Episode 113: Core Values: The Leadership Hack That Drives Better Decision-Making

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  An understanding of our values in different areas of our lives becomes a framework for ensuring the actions we take are in alignment with our values. This instills a foundation of confidence and drives that forward motion to the goals we're striving to achieve and the lives we're building for ourselves.

You're listening to Prospecting on Purpose, where we discuss all things prospecting, sales, business, and mindset. I'm your host, Sara Murray, a sales champion, who's here to show you that you can be a shark in business and still lead with intentionality and authenticity. Tune in each week as we dive into methods to connect with clients, communicate with confidence, and close the deal.

Welcome to Prospecting on Purpose. For today's episode, we're going to start with values. If you've been listening to the guest experts, everyone's been super interesting and knowledgeable. The conversations have applied to all different areas of both our lives and our careers. If you haven't listened, after this episode, go back and listen to each of them, because the takeaways are tangible and they're quite impactful.

One of the core themes that really keeps appearing in all of these conversations is the need to identify our values. Whether that's our personal values, the businesses we represent, or the stories we're trying to tell. 

In this context, the definition of value, courtesy of dictionary.com, is a person's principles or standards of behavior, one's judgment of what's important in life. I think we all understand what a value is. However, how many of us carve out the time to identify our core values? Obviously we can rattle off a list of things that are important to us. But if I were to rapid fire, ask each of us what our top three to five values were, would we be able to name them?

Prior to starting my business, I absolutely could not. But now that I have them outlined, they are a driving force in the actions that I take in my business. This is why we're talking about this today. If we don't have those handy off the top of our heads, I encourage us all to take some time to identify them and we're going to get into the benefits of why during this episode.

An understanding of our values in different areas of our lives becomes a framework for ensuring the actions we take are in alignment with our values. This instills a foundation of confidence and drives that forward motion to the goals we're striving to achieve and the lives we're building for ourselves.

We're going to get to a list of values here in a bit. But I want to talk about a couple of different ways we can look at values so that we have that lens going into it when I read off the list. 

First thing to note, we have different areas of our lives, right? We may have different values for our family life, how we show up as a child, as a parent, as a sibling. Those may be different from the values in our romantic relationships. And then they might be different still in our friendships. And then of course we have different values when it comes to our careers and our professional lives. 

So in my rapid-fire example, the answer of our top values may shift based on the area of the life we're talking about. If we sit down and identify them, we're going to see some that carry through, you know, some core values that carry through in different areas, and then some that are going to be totally different. For example, if I take my top five values as how I want to show up as a friend, as opposed to my professional life.

My top five values in friendship are thoughtfulness, loyalty, connection, fun, approachable. Those are important to me and it's what I want my friends to feel and expect from a friendship with me. All of those values could also apply to work in my business. However, my top five values in my career and specifically in my business are professional, fun, creative, approachable, and intentional.

So comparing those two areas of life, I have fun and approachable as shared values in both friendship and business. When we start to fine-tune these, we'll probably see themes that appear, and I'm sure some of us already have rising to the top of our mental list when I'm rattling this off. You know, fun is a big part of my life. I love it, and I want my life to be fun. That's a core value to me in every area. 

So step one is to understand the values can change based on different areas of our lives. The second thing I want to bring up as we're going through this is, how do our values help establish our own personal brand and how we interact with the world.

One way that we can look at this in these different areas is we can ask ourselves, how do I want people to feel when they're interacting with me? So for the rest of this episode, I'm going to focus with the lens of work values. As we know, this is a business podcast, but again, just a reminder, these can be in all different areas of our life.

So when I ask myself, how do I want people to feel when they're interacting with me? So, I'll repeat my work values. Professional, fun, creative, approachable, and intentional. If we've worked together in the past, or if we've never met and you're listening to this show, first, to both categories of people, thank you for listening, but second, I hope that those values are shining through in the way I'm trying to put myself out in the world.

So, now I'm going to get into a list of values. There are hundreds of values, so I'm just going to read off a couple dozen. I found a great list on a website called scienceofpeople.com/ core-values. I'll link it in the show notes, but they actually have it already broken out by area of life. So it's a really nice kind of first draft if you want to find an exhaustive list of terms. 

But these ones are pretty appropriate for work relations and values when it comes to work. I know it's hard to narrow things down because of course, I want my business values to also include honest, open, loyal, trust, kind, integrity, ethical, leadership, and so on and so on.
But do your best to narrow it down to five. If you're indecisive, shout out to the Libras in the house. Here's a trick. Write down the 10 that resonate the most with you in certain areas, right? Don't try to be a catch-all. Pick an area. I suggest we pick work. Then look at those 10 and narrow it down from there.

