If someone asked you, What do you stand for? could you answer without hesitation? Most people can’t. Learning how to define leadership values helps you answer that question with confidence. Your leadership values become your compass. They guide your actions, decisions, and how you show up at work, at home, and in your community.
Leadership begins when you decide what you believe in – and the actions you’re willing to take to uphold those beliefs.
Step 1: Reflect on Your Core Values
The first step in learning how to define leadership values is self-reflection. Think about what truly matters to you.
When I was rebuilding my life after divorce and starting my business, a coach once asked me, What are your core values? I couldn’t answer. That’s when I realized how easy it is to lose sight of what defines us.
Start by listing words that describe who you are at your best – values like integrity, empathy, freedom, creativity or growth. For me, my core values are family, health, career and travel. These haven’t changed much over the years, because they reflect what I care about most.
If you need help getting started, download my free 5-Year Vision Worksheet. It includes a list of 105 core values to help you identify your own.
Step 2: Identify What You Will No Longer Compromise
Next, define what you won’t tolerate or sacrifice. Knowing what you’ll protect is just as important as knowing what you value.
Ask yourself, What am I no longer willing to compromise? For example, I used to overwork at the expense of family time. That’s no longer acceptable to me. I also refuse to stay quiet when something violates my principles – like being asked to speak for free at women’s events when I believe deeply in pay equity.
Your boundaries help define your leadership values. They ensure your actions align with what you stand for.
Step 3: Connect Your Values to Action
True leadership isn’t about slogans. It’s about action.
For every value you choose, define one way you’ll live it. If you value growth, commit to reading one book every quarter. If you value empathy, make time to check in with your team even when you’re busy.
Action transforms your values from words into leadership habits. This is a powerful way to embody how to define leadership values in real life.
Step 4: Narrow Down to Your Top Five Leadership Non-Negotiables
Once you’ve brainstormed your values, narrow them to five. These are your leadership non-negotiables—the principles that guide your decisions and define your impact.
When life feels uncertain, these values will bring you back to clarity and purpose.
Step 5: Revisit and Reaffirm Your Values
Leadership evolves. Review your list of leadership values every year. I do this during my annual planning each December.
As your circumstances shift, your non-negotiables may evolve, but your core values will remain steady. Reaffirming them keeps you grounded, consistent and magnetic as a leader.
Final Reflection
Learning how to define leadership values gives you direction, purpose, and peace of mind. Once you know what you stand for, every choice becomes easier.
So, what’s one value that’s non-negotiable for you right now? I’d love to hear – send me a message on LinkedIn or drop it in the comments.
And don’t forget to grab my free 5-Year Vision Worksheet to help you define your core values and create your leadership vision.
CLICK FOR TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] If someone were to ask you, what do you stand for? Could you answer that without any hesitation?
Truth is, most of us can’t and in this video, I’m gonna walk you through a simple reflection exercise to identify your five leadership non-negotiables, the values and principles that you’ll lead from no matter what.
By the end, you’ll have total clarity on what you believe in, what you’ll fight for and how to lead with conviction at work, at home and in your community.
If you’re new here. Hi, my name is Corrie LoGiudice, otherwise known as Corrie Lo. I am a professional keynote speaker, high performance coach, as well as author of the upcoming book the Five Overwhelmed Culprits and I help high performers, especially women, lead with clarity and confidence without losing themselves in the process.
This topic came to me after watching a YouTube clip of an 18-year-old at a town hall meeting [00:01:00] speaking to a senator. And in the meeting he asked the question to the senator, he says, who will lead us to fix our communities’ problems? And the Senator didn’t even take a beat. He looked right at the 18-year-old and said, you will.
That moment in that video hit me hard because it’s true. Think about it, leadership starts when you decide what you stand for and what actions you’re willing to take to uphold it.
All right, so today I’m gonna walk you through five easy steps to reflect on your core values as well as what you stand for in your leadership.
