Imagine you're sitting in a meeting with a group of your colleagues. The door to the conference room opens and in walks someone you've never met before who says, "Hi, I'm your new leader." What questions immediately come to mind that you want to ask this person?
We presented this scenario in the introduction and use it regularly as part of our ongoing leadership research. People have lots of questions they would want to ask, but by far the most frequently asked is: "Who are you?"
People want to know your values and beliefs, what you really care about, and what keeps you awake at night. They want to know who most influenced you, the events that shaped your attitudes, and the experiences that prepared you for the job. They want to know what drives you, what makes you happy, and what ticks you off. They want to know what you're like as a person and why you want to be their leader. They want to know whether you play an instrument, compete in sports, go to the movies, or enjoy the theater. They want to know about your family, what you've done, and where you've traveled. They want to understand your personal story. They want to know why they ought to be following you.
So if you are the new leader who walks into that room one day, you'd better be prepared to answer the "Who are you?" question. And to answer that question for others, you first have to answer it for yourself. In one of our leadership workshops, our colleague Spencer Clark explained himself to students in the following way:
I am the chief learning officer for Cadence Design Systems. I was a division president for Black & Decker and a general manager for General Electric. But these [job titles] are not who I am. If you want to know who I am, you need to understand that I grew up in Kentucky. That I was one of four sons, and we lived on a sharecropper's farm and slept in a home that had no inside plumbing. Who I am is not simply what I do. Knowing who I am has been enormously helpful in guiding me in making decisions about what I would do and how I would do it.
As Spencer makes clear, his job resume says very little about who he is and why he makes the decisions he makes and takes the actions he takes. He knows that there is far more to him than his work history, the titles he's had, and the positions he's held. In order for Spencer to become the leader that he is, he had to dig beneath the surface and find out more about those events that shaped him, the beliefs that informed him, and the values that guided him. He also knows that it's helpful for others to understand those same things before they can commit to his leadership decisions and actions.
What's true for Spencer is true for you. Before you can effectively lead others, you have to understand who you are, where you come from, and the values that guide you.
The Truth Is That Values Drive Commitment. You cannot fully commit to something that isn't important to you—no one can. You can't fully commit to something that doesn't fit with who you are and how you see yourself. In order to devote the time, to expend the energy, and to make the sacrifices necessary, you have to know exactly what makes it worth doing in the first place.
In one of our workshops, Olivia Lai told us that she was initially a little taken aback when we asked her to write about her personal best leadership experience: "Here I am, at twenty-five years of age, with four years of work experience. How could I possibly have a personal best in leadership?" After further reflection, she realized that,
It wasn't all that hard to figure out what my personal best was and write about it. Even more surprising is that it became clear that leadership is everywhere, it takes place every day, and leadership can come from anyone. It doesn't matter that you don't have the title of "manager," "director," "CEO," to go with it. In the end, that's all they are . . . titles on business cards and company directories. Being a true leader transcends all that.
Becoming a leader is a process of internal self-discovery. In order for me to become a leader and become an even better leader, it's important that I first define my values and principles. If I don't know what my own values are and determine expectations for myself, how can I set expectations for others? How will I convey confidence, strong will, and empathy? Without looking within myself, it's not possible for me to look at others and to recognize their potential and help others become leaders.
Through her own process of self-discovery, Olivia, like Spencer, realized one of the most fundamental lessons on learning to lead. Becoming a leader begins when you come to understand who you are, what you care about, and why you do what you do. This is a journey that all leaders must take.
Your ultimate success in business and in life depends on how well you know yourself, what you value, and why you value it. The better you know who you are and what you believe in, the better you are at making sense of the often incomprehensible and conflicting demands you receive daily. Do this, or do that. Buy this, buy that. Decide this, decide that. Support this, support that. You need internal guidance to navigate the turbulent waters in this stormy world. A clear set of personal values and beliefs is the critical controller in that guidance system.
Another one of the emerging leaders we interviewed told us exactly why it's so important to be clear about your beliefs. "You have to understand what you really believe deeply," she said. "People won't follow you, or even pay much attention to you, if you don't have any strong beliefs."
She explained to us in very personal and poignant ways how she had grown up in a culture that stereotyped women and devalued them. For a long time she had, as she phrased it, "ignored my heart and didn't listen to my own voice." But as she engaged in her own leadership development she began to . . .
