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Industrial and Commercial Training

Values based leadership


John Frost,
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John Frost, (2014) "Values based leadership", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 46 Issue: 3, pp.124-129, https://doi.org/10.1108/
ICT-10-2013-0073
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Values based leadership
John Frost

John Frost is Managing Abstract


Director at Values Based Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the power of values based leadership in connecting
Leadership, UK. colleagues and clients to an organisation and in doing so creating sustainable business success.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a model of values based leadership and
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case study examples of where the model is being successfully used in organisations.
Findings – It was found that the organisations cited in the article who are using a values based
approach such as Apple and Unilever create a connection with their organisations, that has a significant
impact on organisational performance.
Originality/value – The paper uses a new model of values based leadership to demonstrate its impact
on organisational performance. The different elements of the model are explored using current
successful organisational case studies. It will therefore be of value to anyone using or considering a
values based approach to developing an exciting and successful leadership culture.
Keywords Leadership, Organisation, Values, Leading others, Self-leadership
Paper type Viewpoint

he concept of values-based leadership is probably more relevant today than it has

T ever been. There is no doubt that, even if our clients and colleagues do not refer to it
by this name, there is now an acute understanding of what we connect to and, just as
importantly, what we do not connect to. Furthermore, we use this connection to make
decisions about our lives: the places that we want to work, the products and services that we
choose to buy, the leaders that we will follow. Issues in both financial services and other
sectors over recent years have sharpened our awareness as to what we expect and want
from leaders and organisations. And if we define that still further, we are looking for a
values-based approach that gives us some form of connection. The impact of social media
means that your organisational brand and values are not what you say they are but are what
your colleagues and clients say they are based on their experience of your organisation.
That is also true for us as individual leaders. What people experience of us, as leaders, is
how they connect to us and the values that we bring to our leadership role.
At Values Based Leadership Ltd (VBL), our experience of working with many organisations in
a variety of sectors across the world shows that the most successful, sustainable and
enjoyable organisations to work for put time and energy into developing a strong
values-based culture that underpins their performance. So we decided to decode how these
organisations develop and maintain a values-based culture.
Values-based leadership requires leaders to be courageous. There can be difficult
decisions to be made, well entrenched beliefs to be challenged and leadership behaviours
to be changed when following a values-based approach. This does not always promise an
easy route for leaders and taking these decisions requires courage. Humility is another
important factor. In an interview with Harvard Business Review last year, Paul Polman, CEO
of Unilever since January 2009, said, ‘‘I am just starting to learn’’. Paul identifies retaining

PAGE 124 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j VOL. 46 NO. 3 2014, pp. 124-129, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 DOI 10.1108/ICT-10-2013-0073
humility as critical to his success as a CEO and it is vital to all leaders in a values-based
organisation as it facilitates learning, growth and change.
In addition to courage and humility a number of other factors need to be in place to bring
values-based leadership to life. To test these factors we need to ask three important questions
of leaders. First, are they willing to learn? Leading values-based organisations is a dynamic
process and one that requires people to constantly be learning and evolving their thinking.
Second, do they want to lead? Often people find themselves in a leadership position by default
without really considering whether they want the responsibility. At the core of values-based
leadership are leaders who relish the challenge and the responsibility of leadership. Finally,
are they able to deal with the change and ambiguity that exists in organisations? Do they have
the skills and knowledge to lead in an ever changing environment without being overwhelmed
by the complexities of leadership? Values-based leadership gives leaders and organisations
the flexibility to lead through ambiguity and change.
When these three factors are in place we believe that the three dimensions of the values
based leadership model come together in a powerful way to lead organisations (see
Figure 1).
1. Leading self.
2. Leading others.
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3. Leading the organisation.


When all three dimensions work well this leads to:
B Sustainability – a sustainable and dynamic organisational culture that has the agility to
change and create long term repeatable success.
B The emotional connection and engagement of both employees and customers with the
organisation.
B Organisational agility – the ability of the whole organisation to be responsive and adapt to
the changing environment within which it operates.
B Authentic leadership – values-based leadership wins the trust, respect and confidence of
the people in the organisation.

Figure 1 Values based leadership

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VOL. 46 NO. 3 2014 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING PAGE 125
‘‘ . . .the most successful, sustainable and enjoyable
organisations to work for put time and energy into developing
a strong values-based culture that underpins their
performance. ’’