So step one is reflect on your core values. So many of us don’t have core values. I actually remember when I was at a crossroads, after many years I had just gotten a divorce,
I was in the process of changing my career to working for myself and I really had no idea what end was up. And I remember I was working with a coach who had [00:02:00] asked me. You know, all right, well what are your core values? And I couldn’t even answer that question at this time. And this is the same process that I did, I’m gonna be teaching you.
So first off is you start with a simple list of potential values . Because sometimes we can’t name what we feel without the words for it. So it could be things like integrity, or you value empathy, freedom, balance, creativity, growth. I know for me in particular, my core values, which really haven’t changed a whole lot, are family, health, career and travel.
These are all things near and dear to me that I love, so don’t overthink it, right? You’re gonna go through, you’re gonna find a list. You’re gonna circle the ones that make you feel something. The ones that describe who you are at your core, when you are at your best. Now, if you’re stuck on where to start, you could check out my free five year vision worksheet.
This actually includes a list of 105 different core values that you could choose from.
Step number [00:03:00] two is to identify what you will no longer compromise. So ask yourself, what am I no longer willing to tolerate or sacrifice? So for some folks it may be no longer tolerating, overworking at the expense of family. I know this was a big one for me when I was going through this phase. At the time, I was commuting over 20 hours a week.
I never got to see my son. It was indirect opposition to what I valued. So that’s what it looked like for me . For others, it may be staying quiet when something violates your principles. A great example is I believe in, gender pay equity.
That’s a big one for me. So anytime I get asked to speak at a, especially a Women’s History Month event, and I’m told to do it for free. And you know, it’s for exposure and this and that. I refuse to stay quiet anymore. I speak up and I say, no, I’m sorry. I will not speak at your event because I believe in pay equity [00:04:00] and the number one way for women to get that pay equity is to start getting paid for when they speak at events, right?
It violates my principles, so I no longer stay quiet for it. So these boundaries help define your non-negotiables just as much as your ideals. So think for yourself, what do I want to protect through my values? As well as What do I refuse to compromise on when it comes to them?
Step number three is to connect your values to action . Leadership isn’t about slogans. It’s about action. It’s about what you actually do, about what you believe in.
So for each value that you choose, I generally recommend choosing four to go off of. That’s why it’s the foundation for the five-year vision exercise. But either way. For each one that you choose, write one way that you choose to actively live it. So for example, if you truly value growth. Maybe you take one course or read one new book every quarter.
[00:05:00] That’s the way that you show up for yourself and demonstrate you living that principle. Or maybe you value empathy and for you, that’s checking in with your team weekly, even when you’re super busy. . So your actions are gonna prove your leadership well before your title does.
And step number four, you’re gonna narrow it down to your top five non-negotiables. Pick five values or principles that define who you are as a leader. These are your leadership non-negotiables. These wind up becoming your compass for everything, for your decisions, your boundaries and the impact that you ultimately wanna make.
Which brings me to step number five, which is revisiting and reaffirming. leadership evolves. You’re gonna revisit this list every single year. I personally love to do my own when I’m doing, my annual goal setting and planning, I usually do it in December of every year, but you do what works great for you.
So you revisit your list every single year. And as your circumstances and influences change, your [00:06:00] non-negotiables might change too. But your core values will ultimately stay steady.
And ultimately that’s what makes you a trusted, consistent, and magnetic leader.
So I’d love to know what is one value that’s non-negotiable for you right now? Go ahead, drop it in the comments. Send me a dm, i’m most active on LinkedIn. I would absolutely love to see what matters most to you.
And if you wanna take this reflection further, I’ve created a free worksheet. It includes my 105 top personal values, a full list of them, plus the instructions for my five year vision exercise. It’s the same tool I use with all of my coaching clients and it’ll help you identify what truly matters to you, and then turn those values into a clear vision for where you are going next.
So you can go ahead and grab it using the link below in the show notes. Again, it’s completely free, my gift to you.
Thank you so much for being here. Hopefully you found this valuable and I look forward to seeing you on the next [00:07:00] episode. I’ll see you next time.
Thanks for checking out the next step with Cory Lowe. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a review. Together we’ll transform overwhelm into action and we’ll keep taking the next step towards competent leadership. See you next time.