Leading With Values
Authenticity is often mentioned as a key feature of any good leader’s character, but there’s more than one way to be authentic. While leaning into your authentic personality might feel good and draw attention, a focus on your authentic values is going to gain you more traction as a leader hoping to inspire change. By understanding the difference, you can stay true to what’s most important to you and connect with a wider audience.
A while back in my life as a playwright I was contacted by a theater that was interested in producing a play of mine. There was just one catch: Basically, there was a lot of swearing in the play and the artistic director worried that it would alienate his audience. He was wondering if I might change some lines in the script for his production.
At first, I was a little put off. For me that language was a big part of the personality of the play. If his audience couldn’t handle a few salty words that was his problem. But when I had some space to think my values, I realized that what I cared about more than being able to hear actors swearing in front of an audience in Wisconsin, was being able to connect with that audience and share the themes of the play—themes that included connecting with each other despite our differences. When I eventually attended a performance of that production, sure, my ego took a little hit at hearing a couple of changed lines, but the fact that I was able to connect with that community because of our shared values felt absolutely right.
I see a lot of people, especially on social media, who are being authentic to their personality. They say what they want in the way that they want, and people often respond well to that. When people feel like you’re talking their language you get a lot of clicks and likes and reposts. This type of authenticity works well of you’re looking to get attention; you’re sending up a flag and attracting the people who like the way you do what you do. And because of a cognitive bias called the “halo effect”, they assume that you’ll care about other things that they care about too. As long as you steer clear of situations where that cognitive bias is directly contradicted (by say, taking a stand on an issue), you’ll be fine.
People lead with their authentic personality because being able to do and say anything you want feels good. It feels powerful. And the enthusiastic affirmation you get early on makes it feel like you’re doing something right. But while leading with your authentic personality will attract rabid fans, you’ll never be able to inspire a wider group unless you connect with your authentic values. This is because there’s a lot of personality types out there, and for every super fan you attract, there’s someone else who’s put off by your behavior. Entertainers and even politicians who lead with authentic personality will attract a strong base and, because they don’t need to win over everyone (even politicians only need a smidge over half the voters), they may be successful, but business leaders can’t enact effective organizational changes with only 50% of their people on board.
The reason that leading with authentic values works better in an organization is that most organizations—because they’re constantly growing and changing—have narratives, and narratives are built around a set of values. These are the principles that the founders and leadership care most about and therefore help streamline the decision-making process. Assuming that an organization is clear on what its values are and hires and rewards based on those values, leading with shared values will resonate with a much larger part of your organization than personality. Sometimes a hot start-up will have a personality-based leader, but those businesses will tend to either crash out (FTX, WeWork) or else have a major adjustment to their leadership style to continue growing (Uber).
Our authentic personality leads us to do what feels good. Understanding our authentic values help us do what’s hard for a better future. So how do you lead with your values? Here’s 5 steps to get you started:
Be clear about what your organizational values are. Sometimes they’re written on the website and posted around the office (hopefully these are the same values you see being acted on), sometimes you’ve got to think about it a little harder. How do you see decisions being made? Why do you think you were hired? What seems to motivate your colleagues? Try to make a list.
Given the change that you are trying to motivate, which one of these is most likely to resonate with your people?
In order to establish trust, think about why this particular value is important to you. Are there moments in your personal story that you can share?
To help frame your persuasive narrative, talk about moments in your organization’s story when this value proved beneficial.
Show how the change that you’re proposing is aligned with this value and how you see it helping your organization and the community that it serves in the future.
Don’t lose your authentic personality—nobody wants to work with a herd of grey blazered sheep—but, as a leader, focus on your shared values to build trust and connect with more people on what really matters. Following these steps can help you shape a persuasive narrative that inspires action throughout your team and drives meaningful change.
