Values are the deep-seated, personal standards that influence every aspect of our lives. Examples include integrity, privacy, family, honesty, harmony, and loyalty.

Great leaders are crystal clear about what they value and how their values guide their behavior and decisions. With a clear and consistent set of values, or guiding principles, leaders demonstrate these consistently in their behavior and others come to understand what is important to them and why.

In The Leadership Challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner say;

To become a credible leader, you first have to comprehend the deeply held beliefs that drive you. You have to authentically communicate your beliefs in ways that uniquely represent who you are.

The author’s research demonstrated that the leaders with the most credibility are always clear about what they value, how they communicate their values to others and the importance of leading others in a way that is consistent with those values they hold dear.

Identifying Your Values

There are two steps to values clarification:

Becoming clear about your most important valuesCommunicating your values to others

The “Leadership Challenge” offers easy exercise leaders can do to help them clarify what is most important to them.

Readers are instructed to do three things:

Write a tribute to themselves,List lessons from leaders that they admire, andWrite a leadership credo.

If you’re not sure about your leadership values, try this easy exercise.

The “Values Sort” Leadership Exercise

In executive coaching work, facilitators will use a “values sort” exercise to identify values. The object is to determine your top seven values, ranking number one the most important value.

Directions for doing the exercise are as follows:

Start by crossing off the items that are not important to you.Then, go through the list again, circling as many of the items that are very important to you.The remainder of the list items will essentially be the things that are important but not very important.Next, review the very important items. Consider whether there is a value missing that matters a lot to you and has not been listed—add that one in. From this group, select the seven things that are most important to you.Then, rank these seven most important values, with number one being your most important value.

Achievement Advancement Adventure Autonomy

Arts Belonging Beauty Challenge

Change Communications Community Competence

Cooperation Collaboration Country Creativity

Curiosity Decisiveness Democracy Diversity

Environmental Responsibility Effectiveness Efficiency Excellence

Excitement Expertise Fairness Fame

Family Financial Gain Freedom Friendship

Fun Health Helping others Helping society

Honesty Humor Independence Influencing

Innovation Harmony Integrity Intellectualism

Involvement Knowledge Leadership Learning

Leisure Location Love Loyalty

Mastery Meaningful work Merit Nature

Openness Order Personal expression Pleasure

Power Prestige Privacy Productivity

Quality Recognition Relationships Religion

Reputation Respect Responsibility Security

Self-awareness Self-respect Self-realization Serenity

Sophistication Spirituality Stability Status

Structure Teamwork Truth Variety

Wealth Wisdom Work/Life Balance

Defining Your Leadership Style

Once you have your top seven values, consider answering the following questions to determine how well your values are represented in your leadership style.

Are your employees aware of your top values? If not, share them and invite your staff to share their most important values.Are your values demonstrated in your day-to-day behavior? Are you being true to your values? If not, consider the ways you can align what you truly value with how you lead your staff.

How to Make Values Intrinsic to Your Organization’s Success

Leadership Values and Workplace Ethics

Build a Strategic Framework Through Strategic Planning

Food and Beverage Chain Mission Statements

Top Department Store Mission Statements

Leadership Vision

How to Build an Organization Based on Values

Inspirational Quotations for Business and Work

How to Show Employees That Your Company Values Diversity and Inclusion

Identify and Live Your Personal Values for Success

Leadership Questions for Employers to Ask Applicants

Learn How to Avoid the Mistakes New Managers Make

In Pursuit of Management Excellence

Delegation as a Leadership Style

Challenges Managers Face (and How to Deal With Them)

How to Build Trust on Your Team

Home

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LiveAbout is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Cookies Settings Reject All Accept Cookies

Values are the deep-seated, personal standards that influence every aspect of our lives. Examples include integrity, privacy, family, honesty, harmony, and loyalty.

Great leaders are crystal clear about what they value and how their values guide their behavior and decisions. With a clear and consistent set of values, or guiding principles, leaders demonstrate these consistently in their behavior and others come to understand what is important to them and why.

