Personal Values

Awhile back I was reading an article on personal development by Sam Spurlin (he has revamped his sight and removed the article but go check out his site there is some good stuff on it).

One of the key questions it asked was "What are my 3-4 core values" and I guess I've never really thought about this before. I looked through the a suggested list of possible values, all 374 of them! I got down to seven that resonated with me:
Respect, Leadership, Creativity, Appreciation, Amusement, Affection, Acceptance.

After reflecting on these I think I my top four values are:
Creativity, Appreciation, Acceptance & Amusement

Why these four?
Creativity. I have always had a streak of creativity and imagination in me and I have been attracted to things that are different. That spark of the creative in me has always wanted to find a way to express itself. In some ways this blog has given me an outlet.

Appreciation. Being thankful for what you see in others, who they are and what they do - I know I can grow in this and often don't express myself very well but I believe this is something I value. I have even got over my personal struggle of receiving appreciation!

Acceptance. To be accepted and accept others for who they are and not expect any more or less from them. This is something that is effectively tested with every new person I meet!

Amusement. Amusement in all its different forms is something that feeds me. I have to watch that I don't overdo my intake (or output - for the sake of others!) but I have always been one to look on the funny side of things, maybe it is my way of coping with life!

The challenge in Sam Spurlin's article was to look at what I am working on in both work and personal life
that comes out of or is aligned to these values and maybe just as importantly what things I am doing that are not. I know writing this blog has been a real help in working out and working in some of my core life values.
I certainly have had ample opportunity to exercise creativity and part of the self disclosure and sharing of my life that I write about is connected to my desire for acceptance.

I wonder if you were to think of what your personal values are what you would come up with. Why not have a look at the list above and see which chimes with you.

Leadership and values, the most important thing?

Awhile back I started a series of posts under the title Leadership: destination, people, journey, and arriving. So far I have written about the destination (defining, getting and communicating vision), the next stage is the journey.

In any journey you first have a destination, otherwise you are going nowhere. Next is the process of the journey, "How you want to get there?". This is where values fit into the picture. In his book, "Purpose Driven Youth Ministry", Doug Fields says, "values reveal what is important to your ministry (or organisation)". Values essentially give you the benchmark to test the means and methods you are using to get to your destination.
Most people would agree that values are important but I believe they are the missing organisational link in the trinity of mission, vision and values. If not altogether missing then at the least the poor second cousin of mission and vision. Why do I say this? Every organisation has values, whether they are written down or not. However generally these values are meaningless because:
They aren't Real - are they actually values or just objectives or non-value statements?
They are rarely Repeated - are your values explained, communicated, discussed or taught?
They are never Reviewed - is the organisation measuring what it does against how it says it wants to do things?

Real values
In the first instance are the values that the organisation holds something tangible that you can describe and see in the real world - e.g. friendship or teamwork. Very often organisations produce complicated, long winded statements or just use vision or mission orientated words and phrases as value statements.
Some good examples of values (that are clear and understandable) are City Church, Revelation Church and Boeing

Repeated values
Like vision, values should be kept in front of the organisation and not just locked in a document or website.
If values tell us what is important to us and speak of our ethos then we should be talking, communicating, educating, sharing these values widely and regularly. At this point the phrase "values are caught not taught" would usually be stated and it certainly has a ring of truth to it and values can be seen and therefore caught. But if catching is the only method for getting values then is it like catching a virus? When you come into the presence of the value holder and you pick up what you see and percieve then you become a similar value holder. But if values are only caught then like a virus mutation may occur. We need to teach and communicate clearly what our values are, what they mean and what they look like. This should happen in many different ways acting as a plumbline to test what we are 'catching' from one another.

Reviewed values
So we have some real values, we are repeating these values regularly. How will we know if we are really doing what we say is important?
We could ask some questions which would objectively see if we are doing what we say is important. Again in Doug Field's book he shares how they did this in his youthwork, so for their value of acceptance they had the following questions they would ask of themselves to review how they were doing in this area.

If you have a set of values how do you know if anyone, even yourself, is following these values? Do you do some form of objective review or do you just say to people "these values are core to who we are" so you must be following them.

So I guess we need to ask yourself how important are our values? How are values held in your organisation? What are your experiences, good or bad? I would love to hear your feedback on this - in fact I would really value them ;-).

How you react to criticism reveals a lot

Recently there have been a number of articles in my local paper (Herts & Essex Observer) detailing a variety of situations of possible cover up, on going criticism and the apparent arrogance of the leaders of my local council. Their response was one of ignoring or denying that anything at all is wrong. Inevitably as with all disputes and arguments the truth will lie somewhere in between.

When people criticise or question you or your organisation, responding by closing ranks, ignoring or denying any problems is a sign of weakness, arrogance and a lack of compassion - or maybe all three!
99 times out of 100 there will be a little truth (or a lot) to what the person is saying.

Wise, caring and ultimately strong leadership will want to know about any weakness or failing they have because the odds are the leaders themselves can't see these.

The alternative is a world where we hear:

• They would say that
• We are right you are wrong
• If you don't agree you know where the door is
• You need to believe/agree with this to be part of it
• The leaders know what is best/right don't question their decisions

Is this the sort of society or culture we want to build?

Understanding the difference between Vision, Mission, Values & Goals

On my previous leadership post I said if leadership is about anything then it's about achieving a vision. But what do we mean by vision, and what about mission, values and goals?

I think it may be helpful to define what is normally meant by these terms.

Mission (you can also use the word Purpose)
Dictionary definition – a person’s vocation, his mission in life
Mission answers the question “Why do we exist?”

Vision
Dictionary definition – something seen in the imagination or in a dream
Should answer the question “Where are we going?”
A vision statement must have a destination otherwise it is just a purpose\mission statement.

Values
The way we do things here – culture, ethos – our distinctiveness
What we believe in shapes our values, our values shape our behaviour.

Goals
These should annual plans that help you move towards your vision in bite-sized chunks
They should be achieveable but challenging.
You could have annual, 2-3 year or 5-10 year goals, it all depends on the long term nature of your vision.