Leading self
Values-based leadership starts with you as a leader; how effectively you lead yourself and
the personal values that define you as a leader. When we talk about values in a
self-leadership context we are referring to behaviours - not just words - and consistently
behaving in line with your stated values. This means having the self-awareness to
understand who you are and what is important to you as a leader. It also means being
prepared to show courage and the humility to role model your values to others which brings
an authenticity to your leadership. We find in our work with leaders that this leadership
authenticity, perhaps more than any other single factor, has the most powerful impact on
drawing followers to leaders.
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Personal values are about you, who you are and what you stand for. What you do, how you
behave and why. Leaders who are aware of their personal values take the time to explore
them and identify what they mean to them. They know what their values are and what
underpins them. This gives leaders a frame of reference for the key decisions they make in
all aspects of their life, not just in the business context. Using values actively around decision
making builds a leader’s internal confidence and provides consistency in behaviours which
allows others to build their confidence in you.
Self-awareness is a never ending journey. Having the skills and the courage to ask yourself
the important questions in the moment is based on many years of self-awareness
development. It is not easy to do; it requires an approach that makes the development of
your self-awareness a habit. So that, in the moment, when you need to ask yourself a difficult
question, you are able to do it in a balanced and considered way. To know and understand
yourself first and foremost is a powerful leadership skill that enables you to know and
understand others.
Self-reflection is about creating the time and commitment to consider what is happening.
Putting aside personal reflection time in a way that works for your preferred way of learning
will guarantee a more considered way to your style of leadership. It will enable you to come to
important decisions in a timelier manner.
Self-management is the process by which all of the above happens and continues to
happen. It is how you as a leader manage the resources around you to consider and
understand your values, develop your self-awareness and take time for personal reflection.
Without self-management underpinning self-reflection, self-awareness and personal values,
none of them happen in a way that develops your leadership skills, now and into the future.

Case study
Rob Webster is chief executive of the Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and he is a
great example of how a values-based approach starts with the leader. Rob is very open
about his values with his colleagues and continuously seeks feedback from them on how
consistent he is being with those values.
As Rob puts it:
Whenever I start a new job or get introduced to new members of staff, I talk about what I value first
because I think that’s really important, not only for authenticity, but also for a connection with them
. . . All my subordinates and peers have the opportunity to question if I am living my values. I would

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PAGE 126 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING VOL. 46 NO. 3 2014
hope that I would know when I am not in the right space from the feedback that I get. It’s like
building a muscle. You just have to be courageous enough to follow your values.

Rob understands that, in taking a values-based approach he is committing himself to


constantly learning and growing as a leader. He also knows that, as the Chief Executive, his
authenticity as a leader and how he wins the trust, respect and support of the people in the
Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust is based on living his values by practicing the
behaviours that he is expecting of others. So his values also give him a frame of reference to
make key decisions, the tough ones and the easy ones. They support Rob in leading and
managing himself and in doing so enable him to engage people around him.

Leading others
Leading others in a values-based culture means you, as the leader, helping groups to
identify how they are going to work with each other. This incorporates team values, a
combination of trust, respect and support, collaboration and finally interdependency. Team
values represent the collective values of the whole team. Leading others is about a
willingness to lead people so that you, as their leader, are able facilitate opportunities for the
team to identify and commit to team values. Then they know who they are, how to work to
their strengths and how they work together to become a highly performing team.
This work creates an environment of trust, respect and support in the team. As a leader you
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can give them the permission to make time to building trust, respect and support. You can
also enhance and develop the right environment by role modelling the values through
self-leadership, listening, understanding and a total commitment to the team.
One of your jobs as the leader is to develop high levels of collaboration in your team - a
combination of high levels of assertiveness and high co-operation. With these elements in
place the team is able to be open and honest with each other in a way that creates a healthy
balance between challenge and support. Team members need to have the confidence they
can assert themselves and be able to co-operate effectively and interdependently with other
members of the team to get good outcomes, make decisions and take ideas forward.

Case study
At VBL we are privileged to work with people who are leading others in a values-based way.
In 2013 we have been working with a group of young leaders from Cool Logistics (Division of
DS Smith). We asked the group who their role model leaders were. A number cited Nicki
Harris, the operations manager of Cool Logistics. We asked them how Nicki gives them a
connection with Cool and their role in the company. Their answer lies at the heart of values
based leadership. They told us that she builds trust with people and sees the potential in
everyone. She also takes time out to listen to them and to coach them to really explore their
potential. Perhaps most of all she shows that she believes in them as people and enables
them to find better ways of working together and supporting each other. Nicki is humble
enough to say that she has more to learn when leading others. However, her desire to learn
and develop herself has clearly made her a great example of how values-based leadership
is engaging others.

‘‘ Values-based leadership requires leaders to be courageous.


There can be difficult decisions to be made, well entrenched
beliefs to be challenged and leadership behaviours to be
changed when following a values-based approach. This does
not always promise an easy route for leaders and taking these
decisions requires courage. ’’

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VOL. 46 NO. 3 2014 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING PAGE 127
‘‘ . . . when your personal values are out of line with the values of
the organisation and team that you choose to work for, this
creates an internal conflict. And others will see this reflected
in your leadership. ’’

Leading organisation
At an organisational level values-based leadership is about creating connection:
a connection with the purpose of the organisation, a connection with the vision for the
organisation and a connection with the values that will underpin the purpose and vision.

