Before Leadership 101 – your personal vision, mission and values

Do you have a personal vision for your life?  Do you have a personal mission statement and are you absolutely clear on your personal values? As a leader, it is likely that you have a vision for your organization along with clear mission and values statements.  This is par for the course in nearly all organizations of any size and complexity.  But why should you have a personal vision?

 

Being clear on what you stand for personally is important to you and your organization for a number of reasons:

1. It provides long term context by giving you an overarching view of who you aspire to be and how you truly want to live
2. It helps you to determine if you are aligned to the organization for which you work.  If you are, then you will be inspired to contribute with all your being.  If you are not, then it provides you with clarity about your future in that organization
3. It anchors you in the challenging times, bringing clarity and direction to the difficult decisions you are inevitably called on to make
4. It helps you to make tradeoffs between your personal and professional life
5. It give you passion and purpose
6. It helps you to communicate who you are – your essence, your beliefs and values, not just your job title or job description
7. It gives you the confidence to be authentic in whatever you do
8. In a word, it allows you to live your life in INTEGRITY

 

Your personal vision describes who you aspire to be in all areas of your life.  Whilst it is best written in the present tense (the power is only in the present), it does describe a state of being greater than what you now are.  It encompasses who you want to be in all areas of your life.

 

Your personal mission states your purpose, your desired contribution to the world.  It describes how you will go about achieving your vision.  This is your highest calling – or you higher self calling!

 

Your personal values are the beliefs that guide your behaviour as you carry out your mission and achieve your vision.  These are the “non-negotiables’ in how you live your life.

 

In the next 3 blogs, I will share simple ways for you to get clear on your personal vision, mission and values.  In the meantime, ponder these questions:

 

1. What’s important to me?
2. Who or what would I die for?
3. What’s non-negotiable in my life?
4. What would I not do, no matter how much money I was offered?
5. What brings me joy?
6. What gets me going in the morning?
7. What would I be doing with my life if there were no limits?
8. Who do I most admire and why?

Stay tuned!