What are values in leadership?
Leadership values are the core beliefs and principles that influence a company’s decisions and culture. A leader’s values guide their actions and impact their decisions. Each leader chooses different values depending on their background, goals and priorities.
The leadership of a company often sets the tone for the rest of the organization by establishing core values. By encouraging all employees to emulate and implement these values, the organization’s leaders can significantly impact how the business functions and develops.
Common core values in leadership
If you were to interview the CEOs of the world’s most successful companies, you’d likely hear similar values in leadership mentioned repeatedly, including the following.
1. Respect
Building your leadership on a foundation of mutual respect creates a productive, positive environment. In a respectful workplace, employees listen to their teammates’ opinions and value them even if they have different perspectives. You give your teammates the respect they deserve even when you disagree with them, and you respect each individual on the team.
2. Integrity
Acting with integrity means you have a strong moral compass that pushes you to make honorable, ethical, honest decisions whether or not others are watching. When you lead with integrity, you create a company known for being honest and ethical even if that could result in smaller profits. Leadership that prioritizes integrity ensures the organization keeps its promises and follows through to meet the expectations of staff members, clients, suppliers and other stakeholders.
3. Authenticity
Authentic leadership focuses on transparency, honesty and authenticity. When you’re authentic, your employees sense that your words and actions are genuine. You exhibit the confidence that comes with being true to yourself and your ideals. Being authentic also means continuously reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses, and growing as a result.
4. Service
Serving others is common among leaders’ values. They look for ways to help others, whether that’s the team or clients. This often results in exceptional customer service and long-lasting relationships with clients and employees. Companies that value service may expect their employees to prioritize teamwork and cooperation and to give back to their community through volunteering opportunities. Your organization might offer paid time off to encourage employee volunteerism, or you might support local charities with fundraisers or donations. Service as a leadership value can strengthen your team, support the community and improve your company’s reputation.
5. Courage
Having courage as you lead your team can inspire everyone to take bold actions that help your company grow. Organizations demonstrate their courage by taking risks that have the potential to benefit the company or its customers. Whether or not the risks pay off, being brave shows you’re willing to try something new. Internally, influencing employees to be courageous may empower them to advocate for their beliefs and defend their decisions confidently.
6. Humility
Embracing humility can help you become a more relatable leader. Being humble shows you’re willing to let others lead or share responsibilities. It means you can admit when you’re wrong or don’t have all the answers. However, it doesn’t mean you’re weak or let others take over; it requires a balance of modesty and strength.
7. Passion
As a leader, you set the tone for your team. When you’re excited and passionate about what you’re doing, that enthusiasm can rub off on everyone else. It can inspire buy-in among team members to create a dedicated group working toward a common goal.
8. Resilience
Leadership can come with its share of challenges and adversity. Being resilient helps you bounce back from difficult situations to keep the entire team moving forward. Employees can look to you as an example when work situations become challenging.
9. Creativity
Creative, innovative ideas benefit all types of businesses, even those not based on creativity. Valuing creativity helps you look at business solutions from different perspectives and could give your company an edge. It also inspires your team to use ingenuity as they approach their work duties.
10. Collaboration
When an organization values collaboration from the top down, all employees learn to work well together. Collaborative teams are often more productive because they know how to work well together and utilize each person’s strengths optimally. Keeping collaboration as one of your core values in leadership can also improve employee relationships, which could boost employee happiness.
11. Gratitude
Gratitude helps you cultivate a culture of appreciation within the workplace. It allows you to recognize your employees’ efforts and successes and helps you appreciate the business opportunities you experience. Having gratitude toward your team could encourage them to work harder, leading to greater productivity and improved results.
12. Empowerment
As a leader, you have power over your team. However, sharing that power can benefit your company significantly. You can empower your team by offering some autonomy rather than micromanaging and by delegating more authority to those who are ready for it. You can also offer learning and development opportunities that prepare your employees with new skills and knowledge. Empowerment gives individuals ownership over their work so they can succeed and use their full potential. This value can also help develop future leaders for your company, as they learn how to lead by taking on responsibilities.
Choosing your leadership values
Some of your values for leadership come naturally. They’re ideals you already embrace personally and translate well into business. You can cultivate additional values in leadership or enhance the values you already have. Determining where to focus your attention takes some reflection. Here are some examples of leaders’ values:
- If you have consistently made good business decisions that improved the company’s net worth, one of your core values might be financial stability.
- If you worked hard to develop the brand’s reputation and secure your customers’ loyalty, one of your values may be the preservation of the company’s image.
- If you aim to green light a certain number of new projects each year, this could easily connect to the core values of innovation or imagination.
- Similarly, if you plan to open three new locations in the next five years, your leadership values may be centered on expansion or growth.
- If you strongly believe in the benefit of establishing and maintaining trust, that can easily translate into the core value of trustworthiness.
- If you’re committed to striking a healthy work-life balance, that can influence the values you choose to set for your company.
Looking forward takes your company’s future into account. Consider your organizational goals and the leadership values that can help you get there.
Developing your values for leadership
Cultivating certain key values in leadership can unite your team and steer your company toward common goals. The following tips can help you develop your organization’s core values for leadership:
- Identify the core values: You might gather the leadership team to collaborate on the values you want to emphasize. This gives everyone a voice and helps you choose values that all company leaders believe in.
- Narrow down your leader values: While your leadership team might focus on a long list of values, it’s easier to focus on a few to start with. Decide which value is the most important to your company’s mission and then build a list from there. Perhaps you feel starting with a solid foundation of respect is essential for building a positive, productive work environment. From there, you might prioritize gratitude to help your employees feel appreciated. This can improve employee satisfaction before you move on to creativity or other values.
- Evaluate your current success with those values: How well are you living those values each day at work? How can you improve them or demonstrate them more effectively to your team?
- Plan ways to integrate the values into everything you do: This might involve setting new standards and expectations for your leadership team to ensure their actions align with those values.
- Focus on growth: Strengthening your values often takes intentional effort. If you want to enhance your resilience, you might improve your overall physical and mental health, for instance. You might journal or reflect on the past to learn how you can become more resilient based on previous experiences. Leadership team retreats or learning opportunities can help develop values as a group.
- Share your leader’s values with others: Communicate your leadership values in different ways, from the mission statement to your everyday behaviors.
- Reevaluate your value priorities: As your company grows and you develop your management style, you might need to adjust your values. For instance, if your organization grows suddenly, you might experience growing pains related to respect, appreciation or authenticity. Addressing those issues by honing in on key leadership values could help you manage the growth effectively.
- Prepare for challenges: It’s not always easy to stick to your values, especially when you face obstacles. Remind yourself that you might face challenges so you can prepare to stick to your values when tricky situations arise.
FAQs about leadership values
How do leadership values affect the workplace?
Your company’s values can radically influence the daily activity in the workplace. Values that prioritize communication, creativity and teamwork influence how employees approach projects and interact with each other, for example. Common, shared values can improve cooperation and attract new employees who appreciate those values. Being aware of your leadership values also helps guide decision-making for consistency and effectiveness.
What are effective ways for leadership teams to communicate their values?
To express your values in leadership to your employees, embody them in everything you do. You might discuss your leader values openly or post the list of values in the office. To share them with your customer base and the general public, you can reference them in your marketing material or feature them prominently on your company’s website. Refresh the wording on those materials to show your values.
Which leadership value is the most important?
The values that guide your leadership journey are personal and depend on your goals and beliefs. Different values yield successful leaders within an organization. Even within a company, you typically find leaders who emphasize different core values in leadership with equal levels of success. Connecting with leadership values that both resonate with you and support your company’s goals helps you succeed.