As an experienced Executive Coach, I love supporting clients to glimpse the possible, feel the bubbling excitement of their best future, and yearn for an organisational world of success and happiness. Yet many trip up, and often tumble over the differences between those things called mission and vision, operating and delivery models, values and principles, strategic direction and strategy… goodness we have made our leadership lives a tad complicated.
This is not a lesson in derivations and definitions of leadership and business models – sorry! It is however an Executive Coach’s wise questions, insights, and direct communication to help you to complete the jigsaw puzzle for your context.
Let’s begin with the simplest, and yet often the most difficult to nail down: Purpose and Values. These two are bedrocks. Let me say that a different way, they are the foundations, FIRST on the list of your leadership priorities, because once you have defined them, they never change. They are the platforms for direction and culture, the ‘why’ and ‘so what’, the cause, the calling and the drumbeat of reputation (internal and external). You must begin here, especially if they are not explicit, clear and lived – from Main Board to Switchboard.
Purpose is why you exist. So many leaders tell me that their purpose is to make money, but it is not. That is the purpose of the Royal Mint (in the UK at least). Your Purpose is your function, your calling, your cause! It is not bound by time, it just is. We each have purpose, do you have clarity about your own? What can’t you help yourself being tugged towards?
Your values – no more than FOUR! That is because in my 35-year longitudinal study of leaders and their values, I have proved that we each uphold FOUR core. These drive our beliefs, behaviours, actions and habits. As a coach, I may ask a leader, ‘what habit do you most want to change?’ I know I will hear a value being realised in our resulting conversation… I have discovered a finite number of core values, each that drive behaviour and resulting life reality. So, if you don’t like your life, change your habits.
Often when I read a list of ‘corporate values’ and I sigh despondently, as I read instead a list of behaviours, expectations, or demands. For example, ‘Customer Excellence’, I am sorry to say is not a value; and, if the true values do not align with ‘Customer Excellence’, then guess what? It will not be a reality.
To help leaders to dive deep, I have developed ‘Compass’, a tool and workbook for coaches and leaders to explore and uncover core values. Just yesterday, in a coaching session a client said to me, “I feel as if you have just brought me home to me, and from here I can now see, and be so much more.”
Compass is built from 35 years of experience and it is very powerful, evidence based and inspiring. If you are happy or miserable, it is the voice of your four core values that wish to be heard.
Please, if you do just one thing to inform your leadership, define your Purpose and Values – it is why you exist, and how you will conduct yourself as a leader in this short life. Your legacy is not to make money, it is to make a difference. What will your legacy be, and how can Executive Coaching be an ally on your journey?