Leadership Values: 14 Values That Make a Good Leader. - Highrise (2023)

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

What are leadership values?

Is it the ability to lead with a strong leadership style?

Or is it their ability to transform the company culture to allow employees to push forward and grow?

It is all this and more.

If you have worked in a workplace, you can identify one of two leadership qualities that you can identify with.

Identifying and establishing core leadership values sets budding leaders up for success. It is thus important to clearly understand what it means and how to nurture these vital values.

Strong leaders exhibit accountability, emotional intelligence, and ethical leadership behavior, possessing leadership values that guide them.

When trying to become a better leader, it's essential to identify and improve your leadership values. There are many specific values that influential leaders possess.

Learning leadership values and the core leadership values list you want to implement into your leadership style can help you improve your relationship and connection with your employees, thus becoming a more effective leader.

This article will define leadership values, their importance in leadership development, and essential leadership values one may consider developing.

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What are Leadership Values?

Leadership values are principles or core values guiding a leader in decision-making. These core values guide leaders in their personal and professional lives.

These leadership core values are what a leader believes as the most important in achieving desired goals.

As a leader, these values can help you connect your values to those that guide you at your workplace. For instance, being empathetic and ethical are personal values, but incorporating them into your leadership style can help you succeed.

What is the importance of leadership values?

Leadership values are essential as they help you determine how you want to achieve your goals and what kind of a leader you want to be. Your core leadership values are critical as they guide you when making decisions and what actions to take. Leadership values are also crucial for professional and even personal development and growth.

A robust set of core values as a leader helps build respect and trust among your team. This creates the foundation for you to influence your team, encouraging high performance and excellence positively.

Successful leaders stay committed to their core values as it acts as a compass to lead them to successful ends. Political alignments, human resource challenges, sales opportunities, and marketing plans are day-to-day challenges encountered by corporate leaders. With a robust set of values, effective leaders can navigate them with ease.

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Essential Values That Make a Good Leader.

Here are some essential values that developing leaders should demonstrate:

1. Passion.

Passion is a fulfillment that motivates you to continue working to achieve goals even when faced with diversity. When leaders are passionate about their work, their team members may see this passion. This creates a culture where team members feel inspired to be passionate about their work, which may yield greater productivity.

An inspirational leader is behind every successful company, motivating their entire team to thrive and perform.

2. Dedication.

Dedication is being committed to a particular task, goal, or principle. Great leaders have a higher level of commitment compared to ordinary leaders. They are committed to their company, work, and team. They display dedication by following through on their promises, and they tackle issues quickly before they bring about negative long-term consequences.

Their high dedication and commitment motivate their team members to follow suit.

3. Influence.

"The number one thing that you have to do as a leader: to bolster the confidence of the people you lead."

-Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

It is the ability to influence others to act or think in a certain way to achieve specific goals. This is one of the most important values a great leader should possess. It means empowering others to choose particular actions and beliefs rather than forcing them into those actions and thoughts through micromanagement.

A leader obtains this virtue by further developing relations and promoting a positive environment where employees are willing to learn and follow their guidance.

4. Empathy.

In today's ever-changing workplace environment, there is a need for leaders to understand the emotions and feelings of others.

Leaders need emotional intelligence to cultivate positive relations with their team members. Having a strong connection with your team allows you to help them overcome their personal and professional challenges and results in improved efficiency and productivity.

5. Adaptability.

An adaptable leader is an individual who is prepared to accept and respond to change when it occurs. Leaders who accept change can motivate their team members to do the same. Adaptability brings up a few different ways since innovation and technology change frequently.

An aspiring leader needs to be adaptable and learn how to embrace change.

6. Service.

Great leadership is an act of service. Service culture creates an environment that guides and motivates others to perform their responsibilities and achieve goals. Servant leaders put their team's needs first, which builds loyalty, encouraging them to serve the company's needs.

7. Resilience.

Resilience is facing adversity and quickly recovering from challenges and obstacles. Leaders must be resilient because they face several challenges and obstacles in achieving their goals. Building resilience can help you effectively address challenges or issues when they occur and lead to improved efficiency and productivity.

8. Communication.

"Communication and communication strategy is not just part of the game—it is the game."-Oscar Munoz.

Communication is one of the most important values you need to have. You may have a clear vision for your company, but others cannot share the same picture without communication.

Try to promote a positive and open communication environment that enables your team to seek feedback on some matters that need clarification. A sincere leader promotes healthy communication where team members can effectively communicate and be on the same page on significant aspects of the company.

9. Patience.

This leadership value takes some time to master, but its importance cannot be downplayed. As the saying goes, "Rome was not built in a day." When you occupy a leadership role, you need to be patient since success does not happen immediately.

You may need to be patient with new employees who are not up to speed yet, also the existing employees. You need to ensure that everyone works to their best and meets the set goals. Patient leaders have long-term goals and know that success requires patience and perseverance.

10. Vision.

You need to center your vision on your leadership style as a leader. This means you need to keep the big picture when making critical decisions.

It also means employing foresight to plan for barriers. Monitor for anything hindering your company's vision, and be ready to update the image as you gain more experience and information.

Successful leaders also include how to communicate that vision to their team. This must be shared in an engaging, actionable, and meaningful way.

11. Honesty.

This value is critical to making you a trustworthy leader. Team members prefer a leader who is transparent and honest about their performance. Nobody likes to be deceived on matters that affect their interpretation.

When others know they can rely on what you say and promise, it builds their trust and respect in you and makes you a more effective leader.

Honesty and transparency are essential for success, and when you want to be a good leader, you should be transparent in your plans to get better feedback.

12. Integrity.

Integrity means honoring commitments and doing what you say you will do, as well as approaching challenges in ways that are coherent with other values and beliefs.

As a leader, integrity means approaching your work consistently and with coherency. How you communicate with others, carry out your organization's mission, and approach a new situation.

13. Respect.

Respect refers to feelings of admiration for their abilities, qualities, or achievements and to regard the rights, wishes, and feelings of others. Great leaders earn the respect of others rather than simply expecting to receive respect because of their position or title.

The best way to earn respect is to show them respect. Another way to earn respect from others is to show commitment to your work and to serving others.

14. Personal development.

Successful leaders are passionate about continued personal growth and development because they know there is something new they can learn and improve upon. When you show your employees that you are open to new things, they can also get motivated to work on their personal development.

You can further empower your team, especially those aspiring for leadership roles. This will help develop future leaders that can be relied upon.