Leadership and Change

The initial step in clarifying values is to find your voice. Introspection is needed to determine what you stand for, believe in, and care about. It has been said that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. By spending time evaluating one's personal value system leaders are better able to develop the integrity needed to lead a group of people. It is suggested that writing a tribute to yourself, listing your ideal image, trait by trait, would be a good way to start this look within.

Next, leaders are well served to use their values to guide all of their actions and reactions. Their values should provide a focus for all they say and do. By matching words with deeds an authenticity develops in the eyes of others. This sense of authenticity can help motivate others in the organization as a feeling of honesty and openness results.

A major benefit for leaders that clarify their personal as well as the organization's values is the heightened sense of commitment that results from employees feeling a good fit with their organization. Who amongst us has not formed opinions about organizations such as Enron or Worldcom based on the values that determined their actions? I know that I myself could not work for a firm that placed profits above integrity, ethics, and common decency. Since we spend the majority of our waking hours, five days a week, at work, a good leader will attempt to create a sense of community by affirming those values that individuals have in common with the organization. In chapter three it is suggested that writing a credo of one's personal and organizational philosophies can be a useful method for illustrating commonalities. By stressing the common language the organization shares with it's members leaders are able to act as coxswain to the crew with all oars effectively pulling together. This synchronicity generates an authentic sense of belonging that endears organizations and their leaders to stakeholders of all varieties.

After an effective leader clarifies the values that are theirs and the organization's guiding principles the authors suggests the following exercises to assure they are communicated across the organization. Doing so increases the likelihood that the common values will remain a dynamic, on-going interchange, rather than a static wish-list of desirable behaviors. Credo dialogging can be an effective means to assuring that common values are discussed, explored and agreed upon. By involving other stakeholders in this process leaders can increase the odds that others will buy-in to the vision of the organization.

Chapter three lays out some fairly basic initial steps that can lead to effective leadership. I have worked under leaders across the spectrum, from good to bad. I have no doubt that the better leaders I have seen engaged in some of these steps. I know of leaders that seem authentic by voicing the corporate values in their own words. Others have the ability to relate the similarity of my values with theirs. I don't imagine many of them actually taking the time to write a credo. Only once have I participated in a credo dialogue, and that instance was to develop an initial mission statement. The "dialogue" ended there. Have any of you in class participated in an actual continuing dialogue of your organizations credo?