OVERVIEW

Having vision, and understanding how values underpin this vision, and being able to effectively explore and communicate is the foundation of great leadership. Being able to develop our own personal vision is also central to our ability to create a planned future and have clarity about where we wish to go in our lives.

In this programme we are focusing on both the vision and the values. We have a programme specifically on developing your purpose and vision, as well as a programme on only developing values, as the focus required will depend on where you as an individual, team or organisation are in your development. Specific focus on both areas is vital as it takes time to build a vision and it takes dedicated time to build a set of values. These are actually two separate areas of work. However, they also need to be combined. Having values which underpin your vision will provide a deeper consideration to the nature of the vision as well as how the vision should be lived.

There are recognisable characteristics in great leaders and simple strategies anyone can adopt to improve employee performance and change the work environment for the better. Establishing a carefully planned and documented vision and values with your direct reports defines goals for the group and creates a personal ownership for every individual. Including your staff in a collaborative process cultivates buy-in and general acceptance. Taking time to define organisational vision and values and including people in making sense of this illustrates a commitment to the way in which people engage with the organisation.

If your wish is to develop a Healthy Learning Culture and an organisation where people are engaged, have the necessary agility and traits with the commitment and belief in developing their skills over time, then a clear vision along with a values framework is an essential component of success.

Clear values for an individual in a team or organisation creates meaning and clarity of what is valued, prioritised and important. Values for individuals, team or organisations are like a navigation system. Values can give crucial guidelines to people about how to behave and also where the boundaries are between what is acceptable and unacceptable. Understanding values involves making them tangible in terms of what they look like in behavioural terms. Individuals who have thought hard about their values will have an internal clarity which other are less likely to have.

If an individual is working in an environment where their values are not in alignment with the organisational values, then we know that this is not a sustainable situation. If the gulf between personal values and organisational values is too large, then eventually the relationship will break, and the individual will break away and find another path. By creating and espousing values, the difficult conversations are held in an environment of safety , with people explicitly being prepared for the conversations to be potentially challenging and charged.

The process of developing values can be very illuminating and can be relationship building if it is done in the right environment with some careful ground rules. Having these conversations in a professional and safe environment allows for consensus to be built and any differences of opinion to be openly discussed. After all, we just need to look around us to see that when it comes to important decisions, the bottom line for people is their values. Your values are the DNA of your inner self. They create the foundation for you as a human being. When these are challenged that is when things can get fiery and our survival instincts can kick in.

Therefore values are so important to consider and understand in order to truly live your vision. If a vision and values are not aligned, then this will result in disengagement. Involving people in the development of both vision and values will create a sense of ownership and empowerment which will develop positive relationships as well as impact on engagement and productivity.

Fundamentally when we build a vision, we then also need to plan to sustain this vision and the values that we choose into the long term. Therefore, we need to think about the long game rather than just a period of time where we focus; instead we are planning for a constant revision of visions and values. Life never stands still and therefore our visions and values may also shift. Particular circumstances will demand that we change and adapt our visions.

Ideally, we want to develop life success habits to help us set and review our vision and the values so that we are creating more and amore self-awareness and are continually developing, evolving and self-correcting in order to move closer and closer to who we wish to be. This evolution is what we are aiming for at the individual, team and organisational levels.