New to managing? Clarify your professional values to help with decision-making
Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash
Summary: For new managers, defining personal leadership values provides a compass for confident decision-making and staff relationships. Completing an exercise that involves reflecting on peak/valley life moments can help you identify guiding principles like creativity, empathy, curiosity. Operationalizing your values builds employee trust and helps you navigate management duties in alignment with your priorities.
Are you new to management? First, congratulations on your new role! It’s exciting to step into a growth opportunity with more responsibility. At the same time, it also can be uncomfortable knowing that others—and select business operations—are now in your charge. Let’s be honest, it can be downright scary!
Managing others is so much more than just getting tasks done every day and helping your employee(s) do the same. It also means cultivating a strong relationship with your team members and providing support and guidance as they navigate their own roles and professional development. As a people leader, your choices, decisions, and behavior have an impact.
I know that uncomfortable feeling from personal experience. The first time I managed someone else I was flooded with worry that I wouldn’t know what to do. I sometimes felt paralyzed when making even small decisions, like what tasks to delegate, let alone larger decisions like how to approach a feedback conversation or where to invest limited resources. Throw in the stressful and fast-paced work environment that is hospitality and things can feel overwhelming quickly.
Why defining your leadership values can help
One thing I wish I knew when I was a new manager was that defining my professional values could help me feel more confident in my choices and better understand how my actions aligned with my organization’s goals.
Values are our operating system—they reflect our individuality, guide our decision-making, and inform how we interact with others. When our actions align with our values, we feel joyful, energized, and fulfilled. When they don’t align, we can feel lost, uninspired, and unhappy.
Clarifying your values gives you a compass you can use to navigate the map of your work life (and also your personal life!). Clear values help you make choices with intention, confidence, and purpose that align with who you are as a leader—in other words, what makes you, you.
How to identify your values
When considering my own values, I walked through a values clarification exercise.
This exercise tends to be particularly useful for people who:
have stepped into a new role, like becoming a manager, and would like to better understand how their values have shifted or how they apply in a new context;
are experienced managers who would like to better understand who they are as leaders so they can show up confidently (this was me);
are struggling with decision-making and would like a rubric for making difficult choices; or
are exploring professional development options within their current role or organization, and want to ensure that their choices align with their priorities.
After walking through this process, I ended up with five values that explain who I am as a leader and the unique perspective I bring to the workplace. Before making decisions or having serious professional conversations, I can check in with these values to make sure that I’m on the right trajectory. Reviewing them from time to time also personally helps me relieve some stress. They are a reminder of what motivates me to go to work every day and how I want to support others.
How the values clarification exercise works
This exercise is adapted from the Co-Active Coaching Toolkit Values Clarification Exercise (2019). It asks you to reflect on highs and lows throughout your life and what made them memorable for you. These moments will give you clues as to what’s important to you.
This exercise will ask you to:
Think of 2-3 peak moments
Think of 2-3 valley moments
Identify the values that were present in those moments
Prioritize your values
Identify your peaks and valleys
To start, think of two to three peak moments in your life. What made those moments special? What was your environment like? How did you feel in those moments? What values were you honoring?
For example, one of my peak moments in my former communications career was when I teamed up with a group of physicians and public health experts to mobilize dozens of voices on social media to advocate for children’s health. That moment was special to me because I felt like I was collaborating with others to contribute to the greater good. It made me feel proud and like I could use my creativity to create something new. In that moment, I was honoring values like innovativeness, creativity, empathy, and service to others.
After examining the peaks, think through the valleys, or moments when you felt particularly challenged or stuck. These moments can often reveal additional values because they represent when we feel out of alignment with what matters most. What was difficult about those moments? What got in your way? What would have made the situation easier?
One valley for me was when I was working on a project with a particular manager who wasn’t open to hearing ideas or suggestions from their staff. On that project, I felt like what was missing was a commitment to learning and providing the highest quality product possible. If values like curiosity or openness to alternative options would have been present, I would have found the situation much less challenging.
Prioritize your values
Once you have a list of values that resonate with you personally, the next step is to prioritize them. Which ones are your non-negotiables? Are there any that you would remove? What’s missing?
My draft list included innovativeness, creativity, empathy, service to others, curiosity, and openness. After asking myself these questions, I removed innovativeness since it was similar to creativity. I also chose to prioritize empathy over service, since for me, empathy allows me to provide thoughtful service to others. I decided to add the value of balance, as I really value intentionally managing my energy. So my final list was: creativity, empathy, curiosity, openness, and balance.
How to operationalize your values
Now that you have a list of your values, what now? You can put your values to work in any number of situations. Getting ready to give feedback to an employee who has been underperforming? Refer to your values. In my case, I value curiosity and empathy, so I may approach that situation by asking questions to better understand their perspective before diving into my particular piece of feedback. When it comes to business decisions, I could draw on my value of openness to explore options around a new technology solution I’m researching, for example, and seek feedback from others on my team before making a final call.
Creating a list of values helps you better understand yourself and who you are as a leader. If you consistently put them into practice, your team will also know what to expect from you, which is a key way to build trust over time. While a transition like becoming a new manager is a great time to consider your values, you can walk through this exercise at any point in your leadership journey. In the end, having your list of values is a great tool to aid in your decision-making, whether you are considering decisions big or small.
