Why Defining Your Core Values is Essential to Effective Leadership
I have been working with performance-driven teams, from the NFL to professional esports to corporate audience for 20 years. And what I can tell you from my experience is that in order to lead effectively in any highly-competitive environment, a leader needs to understand who they are, deliver a consistent message, and positively influence the people they lead.
So, here's the 1 tip I would give you if you wanted to create a firm foundation to help guide the way you live your life and the way you lead your team:
Defining Your Core Values as a Leader
Core values can easily be glossed over as an over-used buzzword in our current results-driven culture. But when you take a look at the top leaders in any industry, you see that they all lead with an authenticity that comes from a concrete understanding of what their core values are.
Here are a few reasons why this is so critical to effective leadership.
#1: Leading with Authenticity
Effective leaders know who they are and what their leadership stands for. In order to lead from this authentic place, one needs to explicitly define what it is they in fact stand for in order to gain a better understanding of who they are as a leader.
"You can only be yourself, so you have to really know who you are and what is important to you. Then those values have to really translate to the way you coach." - Steve Kerr, Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors
You can't try and be someone else when you lead or coach. Everyone will see right through it. Focus on being yourself and knowing yourself, and leading with authenticity will come naturally.
#2: Helps Creates Consistency with Your Message
A great coach once told me the way to achieve greatness in coaching was to use constant repetitive statements. Knowing one's core values, and believing in them, makes it almost effortless to create a consistent message to the people you lead
Effective leaders can not be someone different each day depending on their mood. Knowing one's core values, and consistently communicating them, is the key to bringing people together and creates a belief within your team in both your leadership and core values.
#3: When Things Get Tough, Fall Back on Your Core Values
By knowing what you stand for, it allows you as a leader to effectively guide their team through the inevitable rough patches every team faces in a season, quarter, or year. This is vital to pushing your team to greater heights, in both success and failure. You know who you are and what you stand for, no matter the result.
What do you stand for?