One way to do this if you're struggling with this is you can use binary decision-making. So if you're looking at your list of 10, start with the first two and pick the one that you feel resonates with you the most. Then take the winner of that challenge and go on to your third word. Which one resonates the most, the winner of the first two or the third one?

And so on. This is a fluid list. It can change over time, so we don't need to take it super seriously. It's just a first draft. But it's important to sit with it and take the time to define your values.

All right, are we ready? I'm going to read off a list of values here. Loyal, humble, compassionate, honest, kind, integrity, selflessness, decisive, passionate, ethical, trust. courageous, thoughtful, traditional, stable, spiritual, ambitious, professional, approachable, fun, creative, intentional, timeliness, persistence, diversity, teamwork, innovation, ingenuity, fame, power, hard work ethic, leadership, self-development, charisma, organized, responsible, credible, encouragement, adaptability, consistency, enthusiasm, achievement, transparency, dependability.

Whew! Okay. Obviously, there are hundreds more. But as a starting point, I'm sure some of these words resonated with us more than others. Okay, so now we got our list. What are we going to do with it? 

I personally have my five words. Professional, fun, creative, approachable, and intentional. Hanging up on a wall in my office. And the reason why is because I use them as a framework to ensure that the actions I take and the decisions I make are in alignment with my values. So using this work values framework, this impacts the way we show up individually, the way we show up with our employers or prospective employers, and finally how we engage with our colleagues and our clients.

I'm going to give a couple of examples in each of these areas. So, two individual examples here. First, I usually have way more jokes in the first draft of a podcast episode. I cannot tell you how much I was dying to read that list off to us all with different accents. And as fun as I think that would be, it's not totally the professional vibe I'm trying to exude in executing this content.

So, we can still have fun and make jokes, but I'm usually editing out the dumb ones that don't really add value as a takeaway from the show. And I'm intentional with my editing because I want to respect your time. So, in a larger scale example, I love to host events and throw parties. So, I threw a big networking event in Marina Del Rey when I launched my business. And it was very professionally executed. It was in a great location. We had ticket sales to register in advance. We had a check-in area, signage so people could find their way, a professional photographer. We had sponsors. We had amazing raffle prizes. But as professional as it was, I'm really proud to say that the other values were front and center. Approachable, creative, fun, really shown through.

So from an approachable value standpoint, you know, throwing the event, inviting people in the community to come, network, I made sure to talk to everyone there and thank them for coming. Approachable is an important value to me. But creative and fun are two.

I made Jello shots, I had a temporary tattoo station, I had a tarot card reader. The raffle prize donations were so much fun. We had a wine advent calendar from In Good Taste Wines. CEO Joe Welch was on Episode 5 of the podcast. Since it was Los Angeles, I had a 700 Botox gift card. You know, good, fun prizes.

But what made the event successful is that I used all of those core values as a driving force to execute my vision. And it was a blast. One attendee, who is now a friend, asked the tarot card reader, Fabio, if she was going to land a big project. And four months later, she did. And she reached out to tell me that story.

Everyone was connecting, laughing, taking jello shots, picking out temporary tattoos. There was some biting over the Botox gift card. It was professional, and it was fun. And those are the values I want to ensure people feel when they work with me. 

So personal efforts are pretty straightforward, and you can use these when you're making a decision. Sara, do I keep this joke in the podcast? Eh, probably not. Your Scottish accent is not good. So, right there. Scratch it. Move on. Or, on a larger scale, if I'm presented with an opportunity, I have to look at my core value of intention. Does this opportunity in front of me move me towards the direction of the business I'm going to build? If there's clear alignment, then I'm secure in my decision and I can act on it. If there's not, It makes it easier to say no and be comfortable with that no and not waste energy agonizing over the decision. Did I make the right one? These values give us the structure to quickly and confidently make decisions.

So how does this impact our relationships with our employers? Here's an example of a potential employer and an active employer. If you've listened to the Episode 6 with tech and media executive Anne Wallen, She gives a great example of a company that she was in discussions with for a potential collaboration or employment.

This organization was very insistent that the role would need to be in the office, and everyone hired for that team would also have to be based in that region. The employer had location and in-person collaboration as their core values. With Anne's background and experience, the way she would have wanted to build that team and execute the role successfully would require that the team wasn't limited based on geography.

Both parties are absolutely fine in their core values. There are many ways to execute projects, execute business, and measure success. But if some of those core values don't align, then it's not a good fit. It's easier to vet these before we're employed by a company so we don't end up with mismatched values.

