What Are The Most Important Values You Demonstrate as a Leader?

[JeffAltmanCoach]

 

A question for people at a manager level and above. I offer the typical answer and then an answer hat is far superior the more senior you are.

TRANSCRIPT

I’ve been looking around for some fresh questions around interviewing and I found one on careerguru.com. The question is good one and the answer that’s offered can work at a manager level, but I don’t think it works more senior.

 

“What are the most important values you demonstrate as a leader?”

 

The most important value that I have is my integrity. I demonstrate honesty and trust in all my actions to establish credibility as a leader. By having this conviction behind my words and actions, those who Iead  . . . the language is a little off here . . . Basically they believe you and they want to do it.

Nice pat answer, however, it’s kind of flat. So I want to offer you a different one, right. Again, credit goes to Coach Lance Secretan who creates this model, The Castle Principles. And it’s an acronym for the following– Courage, Authenticity, Service, Truthfulness, Love and Effectiveness. They all need to be in balance. So, the more senior you are, the more that you have to speak to these attributes.

So, going back to the original question, “What are the most important values you demonstrated as a leader,” the first one is courage. I attempt to go into situations that are hard situations, and not shirk from them. I’m honest with my people, which is the authenticity part of this. I’m honest with the people that I serve. Service–I support people. I care about them. I put an effort to serve others. Truthfulness– my team never has to worry about me lying to them. Love–they feel my care and, thus, they want to go further and by supporting me and us collectively, we work toward effectiveness.

Now you can language this however you like but, fundamentally, Courage, Authenticity, Service, Truthfulness, Love and Effectiveness are very effective attributes for answering this question, the more senior you are, and, again, if you forget something along the way, well, it’s okay. But, fundamentally, those attributes, the more senior you are, are really the things that you try to demonstrate in  the leadership.

 

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