A key piece to playing at your absolute best as a leader (and as a person) is to ensure that your daily schedule reflects your deepest values. Anything less is a flight from integrity.
One of the exercises I've been taking our clients through at my "Leadership in Turbulent Times" workshop is called "The 5 Main Values." I take participants through a powerful visualization where they visit themselves, not as they now are but as they want to be at the end of their career. Then they record the main 5 values they will have wished they'd worked under.
I wanted to share my own 5 Main Values with you. I hope you'll share yours with me on Twitter so we can continue this conversation. Anyway, here are the top 5 values I want to work by and stay true to:
1. EXCELLENCE. I adore this word. My goal is to work at a level of excellence, constantly refining my craft as an author and speaker - while delivering outrageous values to our clients.
2. PASSION. Without passion, nothing great every gets built. Passion fuels innovation, builds a fantastic team and makes the impossible possible. I want to express my passion in all that I do. Otherwise, what's the point?
3. SELF-MASTERY. You can't be a better leader than you are a person. So every day, I work intensely on developing my inner life. I read. I reflect. I write in a journal. I exercise. And do all those things I need to do to express my best.
4. BEAUTY. I'm an aesthete. I love beauty in all forms. So I make the time to look for beauty, in both expected and unexpected places. Interesting conversations are beautiful to me; brilliantly designed products (think Apple) are beautiful to me. Great food, fresh nature, cool architecture, a strong cup of coffee in the morning and modern art are all some of the things that fill my life with a sense of beauty.
5. CONTRIBUTION. Leadership is about doing deeds that live on long after your death. I want to do things that will help people awaken to the fact that, regardless of what they do and where they are, they have the opportunity (and responsibility) to show leadership in their work and at their life. Few things are important to me than feeling I'm making a difference for people. And doing my part to build a better world.
Author
Robin Sharma is one of the world's leading experts on leadership and personal development. In a ranking of top guru's in the leadership arena that included Jack Welch, John Maxwell and Jim Collins, Robin was voted #2 globally. (source: leadershipgurus.net) P.S. follow Robin on Twitter Click Here