Values play an instrumental role in our personal lives, let alone in our professional ones. They are our underlying beliefs and principles, based on which we make our decisions and actions, which ultimately shape our attitudes and behavior. Our values form a core in whatever we perceive and do. It acts as a guide and creates a mental map for us to be able to form our opinions and influence our decisions. It forms a strong conviction to something we believe in and thus strengthens our ability to influence. These values are as much important for an organization to thrive and succeed as it is at an individual level.

Company’s values form a backdrop on which their businesses exist. Every aspect of the business is being strongly driven by their values. Having robust & clear values helps employees to work towards the company’s shared vision. Values act as a torchbearer for the company to deliver excellent customer service, build great teams, foster creative thinking and thereby shape up an entire organizational culture. Other aspects like the products they cater to, the processes they follow, the working style they adopt, revolves around their purpose or cause they firmly believe in. The values are something they stand for. And no matter what kind of situation we are surrounded with, these core values define who we are and what we believe in. Given the fast-paced environment we live in these days, the company’s values are strongly being tested and brought under the scanner. Values are strongly imbibed in any organization from their leadership team. Hence, leaders are expected to score high on their value-system. As Mr. Simon Sinek famously puts it:

Value is a perception not a calculation. Value is something people feel, not something we tell them they get.

I would like to talk about a few of the values I believe would make a lot of difference in maximizing the impact of corporate leadership:

Honesty & Integrity: Honesty resonates highly with being an effective leader. The charisma of being a great leader is in being authentic and transparent. It’s about showing who you really are than pretending to be one. Team members/Subordinates can follow a leader only when they see him acting based on his values & beliefs. It’s the complete congruence of his inner-self with his outer actions that make him a leader who would be looked upon as dependable & trustworthy. These attributes also help leaders build trust and inspire followership by having able to create that direct connection with their people.

Empathy: Being empathetic is something leaders realize these days as an essential component in their leadership skills. Empathy forms a core component of emotional intelligence, which talks about the ability of a leader to understand and value other’s emotions and feelings. It helps a leader to build a strong & genuine connection with others to give them the space required to express themselves, thereby helping the team with their valuable inputs. With more engaged employees, the team’s productivity & efficiency shoots up. Listening & being fully present are two of the most important attributes leaders can practice displaying empathy.

Equality & Respect: Corporate leadership entails having parity among their team members without any sort of biases. This brings in an open and healthy environment for the teams to dwell upon with no biases to bother. This makes them fully committed to work and makes them stay motivated at all times. Showing mutual respect among team members is a culture a leader should inculcate. Respect is not something that one gets out of their position or title but it needs to be earned by radiating the necessary leadership qualities which great leaders manifest in their actions.

Equality & Respect: Effective leaders understand the value it brings by building empowered teams. They act as a servant leader wherein they foster participative decision-making and let teams drive themselves while executing their tasks. Agile culture largely prescribes these models wherein they build cross-functional & self-organized teams. In empowering teams, leaders need to act as a mentor and coach to ensure teams are on the right trajectory towards their goals. This creates stronger teams which in turn has a greater positive impact on the organization as a whole.

To drive any transformational change, leaders need to influence people and their extent of influence is largely dependent on the values he brings to the table. Organizations & teams are required to follow a leader through that difficult journey of transformational change and hence such great change would require one to have a greater leadership impact. Only the huge followership that a leader generates defines the strength of the person’s leadership. Effective leaders leave their long-lasting legacy by bringing out this change, and eventually, they experience great success along the way. And that’s the true hallmark of a great leader.

Fundamentally, Leadership is not about results, but taking care of the people who are responsible for the results. A genuine leader is someone who makes others look and feel good. In his selfless way, he works for the people and acts only as a catalyst in the success of others. This can only come from one’s deep intrinsic value to contribute and serve society without expecting anything in return.

Thanks for reading . Please feel free to share your comments and feedback.