This is where most managers and leaders struggle. They do long hours, prioritise their work over family, get promoted even... but at the end of the day, they are not happy, they are not fulfilled. 1) Spell out your values and your priorities in life. Discuss these with your partner, family, friends.. 2) Craft a business vision which embed your business values. And if they are at odds with your personal values, ask why and work on reconciling these. 3) Live and breathe your vision. Not only you will feel better and balanced but your teams will be clearer about what to do and how.

Leadership is no longer based on a job title. Today, we must be a serving leader ensuring your team is able to approach you and communicate needs. You must provide them with example base leadership and support their development.

The time to define your values is before you are in a position of decision. And because values exist more on a continuum than in a fixed place, leaders need plasticity in applying them to decisions.

Sadly, for many business leaders and organizations, values aren’t values… They are personal and corporate marketing slogans. * Quite current and trendy * Tasty sound bites to win favor and praise Here’s a simple test to know if you are defining a true value vs a marketing value… Are you willing to lose money and position and power for it? Nothing less deserves the title of a “Value”. Choose wisely.

I was once asked to define my hierarchy of values, I ended up with a Venn Diagram. Discovering personal values and being clear on them was a fun exercise to undertake. I used tools like Ikigai, 6 human needs, listing my favourite brands and why I valued them (that was surprisingly informative), people I admire and why etc. My values are clear to me but they are networked rather than stacked. How I apply them depends on context not rules.

Working with my clients I stress the importance of consistency in the rhythm of assessing. Most leaders set goals and KPI’s at the beginning of the year and don’t take the time to assess at least quarterly to determine not only progress but alignment. I encourage leaders and business owners to take the time assess alignment every 12 weeks as a good practice.

Is there passion in your journey at work? not always but sometimes, if yes, your are aligned, if never, try to change the job. You cannot change the company right now, but if you persist to do it, maybe the company will change you.

Human beings are good weather and good people. Smooth seas don't make great sailors; only the rough ones do. Our alignment with our values is only tested in the moments of the challenge. Consistent self-evaluation and assessment and getting feedback from people around are two powerful ways to check and deal with your values. Aligning personal values with organizational values is another essential part of an executive journey.

I usually ask this question in various forums or conferences that I give: What is the mission, vision and values of your company? Few respond clearly, many others confuse their department's KPIs with the company's mission or vision. Many others don't know what to respond; So, how can we lead a team if we are not clear about where we are aiming or trying to reach? The best way to align our values is to know the mission and vision of the company and communicate it to the rest of our team so that every action we take is oriented towards fulfilling them.

Leadership is a constantly evolving project. Decisions are like projects in a way. They require preparation, a clear goal, a plan, execution, and a closeout document and debriefing. Asking the questions; "What was the goal of the project?", "Did we accomplish the goal?", and "What could have been done better?" serve this step. Understanding that only by inspecting the decisions versus the values do we get to measure the impact of our values on our projects, on our results, and on our direction.

A better definition of this step is Protect Your Values. As a coach once described it to me, once we have identified our values, we must protect them, as not to compromise them. When we compromise our personal values at work, we do not show up as our authentic selves, and we find our work unfulfilling. We burn out. This is especially dangerous for those of us charged with leading others. If we are inauthentic and unfulfilled, we inevitably compromise the people and organizations we are tasked with leading. To protect our values, we must find time to rest and recharge outside of work. I have found that having the proper balance between life’s requirements and work obligations is the best way to protect our personal values.

The hardest step is the first one. Take the "closing document" from the last step and see if it still fits right with my values. If I missed the mark, I look for ways to get back on course and do better the next time. Leadership isn't for the faint of heart. It demands courage and perseverance. Always find it valuable to rethink the values once in a while too. As business and people change, some values can get out of touch with the needs of the time.

Sometimes the gaps becuase because we are thinking in the immediate purpose, if you think in the purpose as a long term goal, then the gap is no a gap, only a little challenge to manage.

Every business decision we make has to be oriented towards achieving the mission, focused on allowing the vision to become a reality and all this in a context where we live the values that the company or team requires. In my experience, the only way to reduce the gaps between my values and the company's values is to objectively question whether these values coincide with mine and if my professional and even life purpose also coincide with the mission and vision of the company. Otherwise, I'm not contributing to the team.

This is one of the toughest elements of the process. Leaders can struggle with setting boundaries and delegating. Most often there can be a lack of trust in their team and/or a perfectionistic mentality that they can do it faster and better for the time it would take to explain and delegate the task. I urge my leaders to lean into and leverage the strengths of their team and don’t be afraid to bring in resources to fill in the gaps.

What is not measured can not be improved. During my professional and personal experience everything is about measurement when you want to understand where your starting point is and how far away you're from the result or objective to reach. One way to effectively measure our leadership is by requesting feedback. In my corporate management I looked for at least 4 feedback sessions per month; Today all my conferences or workshops include a satisfaction survey at the end.

Important thing when the sitaution that's not really good, without monitoring never you can value any little achievemtn done. Never give to monitorize.

Today I learned a technique that has helped me visualize what I want; and that technique is gratitude. Gratitude is a habit. This has allowed me to eliminate or block negative thoughts and build more on an awareness of ability to achieve.

Don't forget being flexible, not always your values could be achieve as a target, sometimes there are situations that are not according to your values and you are ther and you have to act, don't escape from the sitaution, you must face the situation, your values are with you, so then you can manage the situation with a big awareness.

In my experience, reinforcing values in a personal level is all well and good, but these can often get forgotten when you’re bogged down in the daily pressures of a work environment. Leaders need to ensure they influence up, and not just down, in the organisation. It’s easier to ensure your values are intrinsically aligned with a bigger culture than it is to battle upstream against a culture that doesn’t fit with you or your team.

Having values clearly defined and sincere alignment with them makes the life of a leader much easier. He or she can make quicker decisions with no dilemma and less ambiguity. It also helps people know what will be done much in advance, as things are transparent to you and others. Knowing the values and articulating it to the teams and people around is the most critical component that will increase your leadership performance and reputation.

In the end, it's all about mindset: If teams or individuals have a fixed mindset, then other opinions represent potential dangers. If individuals or teams have an open mindset, then other points of view are valued and integrated. You learn from each other in order to improve together. The mindset is crucial!