. . . understand that everyone has beliefs and values, and that in order for people to lead they've got to connect with them and be able to express them. This means that I have to let people know and understand what my thoughts are so that I can become a good leader. How can others follow me if I'm not willing to listen to my own inner self? Now, I let others know what I think is important and how hard I'm willing to fight for my values.
If you are ever to become a leader whom others willingly follow, you must be known as someone who stands by his or her principles. But, as Spencer, Olivia, and other leaders have discovered for themselves, first you have to listen to your inner self in order to find them. There are a lot of different interests out there competing for your time, your attention, and your approval. Before you listen to those voices, you have to listen to that voice inside that tells you what's truly important. Only then will you know when to say "yes" and when to say "no". . . and mean it.
Values represent the core of who you are. They influence every aspect of your life: your moral judgments, the people you trust, the appeals you respond to, the way you invest your time and your money. And in turbulent times they provide a source of direction amid all the depressing news and challenging personal adversities.
Early on in our research, we had the chance to interview Arlene Blum, the leader of the first all-women's team to ascend Annapurna. Climbing mountains is clearly a challenging, often treacherous undertaking, so she ought to know what it takes to stay motivated when times get tough. In these kinds of difficult circumstances, Arlene says, "As long as you believe what you're doing is meaningful, you can cut through the fear and exhaustion and take the next step." It takes more than toughness to keep going when the going gets tough. It's also vital that you find purpose and significance in what you do.
This is a lesson all leaders must learn. To act with integrity, you must first see clearly. Just as sunlight burns away the morning fog, the more light you shine on what you stand for, what you believe in, and what you care about, the more clearly you'll see those road signs pointing in the direction you want to go. Clarity of values gives you the confidence to take the right turns, to make the tough decisions, to act with determination, and to take charge of your life.
It's vitally important that you understand the power of personal values clarity. It's important to your individual effectiveness, your leadership effectiveness, and the effectiveness of those you lead. There is a significant measurable impact on people's performance when values are personally clear. Take a look at Figure 3.1 and see what we discovered.[12]
Along the vertical axis is the extent to which people report being clear about their organization's values. Along the horizontal axis is the extent to which these same people report being clear about their own personal values. We correlated these responses with the extent to which people said they were committed to the organization as measured on a scale of 1 (low) to 7 (high). We've organized the data into four cells, each representing a level of clarity from low to high on personal and organizational values. The numbers in each of the four cells represent the level of commitment people have to their organizations as it relates to the degree of their clarity about personal and organizational values.
Notice the quadrant in which people feel the most committed. It's the upper right, with a score of 6.26—high clarity about organizational values and high clarity about personal values. Not surprising. We'd all expect that. Now notice the lowest level of commitment. It's high clarity about organizational values, low clarity about personal—4.87. Actually, that score is not statistically significant from the low-low quadrant—4.90. Finally, look at where the second-highest level of commitment is with a score of 6.12. It's low clarity about organizational values but high clarity about personal values.
At first, this was somewhat jarring to us. You can see that the impact of being very clear or not about the organization's values doesn't seem to make much difference in how committed people are to their organizations. But notice what happens when people are clear on their personal values. First, they are significantly more committed to their organizations, and second, their commitment is not affected by the extent to which they are clear about the organization's values. There is no statistically significant difference in the responses of those high on both versus those only high on personal values clarity.
What does all this mean? Essentially, clarity about personal values has the most significant impact on employees' feelings about their work and what they're doing in the workplace. This is not to say that shared values don't matter. Our research and that of others suggests that they do. People want to be part of something bigger than themselves. What it does say, however, is that people cannot commit fully to anything unless it fits with their own beliefs.
In response to a question about the important leadership lessons he learned over his career, Unilever CEO Paul Polman said, "If your values, your personal values, are aligned with the company's values, you're probably going to be more successful longer term than if they are not. If they are not, it requires you to be an actor when you go to work or to be a split personality."[13] Being an actor or having a split personality aren't on the list of attributes of a credible leader, so making sure that your values and the organization's values are aligned is essential to maintaining your integrity.
Elaine Fortier, a Silicon Valley veteran, has experienced the ups and downs, booms and busts of the world of high technology. When we interviewed her, she made the following observation about dealing with the challenges she faced during one of the worst downturns in the economy, "Yes, it's tough right now, but it's all part of the adventure. The pioneers crossed the Rocky Mountains in covered wagons, so this is really a walk in the park, isn't it?" Then she went on to tell us about her own personal challenges and the evolution of her philosophy of leadership. "I realized that there was no magic that was going to happen, she told us. "It was now up to me to decide, 'What's my framework for living?'" After over three decades of leadership research, we can say with absolute certainty that Elaine is one-hundred percent correct—you have to decide what matters to you.
