For the last few weeks, we’ve explored how expressiveness can help you achieve more leadership presence; for the next two weeks, we will look at the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to building your leadership presence: self-knowing.
Leaders need explicit values (Halpern and Lubar 203)
What are values, exactly? In essence, they are your sense of what’s important to you, a set of beliefs that guide you through your day-to-day. Our values often linger under the surface of our conscious, guiding us through small decisions, and coming to the frontlines when a big decision needs to be made. According to Belle Linda Halpern and Kathy Lubar, authors of Leadership Presence: Dramatic Techniques to Reach Out, Motivate and Inspire, leaders need explicit values which in turn should be expressed, for the following reasons (203-204):
- Followers will always want to know how their leaders think and what they want. If this is hidden to them, they will be less likely to follow.
- Remember, leaders don’t simply delegate work; they motivate and inspire – expressing your explicit values will help you to do so.
- As leaders take charge of larger groups, they cannot simply rely on their actions to express what they want or believe.
According to Halpern and Lubar, having clear, explicit values can help you make better decisions in difficult situations, and at a faster pace (time is money, right?). In addition, basing decisions on what you truly believe in will help you do so with more confidence, something your followers are constantly looking for in you. But what are your values? Halpern and Linda state that an easy way to concretely discover your core values is to look for them in your own life stories (205).
Guidelines for making explicit values (Halpern and Lubar 209)
In their many years of helping leaders, Halpern and Lubar have developed three guidelines to help other leaders discover their explicit values. The guidelines are the following:
Explicit values guideline #1: Pursue some regular process of self-reflection
Often, people will only self-reflect when they are forced to make a choice or when faced with a dilemma. True leaders, however, will consciously employ some type of self-reflection process of reviewing their daily experiences and learning from them; they do not wait for crisis to self-reflect. Ways of doing this are thinking symbolically and getting away regularly which can offer a change in perspective.
Explicit Values Guideline #2: Write down your personal leadership values
Why should you write down your own values if you know them already? Good question. Writing down your leadership values will make speaking them far easier. There is an assumption that your actions speak for themselves, but at the end of the day, that is still an assumption. Writing down your values will help you stay consistent over time, and help you chose language that engages others. Writing down your values includes two simply steps: firstly, chose 3-5 values most important to you as a leader. Secondly, for each value, recall a life story that illustrates that value.
Explicit Values Guideline #3: Speak your leadership values
Halpern and Lubar often encourage the leaders they work with to put themselves in situations in which they can freely speak their values, in an appropriate and explicit way. However, it is understand that speaking about our values is not always easy or comfortable. The authors suggest using stories, as they are powerful, and engage the heart and the mind
A leader is only as strong as his group of followers. If followers do not listen or trust in their leader, they cannot be considered a leader. In order for trust to exist, a leader must show themselves, who they truly are and what they believe in.
This week, examine your set of values, write them down and practice telling them to others. Become comfortable sharing stories that relate to your values – this will help you expand and strengthen your leadership presence, propelling you to the next level.
Halpern, Belle Linda and Kathy Lubar. Leadership Presence: Dramatic Techniques to Reach Out, Motivate and Inspire. New York: Gotham Books, 2003. Print.