The Core Values
“Daring leaders who live into their values are never silent about hard things.. A value is a way of being or believing that we hold most important. Living into our values means that we do more than profess our values, we practice them. We walk our talk–we are clear about what we believe and hold important, and we take care that our intentions, words, thoughts, and behaviours align with those beliefs.”
~Brené Brown (Dare to Lead, 2018, pp 184 & 186)
The Core Values we have shared throughout this curriculum are meant to be guideposts throughout peer support work. They are sacrosanct to the work. Collins Dictionary defines “sacrosanct” this way: “If you describe something as sacrosanct, you consider it to be special and are unwilling to see it criticized or changed.”
Effective leaders know the importance of core values. Organizations – including post-secondary institutions – that have a well-defined set of core values have clarity of purpose, provide a strong service, and have unity within their teams. Core values that are simply lip service or written on a plaque hanging on the lobby will do nothing to guide a program or agency.
On the other hand, a clearly defined set of values can equip leaders and organizations to be able to make decisions.
Dr. Susan David, a researcher on the topic of emotional agility, talks about how a well-established set of values can support us against social contagion. Social contagion is when we “catch” emotions or behaviours from others. For example, if you are in an elevator and another person riding it pulls out their phone, you are highly likely to pull out yours too. In groups and organizations, social contagion has a strong pull. However, a strong set of values that are known and lived out, protects us from catching behaviours that are not in line with our beliefs.
Values are Foundational
Consider a healthy tree. A tree is only as healthy as its root system. If there is a problem with the root system, the tree will eventually die. Though no one really sees the roots directly, a strong root system is the key to the life of the tree.
Core values are to the success of a program, like the root system is to a tree. As a leader within peer support or in future work, it is important that you know the core values well and use them in your work–to both give direction and to support you to deal with the challenges that will inevitably come.
Make the Core Values Actionable!
As stated above, values that are simply words on a website or plaque are meaningless. We can all likely think of organizations that fail (and some that don’t even try) to live out their core values. If an employee or manager can’t articulate how the core values show up in their everyday work, then the organization’s core values are essentially meaningless.
Values can only impact organizational and program culture if they are integrated into all aspects of an organization or service delivery. This means they need to be actionable! In other w