Live What You Value

As an organizational leader, you have created organizational values. These sayings and quotes are plastered around the office. They’re inspirational. They’re also likely not being lived out.

When we begin to display our core values, ideas, and visions visually, they become routine. We see them every day. Our team sees them every day.

It’s bland and dull after a while. These reminders of what we believe and value fade into the background.

We stop living them.

Man in a suit jacket sitting at a wooden table with a cup of coffee

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Live What You Value

What can we do about this? How can we continue to live out our values even when we’re immersed in the minutia of everyday leadership?

We know how easy it can be to drift away from our values. Look at business failures such as Kodak, Enron, and others that have taken the fall. They had values that they failed to live. This won’t be you!

5 Things To Consider When Making A Major Decision

Many readers have written in and requested more information on how to make better decisions. Over the next month, we will look at ways you can make better decisions and feel more confident in those decisions.

Every leader constantly makes decisions. From who to hire or fire to where to spend money in the business to how they will approach their team members, leaders lives are about decisions.

People sitting around a brown, wooden table

Photo by Thomas Drouault

The failure to decide on a course of action will derail a leader from making an impact. Leaders have to make decisions.

But what do you need to consider when making a decision? What thoughts should a leader think when deciding on a course of action?

Today, we’re going to look at 5 things to consider when making a major decision.

How To Change How People View You

Being Taken Seriously

If you’re not okay with those you lead failing to take you seriously, you need to change something. It’s most likely not your team. It’s you that needs to change.

We can sabotage ourselves with our actions. We can sabotage ourselves with our words. And we can sabotage ourselves with our appearance.

Man with hand on his chin

Photo by Sharon Garcia

Do you know what the good thing is? We can change these things. Each of the aforementioned ways we sabotage ourselves are a choice.

We choose how to act. We choose how to speak. And we choose how to dress. This means you can change things.

That’s awesome, right? You can begin to work on yourself and you can change the way people view you.

Let’s take a look at the areas you might need to change people’s view of you and be taken seriously.

What You’re Saying About Yourself When You Fail To Speak Up

The Speak Up! Series

I know how hard it can be to speak up. The fear, the nerves, the voices inside of your head. Everything is telling you that you’re going to screw this up.

While you may have that little voice inside of your head telling you that you could mess this up, there’s something this voice isn’t telling you. The voice inside your head isn’t telling you what you’re saying about yourself when you fail to speak up.

Man in blue jeans and a button up jacket covering his face

Photo by Rachel Lynette French

What You’re Saying About Yourself When You Fail To Speak Up

You may be surprised at what you’re saying when you don’t speak up. Your silence is speaking volumes to those you lead and who lead you. When you fail to speak up, you are saying:

  • I don’t have anything to contribute
  • My fear of being rejected is more than my excitement over this idea

Do Something Out Of The Ordinary

The ordinary often becomes the mundane. Work, family life, friendships. You do the same thing over and over again, and it’s no longer special.

You can only tell someone you love them so many times before they get tired of hearing it. You can only hang out and do the same thing so many times before you get bored. And you can only lead in the same manner before you lose your team.

Out of the ordinary gets results

Image by Eduard Delputte

When your actions become ordinary, they become predictable and boring. They no longer carry the weight and show you care.

You can change this. You can make the ordinary special. All you gotta do is something out of the ordinary.