It’s old news to say that in today’s world, “agreeing to disagree” is not in style. It’s also safe to say this extreme polarization had made its way into all facets of our lives, including the workplace.
It’s such a touchy subject. Do you ignore the elephant in the room or face it head on? In our experience at LEADERSHIPTEN, ignoring this continuous undercurrent of simmering negative feelings towards each other is a recipe for declining morale, low trust, and little to no effective communication.
One of our core sessions, we facilitate with most of our clients, is around values. No, we don’t teach our clients “what” to value, but we do…
- Help participants understand the role values play in their day-to-day lives
- Introduce the notion that we ALL have values
- Facilitate the discovery of four to six core values drive most choices made in any given day
- Provide the knowledge that bumping into each other’s core values is usually at the root of most conflict
- Encourage participants to discover the values of those you work with, which brings understanding, appreciation, and greater harmony in the workplace.
Once participants capture the theory, we send them home with the tools to discover their personal core values
We use two different tools. One is a computerized assessment that uncovers six motivators or drivers that are the “why” of what we do. It’s a scientifically valid tool that’s unique in the marketplace. It gives a high-level, non biased picture of their values. The second one is more subjective. Participants select at least 17 values from a master list (they can also add anything that comes to mind) and then using a selection tool, they narrow them down to four to six core values. The exercise takes a couple of hours to work through.
I’m sure your wondering, “does this work?”
From our experience, YES!
One client comes to mind. Our leader development and coaching team was brought in to help improve trust, communication, and decision-making for their senior leadership team. Our first session was values. The team was totally receptive to the concept, did the hard work to discover their values and embraced sharing their values the team. It was so impactful to them; they gave each member of the team one-hour at their weekly meeting to share over a six-week period. They explained the “why” behind their values and shared the triggers they experience when their values weren’t respected. A year later their unity and communication as a team continues to be at an all-time high.
From our observations, helping our leaders identify and articulate their values in non-confrontational terms provides a more positive language than the polarizing terms we see on 24-hour news.
If you would like to know more about clearing your “elephants” through our leader development and coaching sessions regarding motivators and values, please use the form below to contact us.
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