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Remember the song “Don’t Worry Be Happy”?

It was a huge hit and only really had one line that people remember. But what a line! The message is clear, simple and something we all crave; to be HAPPY!

It’s not that we’re miserable, it’s just that we’re getting so caught up in making a living, we’ve forgotten (or don’t know how) to make a life.

This newsletter will show you how. It’s not a magic panacea or elixir of life, but I promise you this; do what I suggest here and by next week you’ll be humming “Don’t Worry Be Happy” at the office water cooler.

So what’s the first step?

Walk Your Talk

Yep that’s it! Get really clear on your values as a leader (and a human being for that matter) and then live your life as a leader in alignment with those values.

Easy! Well, not really. Like anything that requires mastery it takes time and practice (or 10,000 hours if you read the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell)

Here’s the good news. The Human Enterprise has a process that participants' experience in our leadership workshops. I’ll take you through it.

So What Causes Your Unhappiness?

No, it’s not your lack of work-life balance, or even your job.

It’s because you’re not living your life according to your values. I see this time and time again.

You say that family and friends are important, yet you’re working 6 days a week, 10-15 hour days. You never see them and when you’re with them your either not present or nodding off because you are so tired.

You think that what causes the unhappiness is the workload. Well maybe it plays a part, maybe it causes physical tiredness but the emotional tiredness comes from…

Your Integrity Gap

That’s the gap between what’s important to you and the way you live your day-to-day life.

Let’s take another example of this ‘integrity gap’. Say you espouse (your talk) the importance of discipline, sticking to set processes and routines AND you’re terribly overweight or you keep promising yourself at least one alcohol free day, but it never happens. Guilt begins to set in. Where’s the discipline?

Well let me tell you there’s a part inside of you withering away, every time you become aware of this gap. And you know what else, there’s a major gap in…

Your Credibility as a Leader

You talk about the importance of teamwork and how it’s one of your key values. Yet you talk over other people, you keep on coming back to your idea, you constantly forget to credit your team and so on and so on.

Not that you’re a bad person, not that this is deliberate. Your intentions are honourable.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." (Julius Caesar)

It’s just that you are not putting in the practice. So here we go. Here is a step-by-step process to help you walk your talk, to have the video match the audio.

A Four Step Process for the Values Driven Leader

1. List your values
2. Determine key messages for each value
3. Specify a key behaviour or system that will demonstrate that value and bring it to life
4. List the benefits internally within your team or the organisation and externally with your key stakeholders

1. List Your Values

Believe it or not this is probably the hardest part and may appear a bit “sisterhood” (I just thought it was a nice break from motherhood) at first but the more you refine this first step the more reinforced and real they’ll become for you.

So who do you want to be as a leader?

What defines your style, your edge, your uniqueness. What’s really important to you? What leaders do you admire? What do you want people to be saying about you as a leader?

When you’re not there to make decisions or when there is no policy or procedure and they say “What would Shirl (you like that!) do if she were here?” If they know what you stand for it is just so easy (by the way I think this is one of the keys to great parenting as well).

Remember: “If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.”

A couple of useful hints:

Don’t have too many
The number of values is important. Between 5 and 9 is good. You might come up with ones like Teamwork, Continuous Improvement, Customer Focus, Integrity, Achievement, Respect and Quality. Notice there’s only 7 here.

Use a meaningful trigger to remember
You can turn your values into a mnemonic that means something to you. For example, at The Human Enterprise our positioning statement is “transforming leadership” and our Values form the word “TRANSFORM”.

Talent Blossoming
Raving Fans
As One
Nurturing Leaders
Small Tweaks
Fun-Filled Energy
Ownership Mindset
Respectful Compassion
Mindful Awareness

At the Starlight Children’s Foundation the values are:

Shine
Teamwork
Achievement
Responsibility
Sharing

Obviously S.T.A.R.S. is a meaningful connection to “Starlight”

2. Determine Your Key Messages

Now you can’t just go around shouting “teamwork” or “customer focus”. People will wonder what you are on. The second step then, is to turn your values into key messages or sound bytes that are easy to remember. It can sound a bit trite but because we are bombarded with so much information we have to cut through.

I find the most effective leaders I work with are tremendous at reinforcing key messages. Very often through metaphors, stories or analogies.

And here’s another handy hint. You’ll know you’ve communicated your key messages when they are almost mocking you when you’re not there. Something like:

“Well you know what Kerrie would say; Do the right thing” (Kerrie’s key message for integrity)

Or rather than saying it is important to have Continuous Improvement in the business your key message could be:

“A better way everyday”

I talk a lot about “small tweaks” in The Human Enterprise and how small incremental steps can make a huge difference over time. My key message is:

“A little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing”

So turn your values into messages.

3. Specify a Key Behaviour or System that Demonstrates the Value and Brings it To Life.

Ok. So where are we at? We’ve got the value, let’s say, Continuous Improvement, and we’ve got the key message “a better way every day”. Now we need either a personal behaviour or a system to reinforce the value.

Here’s an example of both:

Personal Behaviours
Never take the first idea at a meeting. Say “That’s a great idea. Are there any others we can build on before we decide?”

A System
Every quarter you meet with your team and do any “EDI”. If you’ve been around The Human Enterprise long enough you’ll know that stands for:

Excellent: What are we doing that’s excellent?
Develop: What needs to be developed?
Ideas: What are some ideas to build on the excellence and address the areas for development?

And the next step…

4. List the Benefits (Internal and External)

Values by themselves are great. But, unless we reconnect them with a purpose they can often just become “hearsay” and loose their vitality and potency.

Continually let people know why these values are important. Talk about the benefits in your one-on-ones, your meetings, your reports, your proposals.

Let’s look at continuous improvement again:

Internal benefits: Igniting the genius in all of us; flourishing the part of us that wants to grow; becoming more efficient; reducing costs; reducing silos; increasing partnership etc etc.

External benefits: Continually coming up with new ideas to service customers; really adding significant, unique value to them; strongly differentiating from the competition etc etc.

So there we have it

The Secret for Leadership Happiness is now in your hands. It is simply a matter of getting clear on your values and then becoming a living, breathing, transparent role model of them.

Come on, give it a go. Even if you’re already an incredibly happy little Vegemite it’s just great leadership for work and home.

That’s it for 2009

This will be our last newsletter for 2009. We’ve loved the feedback you’ve given us about the difference our ideas have made in your life and your leadership. It’s lovely to know that we are on track with our Higher Purpose of:

“Transforming the way people live their lives, lead their business and leave a legacy.”

Wishing all of our community of leaders a wonderful break with family and friends. A time to renew, refresh and re-energise. And a chance to reflect on your values as a leader and the way you’ll BE in the world.

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (Hamlet Act I, Scene III)

Farewell for 2009. What’s around the corner? Who knows. But now you’ve got your values sorted I can hear you singing at the water cooler “Don’t worry be happy.”

Yours in (Happy) Transformational Leadership
Paul Mitchell

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