You cannot just choose values.

This is the first part of a short series about the significance of values. I want to talk about the importance of values as the basis for high-performing teams and critical decision-making. But first, we need to look at what values are. Why? Because I honestly think that many organizations, and people, get this wrong.?

Imagine this:

Pablo Escobar is probably the most famous gangster boss in the world. One day he wakes up, and his brother Roberto comes to him, telling him that "empathy" is the trait to show if you want to make even more money in drug trafficking. Pablo gets excited immediately, and starts to print posters that dominantly show this new value. "This is our new culture.", he presents at a mafioso-meeting. "From now on, we will be an empathic organization."?

After 2 months, his income has halved (poor guy), a lot of his men are dead and he decides to go back to the old ways (probably around some implicit "value" of intimidation and ruthless killing).?

What went wrong? Apart from the fact that his whole organization is per se nothing to emulate, the value that was chosen for it was so far away from the actual culture that no one could live up to it even closely. He made the mistake of thinking of values as something to just choose, create and enforce. Something to bring from the outside-in. He forgot that there is something so intrinsic about this issue that if you don't relate to it, you will fail.?

A lot of organizations tend to make a similar mistake. They "define" a new culture, print 4-5 values on a poster, distribute that poster everywhere and think they have actually achieved change. No follow-up. No corresponding incentivation. No walking-the-talk at the very top. What a waste of time, effort and money. In my opinion, this is one reason why values get disregarded so often.?

Values are not ideals.

Let us leave the organizational context for a moment and think about values when it comes to ourselves. A lot of us think that values are some form of ideal, maybe derived from our role models, to live up to. We see someone massively courageous, get inspired and choose the value "courage" for ourselves. It doesn't work that way.?

"Values are not ideals.?Values are inherent to our nature. They are already here. But they are either honored or not honored,?shown?or?hidden." - Henry Kimsey-House

Value-work is discovery-work.?

We so often set out to choose values instead of making it a game of discovery. Values are inherent to our nature. They come from the inside-out. We cannot actively create or design values. We have to discover them. Once they are discovered, they can be honored or not honored. Honoring values makes us get closer to the life we want to live, the leader we want to be. Not honoring leaves us without meaning, engagement and satisfaction.

"Values are who we are when we are at our natural best." - Simon Sinek

A good way to start is to look into our past to start the discovery process. Actually, both the best periods of our lives (be it personal or in an company) as well as the worst periods can give us information of what values show themselves. Of what is being honored or remains hidden.?

Values come from the inside-out.

Taking this from the individual to a larger context again, values are something that are already there. It is not a question of what we want, but a question of what is already present. It might very well be that some form of a "non-performing" culture is not the wrong values, but the not-honoring of values that would actually be there.?

Mind you, this does not mean that we cannot infuse new values - think about a new CEO coming into an organization. Of course she will introduce new values and behaviors into the system that corresponds to her own identity. But: only with consistent modeling, follow-up and consequential decision-making will they find their way into the culture.?

So: make your value-work something both personal and organizational, something from the top-down as well as the bottom-up, and especially something that comes from the inside-out.

About me:

As leadership coach, I partner with successful leaders and business owners to help them grow their collaborative impact. By identifying their values and discovering their inherent strengths, leaders build the basis for engaging and meaningful interactions.