Assessing your values

Focusing on self-awareness and individual values is a powerful tool for leaders and their teams when building a team. In the hustle of daily work—online meetings, instant messages, and task lists—we can easily lose sight of our core values and what truly matters.

Upon returning to Salesforce, I joined a new team with many new faces. Around this time, Claire Hughes-Johnson released her book Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building. What stood out most was the focus on assessing my values and increasing self-awareness. Inspired, I created a template for my management team based on Claire's book and insights from Colin Breck's article. We then completed an exercise to assess our core values.

Research supports the importance of this work. Self-awareness, particularly regarding values, is crucial for effective leadership and team dynamics. Leaders who understand their values and those of their teams foster better decision-making, communication, and collaboration (Harvard Business) (Knowledge at Wharton). Additionally, teams that cultivate self-awareness align individuals with meaningful work, leading to greater job satisfaction and performance(Colin Breck). This exercise has its roots in this research.

Claire's book offers many insights, but this value-assessment activity has resonated most with us. After one year, my leadership team revisited our values, and while our core values remained largely the same, we updated our work activities, positive outcomes, and trade-offs. This process has built trust and strengthened our team dynamic(APA). By understanding each team member's core values, we can better align them with projects that fulfill and motivate them.

As you think about your team, consider the impact of understanding and regularly revisiting values. How are you fostering self-awareness among your leadership and team?