Defining Your Values and Leveraging Your Personal Style for Maximum Impact
Welcome back to Section One: Self-Management in our Transformational Leadership Series. You’ve already laid the groundwork with grounding, centering, clarifying your beliefs, and defining your purpose. Now, we move further into the framework of personal alignment and leadership clarity.
Today, we explore two pivotal skills that elevate both your personal life and your leadership effectiveness:
- Skill 5: Values Identification — Identify, prioritize, and live within a set of personal values.
- Skill 6: Personal Style & Strengths — Understand your personal style preferences and strengths, and build your life around them.
These two skills are non-negotiable for leaders who want to live authentically and lead powerfully. Let’s dive in.
Skill 5: Values Identification — Identify, Prioritize, and Live Within a Set of Personal Values
What This Means
Your values are the non-negotiable guiding principles of your life. They shape your priorities, influence your decisions, and anchor you in what truly matters. However, most people have never taken the time to intentionally clarify their values, which means they are often living by default, not by design.
That’s why we’ve created tools to make this process intentional and transformative:
- The Values Preference Indicator (VPI) assessment helps you clearly identify and prioritize your personal values with precision.
- The companion online course What Do You Really Value?, offers a deep dive into understanding how your values influence your choices, relationships, and leadership effectiveness.
- What would it mean if you could make the right decision every-time? That is possible when you not only clarify your values but make decisions based on them.
When you define your values, you gain clarity that eliminates confusion, sharpens focus, and builds integrity in every area of your life.
Why It Matters
Leaders without defined values drift. They bend under pressure, compromise when they should stand firm, and confuse their teams with inconsistency.
Leaders with clearly defined values:
- Lead with unwavering integrity.
- Make confident, aligned decisions.
- Attract and inspire people who share their priorities.
Your values become your internal compass, keeping you on course regardless of external circumstances.
How to Implement
- Complete the Values Preference Indicator (VPI): This powerful tool will clarify which values truly drive you.
- Engage with the What Do You Really Value? ecourse: Go deeper into understanding how values shape every decision and interaction.
- Prioritize and Rank Your Top Values: Know your non-negotiables and let them guide daily choices.
- Align Your Life and Work: Audit your calendar, commitments, and relationships—do they reflect your values?
- Live Values Out Loud: Communicate your values clearly and consistently. Model them in every action.
When you lead in alignment with your true values, you gain not only clarity but also the trust and respect of those around you.
Skill 6: Personal Style & Strengths — Understand Your Personal Style Preferences and Strengths and Build Your Life Around Them
What This Means
Your personal style and strengths are your leadership DNA. They define how you naturally communicate, make decisions, interact with others, and approach challenges.
Understanding them isn’t just a personal development exercise—it’s a leadership multiplier.
That’s why we confidently recommend our Personal Style Indicator (PSI) assessment—the number one personality tool globally, as rated by participants. It’s been used worldwide to help individuals unlock their natural preferences and apply them for maximum impact.
To go deeper, our resources like the book Why Aren’t You More Like Me? and the online course of the same name will guide you through understanding not just yourself, but also how to better understand and connect with others.
When you lead from your strengths and style, you lead authentically and effectively.
Why It Matters
Trying to lead outside of your natural style is exhausting and unsustainable. But when you embrace your authentic self:
- You lead with greater confidence and energy.
- You make better decisions faster.
- You build stronger, more productive relationships.
Understanding your style also helps you recognize and appreciate the styles of others, enhancing collaboration and team dynamics.
How to Implement
- Complete the Personal Style Indicator (PSI): Discover your natural style and preferences with precision.
- Dive into Why Aren’t You More Like Me?: Read the book and engage with the ecourse to understand how style impacts every aspect of life and leadership.
- Align Roles and Responsibilities: Where possible, position yourself in roles that allow you to play to your strengths.
- Understand Others’ Styles: Learn to recognize and respect the diverse styles of those you lead.
- Adapt Without Compromising: Flex your approach to meet the needs of the moment without straying from your natural strengths.
When you understand and apply your personal style and strengths, you unlock a level of effectiveness that feels natural, energizing, and deeply impactful.
Final Thoughts: Lead with Clarity, Lead with Strength
Clarifying your values and understanding your personal style creates a powerful foundation for self-management and leadership. These two skills allow you to:
✔ Lead with conviction, aligned to what matters most.
✔ Leverage your natural strengths for sustainable impact.
✔ Build authentic relationships based on understanding and respect.
We believe in playing to your strengths both these skills contribute to fulfilling this objective.
In our next article, we’ll continue your transformation by exploring Skill 7: Goal Setting, and Skill 8: Lifelong Learning—equipping you to set powerful goals and commit to continuous growth.
Your leadership journey is accelerating—keep up the good work.
Until next time, Keep Living On Purpose!
PS. Stay tuned to your opportunity to pre-register for the Online Transformational Leadership Course. That link will be available soon. To bench your (or others) leadership skills, access our Leadership Skills Inventory-Self or LSI-360′.