How does it feel to go to work?
Also, you can choose to paint, draw or make a collage of your work life aligned with your values.
This enquiry includes keeping this visualization readily accessible in order to view it at least once a week. Start looking for things that are aligned with your personal values, and if you lose track simply bring out this visualization to get back in focus. This will make your personal values more tangible and easier to recognize.
In short, here is what to do for this month’s inquiry:
1. Make a vizualisation of your work life as if it is based on your personal values
2. Keep the visualization readily accessible in order to view it at least once a week