So once you're employed by an organization, we're essentially serving as a representative to that organization and an extension of their values. It's vital that there's alignment in your values, so you're putting your authentic self forward and representing those shared core values.

I recently watched Matilda on Netflix, and if you've seen that movie, you know the dad, Harry Wormwood, played by Danny DeVito, owns a used car sales lot, you know, insert all the used car salesperson jokes here. But he's on that lot, he's rolling back the mileage, he's super gluing bumpers to the cars. If we worked for Harry Wormwood selling cars on that lot, we would have to be okay with the value of dishonesty and misleading customers.

That's a dramatic example, but you get the idea. We want to be sure that we are in alignment with our organization so that we can be the most successful in our role and driving both our own success and the company's success forward. And then finally, to be in alignment with our colleagues and our clients.

I'm going to use a couple of client examples here. We may have very little in common with our clients from an interest or our motivations, but if our values align, then that serves as our common thread on which to base our relationship on and build it from there. I've shared this on the show, but a majority of my career has been selling into the luxury hospitality industry.

Restaurants, hotels, spas. There's a natural correlation of the value that a hotel has with my individual values. Professional, fun, creative, approachable, and intentional. For the most part, hotels have to be extremely professional. That one's pretty obvious. They're also pretty fun. Who doesn't love going on vacation and staying at a nice hotel? Hotels and restaurants are creative with their design choices. How they engage their guests, what's on the menu, how do they wow with unique differentiators. And then approachability is the epitome of the hospitality industry. They want to ensure we have an amazing time and that they can accommodate our requests. And, they're pretty intentional about their business strategy. Brands are consistent. They have loyalty programs in place. They want us to have a great time because they want us to stay with them again. Or at a similar branded property elsewhere in the world. That is not by accident. It's an intentional business model.

And to be honest, I only recently realized the correlation when I was preparing this episode. But it makes a lot of sense when I put my clients industries and individual values next to each other. My success was inevitable because I had a shared common goal and shared core values with my clients. And here's a recent example with my current business model.

I was at a meeting with a sales leader and we were discussing a workshop for his team. And he was serving me questions and I was returning those follies right back to him. And it was a pretty straightforward discussion and we were both having fun with it. My core values of professionalism and approachability were the driving force behind how I answered his questions and returned his objections.

And he had some great questions I hadn't received before. So it was kind of fun for me to get them so I now know my answer for the next sales leader who asked me a similar question. But what was interesting about this meeting is that now that I've been more aware of my values and the values of others and where we meet, I could immediately tell that respect was a core value of his. He was being very direct and pointed in his questions. It was not a fluffy meeting.Bbut he was extremely respectful in the way he asked me questions. And at the end of our meeting, it ended very well and warm as they do, and he said to me, Thank you for talking that through with me. I hope you found me respectful. And it established such a connection point for our future communication styles because we were both staying true to our individual values, which allowed us to be more comfortable in what we stood for while finding that common ground. So now we can move forward in the next step of the sales cycle. But this is something I've only really recently started to focus on and put energy to, but it's really cool to see how it's starting to serve me, my clients, hopefully this audience.

Understanding our values leads to confidence, which leads to building more authentic relationships. And then that confidence and relationships is both in ourselves, relationships with our colleagues, our clients, our families, and essentially how we interact with the world around us. 

So I'm going to give this audience a call to action here. It's a little bit of easy homework, but I encourage everyone to spend some time and sit with this list of values. Either replay the episode where I read them out loud, check the show notes, or Google a core values list, and find what resonates with you. Type them up, print them out, put them on a post it note.

I'm always a fan of the old label maker. Put them in a place where you can see them, then use them as a framework and guiding north star to the actions you take or the actions you don't take in your work and your life and be more confident in the decisions you make because you know, they're in line with your own core values.

I'd love to hear what your values are. If you want to share them with me, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn or social media at Saramurraysales or email hello@saramurray.com. 

The feedback from listeners has been really fun. It totally fills up my cup. So I appreciate those who've messaged me and let me know the takeaways they're getting out of the episodes. Please don't be shy. Now you know that one of my core values is being approachable and I would love to hear from you.

And to wrap us up, I'm gonna ask you to please subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next week.

Thank you so much for listening to the Prospecting on Purpose Podcast. If you'd loved what you heard today, subscribe to the podcast and please rate and leave a review. For more info on me, or if you'd like to work together, feel free to go to my website, Saramurray.com on social media. I'm usually hanging out at Saramurraysales. Thanks again for joining me and I'll see you next time.

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