What do you truly care about?

 When trying to understand why people behave the way the do, one area to start looking at is what do they care about?  This question can explain quite a bit about why someone may act in a certain way.  For example, if someone always is telling people about recycling and reusing materials they probably care strongly for the environment.  By understanding the aspects for what people care about, we can start understanding their values.

Values are critical to leadership because everyone who is a leader is still human.  Values become interesting because as a leader you will have your own personal values, the things you truly care about but your followers also have values.  Whether their values are aligned with yours or not, you must be accepting of everyone’s own values.

While this might sound quite obvious, respecting everyone for what they believe in is fundamental.  Imagine how you would feel if the first day you joined a group, the leader stood up and said what he believed and ignored any other opinion or even labeled people based on their beliefs.  As a new member, if you held a differing opinion you would instantly feel unwelcomed and may even drop out.

Now imagine, if the leader stood up and spook about what he believed in and then asked the group to share what they believe.  While you may feel uncomfortable at first being new, if other members felt comfortable enough with everyone they could share their own beliefs.  When a group can get to a level of where they are comfortable sharing their personal values they have reached a special place.  By reaching this point where members can “agree to disagree,” a level of higher group autonomy is present.

As a leader, values can also be used for gaining support in explaining decisions.  While people may disagree with a certain decision you make, if you can explain why you did based on what your values are, members would be more willing to come to this level of agreeing to disagree.  When members support your decision, they can also now believe in what you believe, which is much stronger than simply agreeing to your decisions.

I personally value passion.  I love being able to see people in their prime.  Whether it is getting to go on a trip with friends who are climbers first and students second or getting to see a friend perform in their band, when someone’s heart is there it shows.  Due to me valuing passion, as a leader I seek our what people truly enjoy doing.  Often times in an organization, you may only see one side of person.  By seeking out what they truly love doing, you can better understood them for who they are.