The very first step on your leadership development journey is to search for your answer to the question, "What's my framework for living?" You have to find your own true voice. You cannot speak in someone else's. You have to speak in your own. You cannot ask someone else to choose your values for you. You have to choose them for yourself.
Finding your voice is not like finding your keys. You don't just go looking for it by rummaging through the drawers in your house and hoping it'll turn up. English-born poet and organizational consultant David Whyte has written that the "voice throws us back on what we want for our life. It forces us to ask ourselves Who is speaking? Who came to work today? Who is working for what? What do I really care about?"[14]
What do you really care about? Is it success, wealth, family, freedom, growth, love, power, spirituality, trust, wisdom, health, honesty? None of these? All of these? Other values? In the English language there are between 150 and 250 words that represent values, depending on whose research you follow. None of us can be guided by all of them, so we have to make some choices. Which five, six, or seven of these many possibilities best speak to your strongly held and enduring beliefs? Which serve as your guides in making decisions about which job to take or which organization to join? Which enable you to make the tough calls on things like completing the important work project or attending your child's school play?
There's an exercise in our workshops in which we give participants a set of values cards.[15] Much like a deck of playing cards, each card has only one value written on it. We ask everyone to go through the deck, picking out the cards with values that are most meaningful to them, eventually choosing fifteen. Once they have those in front of them, we ask them to further narrow that list down to their top five values. It forces each person to weigh each value in comparison to all the others. While all are valid (and there are no wrong answers), people see for themselves how their own system of values comes together. Reactions run the gamut of emotions, but everyone who has gone through this exercise gains greater clarity about the values that should guide their actions and decisions.
Consider what Sharon Neoh, consultant at Accenture, told us she learned when we challenged her to think about her values:
I was quite bothered [at first] I had never before asked myself when I had last demonstrated one of the values I had circled and found it difficult to find those situations. I came to the realization that I did not have a clear perspective on my list of values. That night, I went back home and looked over the list again and tried to think of situations where I had demonstrated any one of those values and asked myself over and over again whether that was something important to me.
This exercise helped me identify values that were important to me. What I can do is identify the values that are important to me and try my best to act consistently against that set of values, understanding that they may evolve in the future as I grow, mature, and experience more of life.
Take the time, like Sharon and Elaine did, to discover and identify the values that matter and should guide your decisions and actions.
As important as it is that you forthrightly articulate the principles for which you stand, by no means does this suggest that your job is then to get other people to comply with what you say. You are a leader, remember, not a dictator. Leading others is definitely not about getting others to conform to your point of view. Conformity produces compliance, not commitment. Unity is essential, and unity is forged, not forced. Carlo Argiolas, with Medtronic in Italy, explained to us:
The first step is to make clear your own personal values and the second step is to listen to others and to observe others in order to understand their values and aspirations. The last step is to communicate and paint a vision that everyone in the proper context can recognize as his or her own vision.
The data showing that personal values drive commitment is just as true for your constituents as it is for you. You can't commit everyone to a list that you came up with in private and then expect them to enthusiastically endorse it. What you espouse, as Carlo points out, must resonate with the aspirations of others. People won't fully commit to the group and organization if they don't sense a good fit with who they are and what they believe.
There seems to be this myth about leadership that what you are supposed to do is ascend the mountain, gain enlightenment, descend with the tablets, and then proclaim the truth to your followers. Nothing could be more damaging to the work of a leader. Leadership is more often about listening than telling. Your task is to gain consensus on a common cause and a common set of principles. You need to build and affirm a community of shared values.
The Truth Is That Values Drive Commitment. You can only fully commit to organizations and other causes when there is a good fit between what you value and what the organization values. That means that to do your best as a leader you need to know who you are and what you care about. You need a set of values that guide your decisions and actions. To discover who you are and what you care about, you need to spend some time on the inner work of a leader—in reflection on finding your voice. And keep in mind that it's not just your values that matter. What is true for you is true for others: they too must find a fit with who they are and what they value. Credible leaders listen, not just to their own aspirations, but also to the needs and desires of others. Leadership is a relationship, and relationships are built on mutual understanding.