Connection with the purpose means understanding why the organisation exists. Simon
Sinek, in his excellent TED session, talks about the ‘‘why’’ for organisations. His argument,
that real connection to an organisation starts with understanding the ‘‘why’’ (purpose) of an
organisation, is fundamental to leading a values-based organisation.
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Steve Jobs had many critics for some elements of his leadership style, but he understood
how to connect people to a purpose and vision and to Apple’s core values. And he did this,
not just in words, but also in his actions. By being clear on Apple’s purpose and values he
understood that the great products would naturally follow – and they did. When we connect
people in this way, values-based leadership often leaves a legacy well beyond the tenure of
the leader themselves.
Many organisations have values and these values are clearly communicated on their web
sites and throughout the working environment. However, it is often the case that the values
and expected behaviours have little resemblance to the culture and what actually happens
in the organisation. In other words the written values and the actual values differ. If there is
not a connection to the values, leadership behaviours are unlikely to be consistent with the
values and the leaders themselves are unlikely to demonstrate the courage and humility to
learn and develop in line with the values. When this is the situation, identifying and
communicating organisational values can actually do more harm than good.
When VBL is asked to work with an organisation on values implementation we always start
with the leadership team. It is important that the top team understand what they are taking on
by following a values-based approach and the implications for their own growth and
development - as a team and as individuals. It is not always an easy conversation, but an
essential one if the leadership team is to be seen as authentic and engage others in the
values. As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘‘You must be the change that you want to see in the
world.’’
The top team have to be connected to the purpose, vision and values in order to engage
others. To be successful this has to be a personal emotional connection – the values actually
represent the beliefs of the leadership team. When values-based leadership comes from
beliefs, then consistent behaviours will follow. When what the leadership does matches what
it says, then they will win the trust of the organisation. Rob Webster, who we referred to earlier
in this article says about this:

The Board and the Executives set the tone - even if they don’t want to - they do just by the way they
act. As part of a Board, I always start with us writing down explicitly that we do set the tone as part
of our job. Part of our job is to make sure that we lead in the right way and demonstrate from our
behaviours how we want things to be, because everybody is watching all the time.

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PAGE 128 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING VOL. 46 NO. 3 2014
Case study
Paul Poleman is chief executive of Unilever. As the leader of the company since 2009, he has
identified some significant strategic growth targets for the business. He is clear that to lead
organisationally he needs a personal connection with the values of the Unilever:

If your values, your personal values, are aligned with the company’s values, you’re probably
going to be more successful longer term than if they are not. If they are not, it requires you to be an
actor when you go to work or to be a split personality.

Leadership for him means connecting himself, his team and the people in Unilever to the
purpose and values. One of the ways that he articulates this purpose is in the way that
Unilever is connected to the wider global community. For him the success of Unilever is
intimately connected with improving the lives of others. So for him:

A form of leadership that is very appealing to me, is (for leaders) to put the interest of others
ahead of themselves. . .At Unilever, we’ve translated that very simply into our brands. Because at
the end of day, our brands need to grow, but we think it’s very important that our brands have what
we call ‘‘the social missions.’’ Ben and Jerry’s is a good example of that—a key fighter against
climate change and nuclear weapons. But we have other brands: Lipton with the Rainforest
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Alignment on sustainable tea, and Dove with women’s health awareness.

The interconnection of the three dimensions of values based leadership is where the most
powerful values-based connections occur. By contrast, when your personal values are out of
line with the values of the organisation and team that you choose to work for, this creates an
internal conflict. And others will see this reflected in your leadership. Having a strong and
successful team, but not connecting to the purpose of your organisation could develop a rift
between what you and your team are actively doing and what the organisation needs from
you. When an organisation does not connect its teams and people with their purpose, vision
and values, then how can that organisation engage their people to perform to the highest
level of their abilities and create extraordinary successes like the ones achieved at Apple?

As individuals we can all use values as the basis for our leadership. Whether we are thinking
about leading ourselves, leading others, or indeed leading at an organisational level, we are
asked to make decisions every day. When our choices are values-based, the decisions,
easy or tough, will have a positive impact on how our leadership is received, on how we
connect with others and about how we engage them in what we are trying to achieve.

Corresponding author
John Frost can be contacted at: john@valuesbasedleadership.co.uk

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VOL. 46 NO. 3 2014 INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING PAGE 129
This article has been cited by:

1. http://orcid.org/http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8082-6384 O-6619-2015 PageM. Beth M. Beth Page M. Beth Page, PhD,


founded Dream Catcher Consulting in 2004. She previously worked as an Internal Consultant in Organization Development
and Human Resources positions. She has worked with many public and private sector organizations. As a Member of
Associate Faculty, at Royal Roads University, she contributes to global leadership development in the Master of Arts in
Leadership programme. She also teaches in the Graduate Certificates in Change Management and Strategic Human Resource
Management. Also, within her work as an Associate Faculty Member she has delivered executive education in a number
of settings in provincial governments. She has also delivered leadership development globally with the Royal Cambodian
Government, Land Administration Branch. Beth contributed a chapter, The Dance of Joyful Leadership with her three co-
authors, published in 2014 in Leading with Spirit, Presence and Authenticity. Change Happens, was released in 2011 and
provides practical guidance for achieving successful change by focussing on the human dimensions of organizational change.
She also wrote Done Deal: Your Guide to Merger and Acquisition Integration, and was a Contributing Author to the Canadian
best-seller, Awakening the Workplace. She holds a Master of Science in Organization Development (MSOD) Degree from
Pepperdine University and a PhD from the University of Victoria. University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada . 2016. Public
leadership. International Journal of Public Leadership 12:2, 112-128. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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