What are effective strategies for communicating your personal values to colleagues and superiors?

When beginning to discuss effective strategies as well as core values, I believe is full transparency is critical. First, we need to identify the beliefs, ideas and achievable points, break them down into their simplest form and communicate clearly the expectations. A leader will be honest, straight forward and demonstrate the expectations. One thing that has always been effective is showing that I will never ask of someone, something I wouldn't do myself. We need to lead truthfully so that the good people around and are surrounded by, follow us genuinely. Loyalty, trust and respect can overcome almost any personal, company or overall value, constructive feedback and support included.

A good way to identify your values is to reflect on key inflection points on your life that required to make a difficult or challenging decision. How you responded in those inflection points is a good indicator of what values you hold close. These are called values in action and are a great way to identify what truly matters to you.

I think the best way to understand your organisational values is to look at how your organisation behaves and responds in the world. Look at its policies, business practices and cultural norms. Are they reflective of what it says its values are on paper? Keep in mind that organisations, especially businesses today have to operate in highly polarised environments and sometimes have to manage polarising values to effectively operate. For instance, an organisation needs to be both directive and inclusive to be effective. When trying to understand organisation values, look for how it manages and behaves in these less than straight forward situations.

In heated conversations where you’re trying to communicate your value to someone who is opposed to your way of thinking, a good way to approach the conversation is to acknowledge the value your opposition is holding. For instance if you’re in an argument about whether an organisation should be structured or flexible (and you value flexibility), acknowledge the value of structure first before communicating your preference for flexibility. This demonstrates to the person you’re communicating to that you understand what’s important to them.

To do this effectively you need to start with clarity and develop a practice of value based decision making when faced with challenging situations. It’s easy to talk about your values and easy to act based on your values when the stakes are low. The real test of values is when there’s something on the line. These challenging situations are also is a very powerful way to demonstrate your values.

Research studies reveal that 93% of communication is non-verbal. You can still communicate your core values through non-verbal communication. From the language and tone that you use when you write/speak to the manner you dress and the gestures you employ you are communicating all the time. This is what facilitates you build rapport with someone. If there is no congruence between your storytelling and your non-verbal communication it's unlikely that you will gel immediately.