Why Values-Based Leadership Makes Women Nonprofit Leaders More Effective

The Hidden Cost of Unclear Values in Leadership

Let me ask you a couple of questions:

• Do you ever feel off or discontent but not sure why?
• Do you feel inner turmoil about decisions you have to make or things you have to do?

Those icky feelings are likely there because you don't clearly know your top values or how to use them in your leadership and your life.

How to Use Your Values to Lead a Full Life

​You need to take time to verify your values, those things that are important to you, so that you can use them to lead and live a full life!
Verifying your values is foundational work for leadership and, more importantly, to lead yourself first

Verifying your values is foundational work for leadership and, more importantly, to lead yourself first.

Why is verifying your values foundational?

• If I asked you to tell me what your values, virtues, ethics, morals and beliefs are, could you?
• What's more, can you say that you align your actions and thoughts with those every day? ​

If you don't, that's often where women leaders feel inner turmoil.

The Inner Turmoil Women Leaders Experience When Values Don't Align

The truth is:

• If you are living in alignment with your values, you feel good 
• If you are not living in alignment with your values, you feel crappy ​

It's that simple. Aligning with your values is not always easy or comfortable, but it is necessary for a happy and fulfilling life.

Most women leaders don't have a clear understanding of their values

The problem is, most of us have never done the work to:

• identify
• prioritize
• define and
• figure out how to live in alignment with our values!

You must take the time to verify your values.
​
Identifying and verifying your values is a foundational building block for living and leading with happiness and success. After you've done the work, though, I suggest that you come back to it regularly to confirm and update your values.

Values Change as Your Leadership Evolves

Your life will change, and so may your values.
How you define and express your values will evolve. Beyond that, each time you return to these exercises, you will deepen your understanding of them as you see how they play out in leadership, productivity, emotional intelligence, and wellness. That will provide additional clarity for you when making decisions and taking action.

Values Are Your Internal Compass for Leadership Decisions

• Values guide our beliefs and actions.
  • Values tug at us, pull and push us. In that way, values motivate us.
• Values give way to thoughts and beliefs, and then actions.
  • It is the underlying value (honesty) that makes us tell the cashier (behaviour) that she missed the case of water bottles under the shopping cart.
• Values dictate your behaviour.
  • If you value nature and the environment, you'll be conscious about reusing your shopping bags.
• Clarity of your values helps you make decisions.
  • If you value teamwork, you'll assign a project to a team rather than an individual.
• Understanding your values helps you to develop relationships with others.
  • If you value compassion, you'll structure an employee termination so you can express it during the meeting.
• Knowing and honouring your values keeps you more in balance.
  • If you know that family is one of your top values, you'll be acutely aware when you haven't spent enough quality time with them. You'll ask yourself what you need to do to balance your other commitments with your family time.
• Identifying and understanding values allows you to live with virtue.
  • Virtuous living requires that we habitually do what we know is right, morally and ethically. You have to know what's right in your mind and heart before you can act on that. Valuing security may have you take a job that wouldn't be your top pick; however, it has the remuneration that will allow you to provide security for your family.

How Values-Based Leadership Creates Peace and Clarity

Living with your values in mind
By identifying and being aware of our core values, we can get clear on why we are feeling the way we are, how to make better decisions and how to feel more at peace at home, at work and in all we do. By getting clear on what is important to you, your values, your life will become easier.

Using Your Values to Navigate Leadership Challenges

Leading with your values in mind
If you are a leader, you know that navigating the challenges of leadership takes some work. To manage the endless choices that one has to make, leaders will find it helpful to have guideposts. An essential tool for managers is identifying their values. Then, a leader can use their values to navigate the path towards their vision.

Take Action: Your Values Verification Process

Do this:

1. Schedule time to identify, define and create an understanding of your values.
2. Identify your top 3 values and how they show up in your life and your leadership
3. Practice aligning your decisions and actions with those values.

Need help?

Validate what's important to you by taking the Values Verification course. Learn more here.​