Values Based (VB) leaders are a rare breed that tend to go against the grain of normal business because they consider the people, values and interconnection that is necessary to build a prosperous organization.
A VB leader is thoughtful about the impact of their actions. They often face more obstacles than a traditional leader. Profitability is encouraged and accepted as a basic premise of a well-run organization, but it is not the only goal for VB leaders.
In the inaugural issue of the Values Based Leadership Journal (2008), James O’Toole defines Values Based Leadership (VBL). O’Toole says that values based leaders create followers by enabling them to see clearly, and to achieve effectively, that which they hold dear. The role, task, and responsibility of values based leaders are to help followers realize their most important goals, which cannot be obtained by themselves.
I offer a bit broader view of VBL. Wholeness is an important aspect to my interpretation. My favorite explanation of wholeness comes from physicist David Bohm.
He brought together the theories of Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and others and referred to the Universe as “Undivided Wholeness and Flowing Movement.” It’s not only a name, it says what it is. From that, we can know EVERYTHING, is interconnected. And that is wholeness.
The level of connection is even more than we can understand and that is why VBL – including wholeness – is so critical to consider.
I see VBL as being built on the linage of Transformational and Servant Leadership. So for me, VBL incorporates these ideas, is not separate from them. VBL is a newer emergent philosophy of how to do business in an interconnected world.
-Jan
