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Take a LEAP to values-based leadership | By Nancy Spears | Enron, WorldCom, Qwest and countless boom-and-bust companies, once run by masterminds in their fields, all suffered from one fatal flaw — the lack of values-based leadership. But the same corporate scandals that have dominated business news are also exposing the desperate need in the United States to approach business in a new way.
Businesses coast to coast are revitalizing their organizations with values-based leadership. Companies that make the effort to restructure their businesses with the right intentions and values are positioned to strengthen their bottom lines and reap long-term rewards. A number of studies show that companies that have high standards of ethical behavior and shared values have much higher-than-average performances. Values-based leadership provides a template for the company, its employees, suppliers, customers and the community, enabling everyone to know how this company does business and what to expect.
When you and your employees are driven by a desire to make a positive impact on your business and on the world, there is a commitment that goes beyond a job or career. In many ways, it is a commitment to service. Our spirit is awakened when we can contribute to something larger than ourselves.
In companies whose leadership precepts are benchmarked by values, ethics and maintaining the right intention, the process of doing the work motivates its employees to excel. They know that their work is bringing lasting value and benefit to others, and they are inspired to make a difference. That path becomes the goal and ultimately the means to prosperity.
In my new book, Buddha: 9 to 5, I deliver a path that helps leaders reconnect with their values and translate those values to their management style. The path was originally written as a secular philosophy by the Buddha. The Buddha was a teacher who had a vision 2500 years ago that man could be freed from suffering.
In the context of business, this vision embraces a complete capacity for greatness at work. When we lead and manage with the right intention, we are able to access our greatness, the basic wisdom that resides within us. From this point of view, all of us are the Buddha. An owner or manager, in the mindset of the Buddha, can implement a highly effective way of doing business that will transform a company. As a leader, you foster the application and eventual fruition of that change.
By applying tools and skills that help to sharpen the awareness of your intention, you can stay connected with your mission and your values. The first tool that helps to realize your intention is to possess a true love of your work. When you love your work and desire to make a difference, you tune in to the voice in your heart that inspires you to lead with a conscience.
Leading with values stems from loving your work and tapping into that passion with such tenacity and relentless fervor that you don’t waver. By taking the time to evaluate the facets of your job that excite you, the aspects of your profession that give you a reason to wake up and go to work each day, you can consciously connect with your strengths and use them to motivate others.
Introspection and consistent evaluation provide the fine-tuning necessary to keep you aligned with your values. By developing a personal practice of going within and assessing how your actions stack up to your values, you will strengthen your own leadership style and your bottom line. Practice from the point of view of the Buddha becomes the vehicle to liberation and enlightenment. In a company, it is the gateway to open communication, free of hidden agendas. Just as your products or services are strengthened by your continuous efforts to improve their quality, so will the clarity of your vision be sharpened by practice.
Whether it is daily or weekly, the more consistently you evaluate your decisions to ensure that they are aligned with your mission and vision, the more productive and values-based your leadership style will become. Eventually, this strategic discipline will intuitively engage your awareness of the view and right decisions will be made consistently, on the spot. This clarity comes with practice!
‘Right View’ Practice
The following practice provides you with a template that will help you analyze the position of your company in order to initiate the change needed in building a values-based business. The essence of the Right View practice is to detach from the outcome long enough to penetrate your core thoughts and values. Seek your own honest feedback, and evaluate whether your views are aligning with your values.
At the beginning of each week, take the time to sit in a quiet area without distraction. Select from the following contemplations, or create your own in order to connect to your employees, customers and the marketplace:
- Contemplate the current climate of your company. Is it positive, neutral or in chaos?
- Visualize your company free of distress and worry. How would your employees engage with each other and communicate?
- Contemplate the qualities of your company that stand out from the competition.
- Honestly answer: Is my company contributing to the welfare of others?
- Ask yourself: Does my company genuinely care about the needs of its employees and our customers? Do I?
Regularly returning to the same contemplations with an open mind will breathe space into your habitual mindset, allowing you to see things from fresh angles and perspectives.
Compassion at Work
This exercise requires working from your inherent wisdom, which balances integrity and compassion. Some view compassion as a weakness and question its place in the business world. But actually, it is the opposite. Compassion for others enables us to open our minds and hearts to connect with others, with reality and with life.
