Authenticity, Curiosity, & Hospitality

Starting a new role is equal parts excitement and gratitude. I feel both in spades right now. I get to lead an extraordinary team, and while we are up to our ears in discussing strategy and goals, this past week, I rolled out one of my favorite practices: a Core Values Exercise. It’s something I’ve done with several teams I’ve led. I keep coming back to this practice as I have found that the more we understand what matters most to each of us as individuals, the more we can build trust, show up authentically, and create a culture worth being part of.

I first discovered the power of this exercise several years ago when I was led through it with my own executive leadership coach. The process was simple but tough: start with a long list of words, narrow them down, and face the hard truth of what really fits. At the end, three values remained for me:

Authenticity, curiosity, and hospitality.

They’ve been my compass ever since. When I’m aligned with them, life and work flow. When I’m not, it shows.

So with my new team, we each started by naming our individual values, then began to explore how they connect. From there, we’ll build out our shared team values, our foundation for how we work together. It’s already sparked powerful conversations and reminded me how much I love this role and the people I get to do it with.

I’ve even practiced this exercise at home with my family. It led to some funny, honest conversations and ended with five words written on the mirror in our dining room: respect, integrity, grace, love, and gratitude. Every time I see it, I’m reminded of who we want to be as a family. 

For me, leadership starts with values, because when we know who we are, we can build teams and cultures where everyone belongs and everyone thrives.