In The Leadership Challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner say;

To become a credible leader, you first have to comprehend the deeply held beliefs that drive you. You have to authentically communicate your beliefs in ways that uniquely represent who you are.

The author’s research demonstrated that the leaders with the most credibility are always clear about what they value, how they communicate their values to others and the importance of leading others in a way that is consistent with those values they hold dear.

Identifying Your Values

There are two steps to values clarification:

Becoming clear about your most important valuesCommunicating your values to others

The “Leadership Challenge” offers easy exercise leaders can do to help them clarify what is most important to them.

Readers are instructed to do three things:

Write a tribute to themselves,List lessons from leaders that they admire, andWrite a leadership credo.

If you’re not sure about your leadership values, try this easy exercise.

The “Values Sort” Leadership Exercise

In executive coaching work, facilitators will use a “values sort” exercise to identify values. The object is to determine your top seven values, ranking number one the most important value.

Directions for doing the exercise are as follows:

Start by crossing off the items that are not important to you.Then, go through the list again, circling as many of the items that are very important to you.The remainder of the list items will essentially be the things that are important but not very important.Next, review the very important items. Consider whether there is a value missing that matters a lot to you and has not been listed—add that one in. From this group, select the seven things that are most important to you.Then, rank these seven most important values, with number one being your most important value.

Achievement Advancement Adventure Autonomy

Arts Belonging Beauty Challenge

Change Communications Community Competence

Cooperation Collaboration Country Creativity

Curiosity Decisiveness Democracy Diversity

Environmental Responsibility Effectiveness Efficiency Excellence

Excitement Expertise Fairness Fame

Family Financial Gain Freedom Friendship

Fun Health Helping others Helping society

Honesty Humor Independence Influencing

Innovation Harmony Integrity Intellectualism

Involvement Knowledge Leadership Learning

Leisure Location Love Loyalty

Mastery Meaningful work Merit Nature

Openness Order Personal expression Pleasure

Power Prestige Privacy Productivity

Quality Recognition Relationships Religion

Reputation Respect Responsibility Security

Self-awareness Self-respect Self-realization Serenity

Sophistication Spirituality Stability Status

Structure Teamwork Truth Variety

Wealth Wisdom Work/Life Balance

Defining Your Leadership Style

Once you have your top seven values, consider answering the following questions to determine how well your values are represented in your leadership style.

Are your employees aware of your top values? If not, share them and invite your staff to share their most important values.Are your values demonstrated in your day-to-day behavior? Are you being true to your values? If not, consider the ways you can align what you truly value with how you lead your staff.

How to Make Values Intrinsic to Your Organization’s Success

Leadership Values and Workplace Ethics

Build a Strategic Framework Through Strategic Planning

Food and Beverage Chain Mission Statements

Top Department Store Mission Statements

Leadership Vision

How to Build an Organization Based on Values

Inspirational Quotations for Business and Work

How to Show Employees That Your Company Values Diversity and Inclusion

Identify and Live Your Personal Values for Success

Leadership Questions for Employers to Ask Applicants

Learn How to Avoid the Mistakes New Managers Make

In Pursuit of Management Excellence

Delegation as a Leadership Style

Challenges Managers Face (and How to Deal With Them)

How to Build Trust on Your Team

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Cookies Settings Reject All Accept Cookies

Values are the deep-seated, personal standards that influence every aspect of our lives. Examples include integrity, privacy, family, honesty, harmony, and loyalty.

Great leaders are crystal clear about what they value and how their values guide their behavior and decisions. With a clear and consistent set of values, or guiding principles, leaders demonstrate these consistently in their behavior and others come to understand what is important to them and why.

In The Leadership Challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner say;

To become a credible leader, you first have to comprehend the deeply held beliefs that drive you. You have to authentically communicate your beliefs in ways that uniquely represent who you are.

The author’s research demonstrated that the leaders with the most credibility are always clear about what they value, how they communicate their values to others and the importance of leading others in a way that is consistent with those values they hold dear.

