Most of my career mentor posts focus on getting a good job and doing well in it. But when you do well you’re likely to get promoted into a leadership position. This being the case, I’ve decided to begin writing some posts on how to succeed as a leader. This is one of them. It focuses on the importance of organizational values.
Great leaders never give up on promoting their organization’s values to the people they lead. They never compromise on the many things that are important to the success of their business and the people they lead. Organizational values are important to the success of any business. Values provide the clarity that the people leaders lead need to move the business forward.
Everybody in an organization is responsible for conducting himself or herself in a manner consistent with your organization’s values. Great leaders make sure that their leadership behaviors are consistent with their organization’s values. In this way, the people they lead have a solid values model.
Great leaders set the tone for the people they lead. These leaders know that the people they lead will follow their example – whether it is appropriate or inappropriate. Great leaders know that if they are cavalier about organizational values, the people they lead will follow their lead. These leaders also know that if they are diligent about organizational values, the people they lead will follow their lead. It’s a fact of leadership life – the people you lead, follow your lead. So lead well.
In their excellent book, Walk the Talk and Get the Results You Want, Eric Harvey and Al Lucia say, “values are the gold in each of us and the real fortune of any organization.” Great leaders don’t let their organizations’ fortunes sit around and gather dust. These leaders use organizational values to help the people they lead achieve greater and greater things. That is after all, their responsibility as a leader.
To meet this responsibility, great leaders focus on the person in the mirror. These leaders focus on how organizational values relate to them – as leaders and as people. These leaders set a positive example for the people they lead, by ensuring they act in a manner consistent with organizational values. When it comes to values, great leaders: know the way, show the way and go the way. That’s how they earn the right to demand the same of the people they lead.
Finally, great leaders never give up. These leaders know that persistence is the key to leading with values. If you want to reach your leadership potential, take a tip from great leaders, and use your organization’s values to help the people you lead become outstanding performers.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading my musings on success. Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense advice.
Your career mentor,
Bud
PS – You can download a free copy of my latest bestseller Climbing the Corporate Ladder, at https://budbilanich.com/climbing/. When you do, you’ll also begin receiving my daily success quotes and a free membership in My Career Mentor, my career management membership site.
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