Two Easy Ways to Discover Your Core Values as a Leader

Wouldn’t it be nice if every time you had a big decision to make, you had a little fairy in your ear telling you which way to go? No thinking required! Understanding and owning your core values is like having your own personal Tinker Bell showing you how to live your life, nudging you when you’re out of alignment, and giving you a nice kick in the pants when you’re acting out of integrity.

Core values set the tone for what you believe in. They are standards in which you live your life. When your actions and decisions align with your values, you are able to model the way for those who are following your lead. As a leader, it’s essential to understand who you are, your guiding principles, and the core values that govern them.

My personal core values are: creativity, wisdom, curiosity, spirituality/faith and friendship.

Listen to me talk about my first experience with core values and walk my friend Lucca through the memories core values exercise on Living in Your Passion Place.

Discover Your Core Values with Flashcards

My favorite exercise is to grab a bunch of flashcards and write out all the core values (listed below), then sort them into three piles: somewhat important, very important, and most important.

Then from there, narrow the most important cards into your top 15, down to your top 10, then finally your top five.

If you have great handwriting, get artistic and save these cards to use on your friends or colleagues. It’s a fun party game (or is it just me who talks about core values at parties???). 

Discover Your Core Values Through Memories

By simply thinking back to times you were happy, proud and satisfied, you can assess those experiences to see what values led to the outcomes of those memories. Think about childhood memories, work experiences and other areas of your life.

Ask yourself what contributed to these memories:

1. Think of a time you were most happy. What made you so happy?


2. What was a time you were most proud of yourself?


3. When were you the most satisfied?


Next, jot down a few themes you’re seeing come up from these experiences. Were you serving others? Playing games? Making money? Perhaps you value playfulness, generosity and wealth. 

Take a look at the list below to see which values came up for you in these experiences you recalled. Which ones stood out the most? Once you’ve located about five to seven core values from the list from your experiences, it’s time to expand your thinking into your current life.

Do these sound “so you”? Do you feel good about them? Would you feel comfortable (and proud) sharing them with others? Can you stand firmly behind each one? Would you allow these values to lead you in how you lead others, even when your opinion might differ from the majority?

If your top five core values meet the criteria above, then you’ve found them. Guard them, keep them safe, and share them often!

Examples of Core Values

Acceptance Accessibility Accomplishment Accuracy Accurate Achievement Activity Adaptability Adventure Affection Agility Aggressiveness Altruism Ambition Amusement Assertiveness Beauty Being the Best Belonging Boldness Bravery Brilliance Calmness Candor Capability Capable Careful Carefulness Caring Certainty Challenge Change Character Charity Cheerful Citizenship Clean Cleanliness Clear Clever Clients Collaboration Comfort Commitment Common Sense Communication Community Compassion Competence Competition Completion Comprehensive Concentration Concern for Others Confidence Confidentiality Connection Consciousness Consistency Contentment Contribution Control Conviction Courage Courtesy Craftsmanship Creativity Credibility Curiosity Daring Decency Decisiveness Dedication Delight Democratic Dependability Depth Determination Development Devotion Devout Different Differentiation Dignity Diligence Directness Discipline Discovery Discretion Diversity Dreaming Drive Duty Eagerness Economy Education Effectiveness Efficiency Elegance Empathy Empowering Encouragement Endurance Energy Engagement Enjoyment Entertainment Enthusiasm Entrepreneurship Environment Equality Ethical Excellence Excitement Exhilarating Exuberance Experience Expertise Exploration Expressive Fairness Faith Family Fearless Ferocious Fidelity Firm Fitness Flair Flexibility Fluency Focus Foresight Fortitude Freedom Friendly Friendship Frugality Fun Generosity Genius Giving Global Goodness Goodwill Gratitude Growth Happiness Hard Work Harmony Health Helpful History Holiness Honesty Honor Hope Hospitality Humility Humor Imagination Impact Independence Individuality Innovation Inspiration Integrity Intelligence International Intuition Invention Investment Irreverent Joy Justice Kindness Knowledge Leadership Learning Logic Love Loyalty Mastery Maximizing Meaning Meekness Mellow Meticulous Modesty Motivation Mystery Obedience Openness Optimism Order Organization Originality Passion Patience Patriotism Peace Perceptive Performance Perseverance Persistence Personal Development Personal Growth Persuasive Philanthropy Playfulness Pleasantness Popularity Positive Potential Power Pragmatic Precision Preservation Pride Privacy Proactive Productivity Professionalism Profitability Progress Prosperity Prudence Punctuality Purity Pursuit Quality Rational Realistic Reason Recognition Recreation Reflection Relationships Relaxation Reliability Resilience Resolute Resolve Resourcefulness Respect Responsibility Responsiveness Rest Restraint Results-Oriented Reverence Risk Taking Sacrifice Safety Satisfaction Security Self Awareness Self Motivation Self Responsibility Self-Control Selfless Self-Reliance Sense of Humor Sensitivity Serious Service Prosperity Significance Simplicity Sincerity Smart Solitude Speed Spirit Spirituality Spontaneous Stability Status Stewardship Strength Structure Success Support Surprise Sustainability Sympathy Synergy Talent Teamwork Timeliness Tolerance Toughness Traditional Tranquility Transparency Trust Truth Understanding Unflappable Uniqueness Unity Universal Utility Valor Value Variety Victory Warmth Wealth Wisdom Work/Life Balance