Identifying Your Values

There are two steps to values clarification:

Becoming clear about your most important valuesCommunicating your values to others

The “Leadership Challenge” offers easy exercise leaders can do to help them clarify what is most important to them.

Readers are instructed to do three things:

Write a tribute to themselves,List lessons from leaders that they admire, andWrite a leadership credo.

If you’re not sure about your leadership values, try this easy exercise.

The “Values Sort” Leadership Exercise

In executive coaching work, facilitators will use a “values sort” exercise to identify values. The object is to determine your top seven values, ranking number one the most important value.

Directions for doing the exercise are as follows:

Start by crossing off the items that are not important to you.Then, go through the list again, circling as many of the items that are very important to you.The remainder of the list items will essentially be the things that are important but not very important.Next, review the very important items. Consider whether there is a value missing that matters a lot to you and has not been listed—add that one in. From this group, select the seven things that are most important to you.Then, rank these seven most important values, with number one being your most important value.

Achievement Advancement Adventure Autonomy

Arts Belonging Beauty Challenge

Change Communications Community Competence

Cooperation Collaboration Country Creativity

Curiosity Decisiveness Democracy Diversity

Environmental Responsibility Effectiveness Efficiency Excellence

Excitement Expertise Fairness Fame

Family Financial Gain Freedom Friendship

Fun Health Helping others Helping society

Honesty Humor Independence Influencing

Innovation Harmony Integrity Intellectualism

Involvement Knowledge Leadership Learning

Leisure Location Love Loyalty

Mastery Meaningful work Merit Nature

Openness Order Personal expression Pleasure

Power Prestige Privacy Productivity

Quality Recognition Relationships Religion

Reputation Respect Responsibility Security

Self-awareness Self-respect Self-realization Serenity

Sophistication Spirituality Stability Status

Structure Teamwork Truth Variety

Wealth Wisdom Work/Life Balance

Defining Your Leadership Style

Once you have your top seven values, consider answering the following questions to determine how well your values are represented in your leadership style.

Are your employees aware of your top values? If not, share them and invite your staff to share their most important values.Are your values demonstrated in your day-to-day behavior? Are you being true to your values? If not, consider the ways you can align what you truly value with how you lead your staff.

Values are the deep-seated, personal standards that influence every aspect of our lives. Examples include integrity, privacy, family, honesty, harmony, and loyalty.

Great leaders are crystal clear about what they value and how their values guide their behavior and decisions. With a clear and consistent set of values, or guiding principles, leaders demonstrate these consistently in their behavior and others come to understand what is important to them and why.

In The Leadership Challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner say;

The author’s research demonstrated that the leaders with the most credibility are always clear about what they value, how they communicate their values to others and the importance of leading others in a way that is consistent with those values they hold dear.

Identifying Your Values

There are two steps to values clarification:

  • Becoming clear about your most important valuesCommunicating your values to others

The “Leadership Challenge” offers easy exercise leaders can do to help them clarify what is most important to them.

Readers are instructed to do three things:

  • Write a tribute to themselves,List lessons from leaders that they admire, andWrite a leadership credo.

If you’re not sure about your leadership values, try this easy exercise.

The “Values Sort” Leadership Exercise

In executive coaching work, facilitators will use a “values sort” exercise to identify values. The object is to determine your top seven values, ranking number one the most important value.

Directions for doing the exercise are as follows:

  • Start by crossing off the items that are not important to you.Then, go through the list again, circling as many of the items that are very important to you.The remainder of the list items will essentially be the things that are important but not very important.Next, review the very important items. Consider whether there is a value missing that matters a lot to you and has not been listed—add that one in. From this group, select the seven things that are most important to you.Then, rank these seven most important values, with number one being your most important value.

