Guidance System for Success
I suggest leaders use two different inquiries to identify their ideals or to have team members identify their ideals.
- First inquiry. Simply ask yourself: When I think about what my ideals or values are, what immediately comes to mind? Here are some examples to get your thinking started: integrity, family, quality and teamwork. Write down your initial responses.
- Alternatively, you can use the list of ideals on the following page and mark off the ones that represent important and foundational values for you.
- Second inquiry. Think of a time when you were happy and felt in the groove. Things were going well. Things were falling into place. It could be a recent time, or you can go back.
- If you’re conducting this activity individually, record yourself for one to two minutes talking about this time when you felt happy and in the groove. Take a breath and a pause, then listen to your recording. Listen for the ideals in your story. What was present that enabled your happiness or made those circumstances work so well for you?
- If you’re conducting this activity with a group, have everyone partner up and take turns explaining this happy and in the groove time. When team members are listening to their partner, they are listening for ideals. What was present in the story that made the person happy or made it work? Partners reflect back to the other person the values they heard, and in turn appreciate the validation their partner provides for the ideals they innately feel.
- This exercise gets at values that we might not readily voice such as fun, connection, sunshine, adventure, music, and variety.
Review the two lists and select your top five ideals. You can have more than five ideals, certainly. Yet, it’s important to distinguish your top ideals because you want to use them as guidance when you’re making tough choices and decisions about where to focus your time and talent.
Your top five values make up your guidance system to success.