This compassion is not weak or timid, nor is it aggressive or self-serving; it is simply the vehicle that enables open communication. When you consciously tap into your own profound wisdom, you communicate and take action from an extraordinary and more effective place. You reveal who you are with a powerful presence that fully engages employees and customers.
Once you have identified the talents and strengths that drive your success, the next step is to bring your gifts into the workplace by communicating them with clarity. In Buddha: 9 to 5, I offer tools for values-based communication. One of those is a formula called LEAP: Listen, Explore, Appreciate and Present.
LEAP is a formula for consistently nailing the sweet spot of communication: It slows down the communication process to make it authentic and, therefore, truly effective. We begin to hear and respond with appreciation and genuine honesty. We learn to repress our task-oriented, aggressive tendencies to shoot from the hip in order to consistently make progress in how we interact with others in the workplace. Here is the LEAP prescription for curing any communication habits that no longer serve you:
Listen: Listening is the soul of all effective communication. Authentic listening requires the ability to engage your senses. You not only hear what the person is saying to you, but you read their emotions through their expressions and body language. Using your sense of mindfulness, you employ the essential ingredients of empathy and compassion. When you listen from your heart, you are open to the possibilities of growth and change.
Explore: Authentic listening includes asking questions, which sets the pace for two-way communication. This process helps to create the space needed to flush out concerns and get to the root of the issues. To explore effectively, it is important that we listen with empathy. Genuine exploring requires a desire to understand the other person’s position. This exploration process may last for a long time and may occur over the course of many conversations.
Appreciate: Listening with focus and compassion intuitively enables us to appreciate the viewpoint of the person we are talking to, whether we agree with the opinion or not. We further communicate from the heart and demonstrate that we care about reaching a compatible solution — we convey our pure intention. To demonstrate appreciation, acknowledge that you heard what was said to you, either verbally or with a gesture such as a nod. Showing appreciation sends a message of respect, a key value in a healthy culture, which can pave the way for a desirable outcome.
Present: Having engaged in truthful listening, genuine exploration and empathetic appreciation, you are poised to present your point of view. You have earned the trust and respect of the person with whom you are communicating, and you can now obtain extraordinary results.
By consistently using these techniques of listening, exploring, appreciating and presenting, you demonstrate the kind of genuine kindness and mutual respect that leads to a special connection with others.
Take the LEAP to discover the sweet spot of values-based communication by doing this exercise: Think of a difficult communication issue and the person with whom you must have a discussion about the problem. In your mind, walk through the following steps:
- Visualize the person, body language and reactions, and then focus on relaxing both of you.
- Think about listening to the person’s point of view with compassion.
- Develop questions that are values-based rather than confrontational.
- Create questions that will open up and engage the other person with empathy.
- Continue to ask more questions.
- Be aware and demonstrate appreciation for what you hear, even if you disagree with it.
- Decide what outcome you want from the discussion, and how it relates to your values and the big view or vision.
- Determine what can you let go of that is not consistent with your values and final outcome.
Guidelines for Values-Based Leadership
Once you are connected with the core values of your organization, you can maintain quality focus on the values, even on days that are intense and stressful. Do so by measuring your actions and efforts against your values and vision on a regular basis.
Leaders are required to take the action needed to support their principles and demonstrate their dominant positions in the marketplace. Here is a list of suggested guidelines to measure your values-based leadership:
- Teams are far more effective when they are focused on implementing improvements with a values-driven, long-term difference in mind.
- Authentic communication with compassion enables managers to work in harmony, aware of mutually beneficial goals and values that are recognized across the organization.
- When employees and companies seek change and constant improvement, they stay aligned with the core values.
- Practice is the gateway to authentic communication that yields greater prosperity.
- Values-based management can lead to trust, toleration and increased forgiveness, as well as enhanced morale, pride and team identity.
- Priorities and goals that are values-based are much clearer, more consistent and, ultimately, more effective and sustainable.
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Nancy Spears is the author of a new book that offers ways to integrate values-based leadership into corporate America, Buddha: 9 to 5: The Eightfold Path to Enlightening Your Workplace and Improving Your Bottom Line. Spears is also founder and CEO of a nationwide marketing and production agency, with offices in seven cities.
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