Tweet

Use Meetings to Communicate Your Values

Guest post by: Robert Whipple

Article Overview: It is important to have a list of personal values, and it is just as important to share your values with others. This article focuses on the process of generating personal values and sharing them in a meeting format.

Use Meetings to Communicate Your Values

Every person needs to have a set of values as the foundation of their work. Congruity is a central issue to good leadership. People will quickly notice every hypocritical action or statement. For example, if you claim "people are our most important asset" as a value, be prepared to defend all actions in light of that strong statement.

There are many processes for generating your values. The following is a process I found to be helpful. Start by creating a list of your deeply held concepts about life. These must be real beliefs and not just nice things to say, as they will be tested thousands of times. This first step is so critical, it is worth taking the time to do right. Get away from distractions while attempting to extract your core beliefs. The key is to examine yourself very carefully.

Brainstorming is a helpful tool for this. Sit alone in a comfortable chair with eyes closed and some non-intrusive background music playing, and let your mind wander on the subject of your core beliefs. Write down anything that comes to mind, exactly as you think it, without trying to make it politically correct. Just capture the thoughts. This may be difficult to do honestly. This exercise can take from two to eight hours, and more than one try might be necessary. Once you are comfortable with the process, ideas will flow rapidly.

When it feels complete, put the list away and do not analyze it until later. Resist the temptation to charge ahead to the next step. Allow your subconscious mind time to work on the list. Additional items will flow naturally over the next week or so, when you are in a meeting, in the shower, driving, or even sleeping. This extremely valuable information must be captured. Keep a pad handy to jot down thoughts as they arise.

After a couple weeks, you should have captured 40-50 items, and the list will feel more complete. Start the winnowing process by doing an analysis of similar items. Write each item on a card, and arrange them into piles with common themes. Consolidate the piles down to a handful of key values. Four to six piles would be optimal, although you could have more. One pile might focus on your beliefs about what drives people, like: "I believe all people are basically good and want to do well" or "I believe people do their best work when they feel trusted." Whatever your cards say will dictate the piles. Next, give each pile a name. In our previous example, the name would be "what motivates people." Another pile might be "how to make our business prosper" or "what I want out of life." Let the data speak for itself.

Distill the input in each pile down to its essence and express it in a single phrase or sentence. This may be challenging or frustrating but it is an essential part of the process. Keep working the cards until you get to a handful of key concepts central to your beliefs as a leader. If there are private beliefs not helpful to share in a work setting, you can cull these out before sharing, but understand these are also keys to what drives you.

Once you have captured your values, it is time to communicate them on every possible occasion. I think meetings provide a great opportunity to share your values in a public way. This gives the opportunity for others to challenge you if you are not really living your values. Personally, I like to share the values one at a time instead of a list of them. They have more impact when people focus on only one value. Take the time at each meeting to highlight one value and discuss around the table what that value means to others. This exercise will be rich and powerful.

Related Articles
  What are my business values?
  Putting Life in Vision Statement
  What makes your values so special what did you say they were again
  An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Problem Fixing
  Avoid Hollow Core Values
  The Power of Productive Team Meetings
  Unleashing Your Motivation
  Making Meetings Matter
  What really makes you unique?
  How to Increase Your Team\'s Performance and Profitability Through Effective Meetings
  Be Your Own Adjective
  Does a Leader’s Communication Really Impact the Corporate Culture?
  Spread The Word Your Word
  The Secrets To Managing Ineffective Meetings - 9 Proven Tips Which Make You Fail
  Reactive vs. Proactive & Core Beliefs
  Self Awareness, The Key to Finding Meaningful Work
  How to get rid of the employee that doesn’t fit
  Downsizing - Some best practices
  Permission to Speak!
  That Empower Word Again

Article Tags: Leadership, Meetings, Sharing, Trust, Values



Related Forum Posts
Partner with them - Welcome to the Group TMR, Some ideas of people you can partner with for the Custom Napkins: - Wedding Planners - Photographers - Annual General Meetings for Corporations - Pageants - Hotels - Elite Restaurants - Elite Spas
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Vision Values Mission Strategic Thinking Decision Making Communication Team Bonding People Development Coaching / Mentoring / Guiding / Grooming Presentation Thanks Robert
Can you tell me about 80/20 Sales Rule? - I’ve a situation like this. I get 80% of my business from 20% of my customers, shouldn't I work harder on the 20%? Communicate at least 4 times a year? Special offers/vip sales? Unexpected free gifts? And if the other rule says I'm going to lose 20% of my customers every year (hopefully through no fault of my own), won't some of them my from my treasured 20% list? Maybe I should work to move some of the 80% to the 20% so I can afford the loss?
The 80/20 Rule - If the rule says I should get 80% of my business from 20% of my customers, shouldn't I work harder on the 20%? Communicate at least 4 times a year? Special offers/vip sales? Unexpected free gifts? And if the other rule says I'm going to lose 20% of my customers every year (hopefully through no fault of my own), won't some of them my from my treasured 20% list? Maybe I should work to move some of the 80% to the 20% so I can afford the loss?
Building an Advisory Board - Steps 5 & 6 - hello Again! I am happy so many of you are interested in this thread. It is a great idea to build an advisory board and one that I know will generate many results for you. Step 5 & 6 are quite frankly housekeeping issues, but they are important. 5) Get the most out of your advisory board meetings. Prepare meetings well in advance. Set an annual calendar and make sure everyone is committed to being there. Chose a site that is comfortable and free of distractions as well as has the amenities you need. We once held a meeting at my house, which was a nightmare with dogs, and cats wandering around, the phone constantly ringing and my husband and son showing up early. Never again! Set an agenda with careful thought, get input on it and send any materials out well in advance of the meeting. You dont want your advisors reading stuff at the meeting. Meetings should be for good discussion, idea generation and action planning. Follow up the meeting with minutes and/or a formal action plan. Dont be married to your clock but also make sure you run the meeting effectively and dont abuse people's time. If you say meetings end at 8pm - make sure you are on time. If you think you are going to run over, get everyone to agree to that in advance. (even if its 7:30 you could say, I think we need to spend more time on this tonight. does anyone have an issue with staying past our 8pm time for tonight?? if you have step 6 working good - you'll get honest feedback) 6) Ask for Honesty. while honesty to me, should not be something you have to ask for, in some cases it pays to be really really clear about what honesty means to you and to the others in your group. you have to allow everyone to express their thoughts and ideas, openly and frankly. this is no time to take things you dont like personally. I like to ask my board members what their mistakes on a certain topic were. It helps me learn from them and not have to face it the hard way on my own. If you foster open communication and honest feedback, focussing on problem solving and resolutions (not defending the mistake etc.) you will get further ahead than you even dream possible. Remove the EGO's from the room if you can. And always remember, the board came together because they believe in you, your business and your integrity. Capitalize on it!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How do you keep it together on a daily basis?

Are You Listening?

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.