By living your values, and leading from the front, you are building a stronger team, and a stronger culture. By sharing your values, you are creating highly effective team players.

What do you value, and how do you think? Everybody has values, and everybody has a way of thinking. Being part of a team of people were each team member thinks differently, and has different values would be a very hard team to build.

For example, a highly effective team player thinks very differently to a low performing team player. They also have very different results because of what they value.

So, in order to build this kind of team, it takes discipline, sacrifice, responsibility, and engagement. A highly effective team player will definitely value these traits. However, a low performing team player definitely won’t.

1. Discipline, Sacrifice & Responsibility

I’ve met and worked with a lot of people who were part of difficult teams, but they did not have the discipline, they did not make the sacrifices, they did not take the responsibility, and they did not engage enough to help make their team better. The reason for this was because they did not share these values.

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I have also met and worked with people who were part of difficult teams, and they did have the discipline, they did make the sacrifices, they did take on the responsibility, and they did engage enough to make the team better. In which they eventually did help their team improve.

I was part of some of these teams too. We have discussed previously that to make something happen then we must be willing to work on ourselves every day, and help others at the same time. That is the price we must pay.

We must pay the price and have the courage to increase our influence with our team if we want to see it improve, and achieve better results.

For our influence to increase within our team every day, then we must have the respect of our teammates. People who demand respect have false influence, and they are usually the boss. Teams will respect the position of the boss, but they will never respect the person if they demand respect.

2. Earning Respect

People who earn respect will be able to increase their influence authentically, and their team will them as a person.

We hear leaders talking a lot about culture, and how we need to change it. What we value, how we behave, and how we feel to be part of the team is what culture is.

So, to change the culture, firstly we need to know what each team member values, how those values are making them behave, and we need to learn how they feel at this present moment in time.

Why do we need to know these things? Because to change the culture, we need to change the values of the team, so that we can change the behaviour of the team, and then help our teammates to feel differently about being part of the team.

To be a highly effective leader we need to live and breathe the values that a highly effective leader believes in. We need to set the example and model those values and behaviours every day. As this is the only way we can influence our teammates to change their values, and adopt the same as ourselves.

We cannot force them to change their values, it all comes down to our ability to influence, and how we set the example.

3. How You Think

When it comes to determining your future, and what your vision is for your career, and your life, it starts with how you think. What you value in your life produces your thoughts, and then how you feel because of your thoughts.

From your thoughts, you then decide what you are going to do, or what action you are going to take. From the action you then take will determine what results you produce. From the results you have produced will lead to the circumstances you are currently living in.

I talk a lot about working on ourselves every single day to become highly effective leaders, and to continually grow. If you don’t value working on yourself every day, then you will not become a highly effective leader, and you will not continually grow each day.

If you do value working on yourself every day, then you will think about working on yourself every day too. What you value is the beginning of all of your thoughts, produces your first thoughts of the day, and all of your thoughts throughout the day.

So, to become a highly effective leader, you must share the values of a highly effective leader, which will then fuel your thoughts of becoming a highly effective leader.

Whatever thoughts you have will then determine how you feel. If you currently don’t feel like a highly effective leader, it is because you are not thinking like a highly effective leader. Your feelings influence what decisions you make and what action you take.

If you want to start feeling like a highly effective leader, then you need to change your thoughts, and think like a highly effective leader thinks. When you start thinking differently, you will feel differently.

4. The Decisions You Make

How you feel will then influence what decisions you make, and what action you take. We can all be influenced by different people. So what we are thinking, and how we are feeling can be influenced by different people too.

If we are influenced to think and feel negatively, then we may be influenced to act in a negative manner. If we are influenced to think and feel positively, then it is highly likely that we will act positively because that will make us feel good.

The results we produce will come from the action we have taken. If we act in a negative manner, then we will produce negative results. If we act in a positive manner, then we will produce positive results.

Whatever decision we make will determine what action we take. So, if we want to produce good positive results, then we must make good and positive decisions.

Our current circumstances have come from the results we have produced throughout your life and career. If we are not happy with your current circumstances then we must go back to the beginning and change what we value.

The root cause of our circumstances have come from what we value. A highly effective leader knows this, and to help others change their circumstances, they must first help to influence them to change what they value.

Ultimately, it should be the leader of the team to influence the team members to change their values, and change their behaviours. But, if the leader is not capable, and isn’t a highly effective leader, then someone else will have to do it.

Otherwise, nobody will do it, and the team will not be a team at all. They will be a group of individuals, all with different values.

What usually happens with a group of individuals with different values is, they have to follow certain rules to keep everyone in line. For example, what time they start work, who does certain tasks, when they do those tasks, and then what time they finish.

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If everybody shared values, and were striving towards the same vision and goal, then there would be no need for rules.

If the leader of the team is weak, then a highly effective team player will put their hand up to take over. A highly effective leader will talk to each team member individually to find out what their values are.

If everyone has different values, then the highly effective team player will share their vision and values with the team, and influence them to adopt the same vision and values. Leading by example, and showing the team the way is how they influence the team.

Are you willing to take over from a weak leader, share your values, and lead from the front as a highly effective team player?

What is it you aspire to be? Do you aspire to become a highly effective leader? It’s easy to aspire, it’s very hard to achieve.

I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.

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All the best,

Tom (Lead, Grow, Influence)