Push Pause

Posted by: Ashley
Last week I went to a young professionals conference and attended a pretty awesome workshop on Values Based Leadership, hosted by the Chief Leadership Officer of Luck Stone. I mean, how many corporations have a Chief Leadership Officer? I thought that was pretty awesome. He gave some really great suggestions that I've now been trying to incorporate into my life and so far so good so I thought I'd share them with you.

He described Value Based Leaders as

• Highly self managed
• Aligned in their values
• Authentically oriented toward others
• Full of wisdom
• Strong in character

I think I have all most of these characteristics. What I need to work on is determining what my core values are. He told us that even though he and his wife have completely different personalities and different interests, their core values are 99% the same and that's why the relationship works. hmm...my man and I need to do some serious value searching.

Determining Your Values - so how do you figure out what your values are?

• Look at where you spend your time and your money
• When you're in a situation and you feel your emotions rise and bubble up inside you, stop and write down what's happening. Look back at  your writings and you'll start to see a pattern.

The important thing to remember is to stay in alignment...Your Compass (Values, beliefs and principles) should directly link to your Behaviors (thoughts, emotions and actions) which result in your Goals (purpose and mission).

And the most valuable lesson, I learned...push pause. When you start to feel your emotions rise, stop, think and wait before you speak and (here's the kicker...) remember the person in front of you is inherently good. I put this into practice last week when a coworker said something concerning (and wrong) about my character. Before snapping back, I paused, caught my breath, carefully thought out a response and replied. I think it worked. I'm not good at taking direct criticism, especially when I don't think its warranted but hopefully this technique will help.
"It's what you do before you do what you do that matters."

What about you? Have you ever tried the "push pause" technique? What are your values?

Credit due to Mark Fernandes, Chief Leadership Officer, Luck Stone