This week, it’s back to leadership basics with #TeamHB6: How often do we stop to reflect on the core values driving our decision-making? How fluently can we describe the inner compass that guides our personal and professional endeavours? How does this compass change in different environments and different seasons of our life?
Here's an exercise I’ve done a few times over the years: pick out my top 10 personal values and rank the top 3. Back in 2017, my top 3 were Respect, Empathy, and Freedom. Now, four years later, I prioritise Authenticity, Compassion, and Healing. Comparing the two full sets (see the image below), I see significant overlap. Many of my values can be interpreted as members of the same ‘family’—for example, Justice & Fairness, Integrity & Honesty, Empathy & Compassion. However, reflecting on my life circumstances, I can appreciate how the direction of my values has shifted.
Image description: Two sets of word clouds, one from 2017 and the other from 2021. The 2017 word cloud includes the following values: Empathy, Respect, Freedom, Independence, Integrity, Honesty, Justice, Creativity, Humour, and Trust. The 2021 word cloud includes: Authenticity, Compassion, Healing, Growth, Wisdom, Gratitude, Fairness, Freedom, Community, and Courage.
In 2017, I was in the early stages of recovery from a traumatic personal situation and working hard to forge a healthy relationship with myself. When I look at the values I selected, I recognise that they were largely directed inward—Respect for myself, Empathy for myself, celebrating my Independence and Freedom to be myself. I also wanted to unleash the things that had been tied down by trauma—my Humour, my Trust, my Creativity. This season of my life was about overcoming adversity, taking control of my narrative, and learning to confidently stand on my own two feet. In other words, I was becoming the leader of my own life. It was also around this time that I was starting to explore meaningful ways I could contribute to society. Since 2017, this has expanded into substantial volunteer experience and professional contributions in alignment with those values of Empathy, Respect, Integrity, and Justice.
Reflecting on my 2021 values, I feel pride and joy in seeing how they have shifted toward taking my place within a larger community. Drawing from my healthy relationship with myself, I am actively seeking more healthy relationships with other individuals, organisations, and communities. How can I express Authenticity and Compassion to positively impact others? How can I harness the power of my own Healing to help others heal? What Wisdom can I share from my ongoing journey of Growth? Reciprocity, too—what can we exchange for our mutual benefit? These are some of the fundamental questions that currently fuel me as an emerging leader. Knowing this, I can regularly check in to assess how well my actions honour my values, as well as what new values or priorities are cropping up.
Is this something you practise, whether as an individual or as part of an organisation? Let me know! Over the next year with Homeward Bound, I'll be developing a personal strategy map to plan out how I can transform my values into action, so stay tuned for progress updates.
******
What values fuel you? Here are a couple of free tools I’ve enjoyed using to reflect on my growth and goals:
Personal Values Assessment
Character Strengths Assessment
It's important to remember that each value (or character strength) can be interpreted in many ways. For example, 'Wealth' could refer to material wealth, emotional wealth, and/or relational wealth, among others. I encourage you to take the time to define these terms for yourself to locate your authentic compass!
******
And here's another tidbit for you! One of Homeward Bound's core values is 'isirika', which embodies a way of life centred on a mutual responsibility to care for one another. I strongly recommend listening to Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro's TED Talk describing the beautiful concept of isirika and how we can channel it to empower womxn and girls.
Comments