Values Clarification Exercise

Published 9/5/2015
Values are the deep-seated, personal standards that influence every aspect of our lives. Examples include integrity, privacy, family, honesty, harmony, and loyalty.
Great leaders are crystal clear on their values and use their values guide their behaviors and decisions. With a clear and consistent set of values, or guiding principles, leaders demonstrate consistently in their behavior and others understand where they are coming from and why.
In The Leadership Challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations, James Kouzes and Barry Posner say: “To become a credible leader, you first have to comprehend the deeply held beliefs … that drive you. You have to authentically communicate your beliefs in ways that uniquely represent who you are.”
The author’s research demonstrated that the leaders with the most credibility are clear on their values, communicate their values to others, and lead in a way that is consistent with these values.
There are two steps to values clarification:
1. Becoming clear on your most important values
2. Communicating your values to others.
In the Leadership Challenge, the authors offer a number of exercises a leader can do to help with step #1.
Readers are instructed to write a tribute to themselves, list lessons from leaders that they admire, and write a leadership credo.
In our executive coaching work, we also use a “values sort” exercise to clarify values (thanks to my colleague Mary Hershey for this exercise).

The object is to determine your top 7 values in rank order with #1 being the most important.

Directions:
1. Start by crossing off the items that are Not Important to you.
2. Then go through the list again, circling as many of the items that are Very Important to you.
3. The remainder of the list would essentially be things that are Important but not Very Important.
4. Review the Very Important items. Consider whether there is a value missing that matters a lot to you and hasn’t been listed; add it. Then from this group, select 7 that are Most Important.
5. Then rank order these 7 Most Important values. Number one is the Most Important value.

1.	Achievement		13.	Competition		25.	Equality
2.	Advancement		14.	Cooperation		26.	Excellence
3.	Adventure		15.	Collaboration		27.	Excitement
4.	Arts		16.	Country		28.	Expertise
5.	Autonomy		17.	Creativity		29.	Fairness
6.	Belonging		18.	Curiosity		30.	Fame
7.	Beauty		19.	Decisiveness		31.	Family
8.	Challenge		20.	Democracy		32.	Financial Gain
9.	Change		21.	Diversity		33.	Freedom
10.	Communications		22.	Environmental Responsibility		34.	Friendship
11.	Community		23.	Effectiveness		35.	Fun
12.	Competence		24.	Efficiency		36.	Health

37.	Helping Others		55.	Mastery		73.	Responsibility/ Accountability
38.	Helping Society		56.	Meaningful Work		74.	Security
39.	Honesty		57.	Merit		75.	Self-awareness
40.	Humor		58.	Nature		76.	Self-respect
41.	Independence		59.	Openness		77.	Self-realization
42.	Influencing		60.	Order		78.	Serenity
43.	Innovation		61.	Personal Expression		79.	Sophistication
44.	Harmony		62.	Pleasure		80.	Spirituality
45.	Integrity		63.	Power		81.	Stability
46.	Intellectualism		64.	Prestige		82.	Status
47.	Involvement		65	Privacy		83.	Structure
48.	Knowledge		66	Productivity		84.	Teamwork
49.	Leadership		67	Quality		85.	Truth
50.	Learning		68	Recognition		86.	Variety
51.	Leisure		69	Relationships		87.	Wealth
52.	Location		70	Religion		88.	Wisdom
53.	Love		71	Reputation		89.	Work/Life Balance
54.	Loyalty		72	Respect

Rank-Ordered Values
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2.
3.
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5.
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7.

Once you have your top  7 values, consider answering the following questions to determine how well your values are represented in your leadership:
1. Are your employees aware of your top values? If not, share them and invite them to share their own.
2. Are these values demonstrated in your day-to-day behavior? Are you being true to your values, or situational?