Values and Leadership
The Importance of Values for a New Leader
So here you are, in your first leadership role! Whether you have just recently been promoted to a manager position in your company or you decided to start your own business, this is the first time you will be leading a team of people. That’s fantastic! It’s new, exciting, and probably also a bit scary. Most of us don’t really get a lot of training on how to be a manager, let alone a leader, and yet here you are, expected to lead a team. So what now?
One important first step is to pick up a few basics that will help you while you settle into your new role. You will most likely have a lot to learn, so to make things easier I recently posted a collection of starter skills on Instagram for you. I am planning to create a free resource on this topic as well, so check back for that soon. In the meantime, there is another very important area that is important to nail down early on and that is your values. Why are values important for a new leader?
To be an effective leader, your leadership style needs to be aligned with your values. If your values are aligned and guide you as a leader then other things will fall into place much easier: how you expect people in your team to communicate and work with each other, how they should relate to your customers, what your processes need to look like, which tasks have priority, etc. From big decisions to small ones, you will know the right way to go and don’t have to make it up as you go along. That not only saves time, it also ensures that everything you and your team do is coherent and moving in the same direction.
This means that an important early step is to identify and define your values. If you are an owner manager then you have more freedom and your personal values will most likely be the basis for the values that your business will be built on. If you are an employee you will be expected to align with your company’s values. Hopefully you chose your job wisely and were already working for a company whose ‘Why’ and underlying values you share. Beyond that, you should still identify how you will use your personal values to guide you in the day-to-day management of your team.
Spend some time and dig deep to identify your core values. Often they will be values that are important to you personally because of significant experiences you had, either in previous jobs or in your personal life. For example, if you were bullied in school, maybe it is important for you to be inclusive, supportive, and to hear from every team member. Or maybe your family was poor and so you value financial safety and stability. Whatever they are, your values will influence how you relate to others and therefore how you lead. If you are aware of those values you will be in a much better position to lead your team authentically and with integrity.
Once you have identified your core values, derive your leadership style, your actions, your team’s working processes and so on from them. This will ensure that not only you are aligned with your values but the entire team is. Communicate expectations clearly when you first start in your leadership role and make sure to reiterate this and to make any new team members aware as they join. This is especially important if you are an owner manager creating a start-up. Your values are the basis for what will become your company’s culture. Hire new employees accordingly, especially the first few employees, who will likely become your executive team.
If you, your team, and your values are all aligned your work becomes much easier and you will attract the right people to join your team in the future. If you base your leadership on your core values, everything else about your new role will become much more straightforward, clearer and easier to handle.
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