Achievement Advancement Adventure Autonomy

Arts Belonging Beauty Challenge

Change Communications Community Competence

Cooperation Collaboration Country Creativity

Curiosity Decisiveness Democracy Diversity

Environmental Responsibility Effectiveness Efficiency Excellence

Excitement Expertise Fairness Fame

Family Financial Gain Freedom Friendship

Fun Health Helping others Helping society

Honesty Humor Independence Influencing

Innovation Harmony Integrity Intellectualism

Involvement Knowledge Leadership Learning

Leisure Location Love Loyalty

Mastery Meaningful work Merit Nature

Openness Order Personal expression Pleasure

Power Prestige Privacy Productivity

Quality Recognition Relationships Religion

Reputation Respect Responsibility Security

Self-awareness Self-respect Self-realization Serenity

Sophistication Spirituality Stability Status

Structure Teamwork Truth Variety

Wealth Wisdom Work/Life Balance

Defining Your Leadership Style

Once you have your top seven values, consider answering the following questions to determine how well your values are represented in your leadership style.

Are your employees aware of your top values? If not, share them and invite your staff to share their most important values.Are your values demonstrated in your day-to-day behavior? Are you being true to your values? If not, consider the ways you can align what you truly value with how you lead your staff.

Defining Your Leadership Style

Once you have your top seven values, consider answering the following questions to determine how well your values are represented in your leadership style.

  • Are your employees aware of your top values? If not, share them and invite your staff to share their most important values.Are your values demonstrated in your day-to-day behavior? Are you being true to your values? If not, consider the ways you can align what you truly value with how you lead your staff.

  • How to Make Values Intrinsic to Your Organization’s Success

  • Leadership Values and Workplace Ethics

  • Build a Strategic Framework Through Strategic Planning

  • Food and Beverage Chain Mission Statements

  • Top Department Store Mission Statements

  • Leadership Vision

  • How to Build an Organization Based on Values

  • Inspirational Quotations for Business and Work

  • How to Show Employees That Your Company Values Diversity and Inclusion

  • Identify and Live Your Personal Values for Success

  • Leadership Questions for Employers to Ask Applicants

  • Learn How to Avoid the Mistakes New Managers Make

  • In Pursuit of Management Excellence

  • Delegation as a Leadership Style

  • Challenges Managers Face (and How to Deal With Them)

  • How to Build Trust on Your Team

How to Make Values Intrinsic to Your Organization’s Success

How to Make Values Intrinsic to Your Organization’s Success

Leadership Values and Workplace Ethics

Leadership Values and Workplace Ethics

Build a Strategic Framework Through Strategic Planning

Build a Strategic Framework Through Strategic Planning

Food and Beverage Chain Mission Statements

Food and Beverage Chain Mission Statements

Top Department Store Mission Statements

Top Department Store Mission Statements

Leadership Vision

Leadership Vision

How to Build an Organization Based on Values

How to Build an Organization Based on Values

Inspirational Quotations for Business and Work

Inspirational Quotations for Business and Work

How to Show Employees That Your Company Values Diversity and Inclusion

How to Show Employees That Your Company Values Diversity and Inclusion

Identify and Live Your Personal Values for Success

Identify and Live Your Personal Values for Success

Leadership Questions for Employers to Ask Applicants

Leadership Questions for Employers to Ask Applicants

Learn How to Avoid the Mistakes New Managers Make

Learn How to Avoid the Mistakes New Managers Make

In Pursuit of Management Excellence

In Pursuit of Management Excellence

Delegation as a Leadership Style

Delegation as a Leadership Style

Challenges Managers Face (and How to Deal With Them)

Challenges Managers Face (and How to Deal With Them)

How to Build Trust on Your Team

How to Build Trust on Your Team

Home

Entertainment

Careers

Activities

Humor

About Us Advertise Careers Privacy Policy Editorial Guidelines Contact Terms of Use EU Privacy

LiveAbout is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.

Home

Home

Entertainment

Careers

Activities

Humor

About Us Advertise Careers Privacy Policy Editorial Guidelines Contact Terms of Use EU Privacy

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LiveAbout is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Cookies Settings Reject All Accept Cookies