Although I am still a young man I have seen companies collapse, been unemployed, been fired, been cheated etc. but I am still a ‘naive’ person that believes that people try to do their best.
It is easy to stand by your core values when the sun is shining and money stacks up on the bank account but when a financial crisis peaks it seems like peoples core values crack and some evil monster takes control and spits out actions that are misaligned to their core values.
About 11 years ago a fellow student at Aalborg University and former platoon commander in the Danish army told me that the big-bodybuilder-types soldiers were brave when the war was nowhere near them but when danger closed in on them other soldiers took the lead. This is in my opinion true to companies but the problem is when managers get crazy core values and tries to save their own ass and thereby taking the employees as hostages (they did not sign up for a manager with crazy core values).
Lars Kolind is pretty sure that a lot of the good leaders have been scout leaders. I think in some degree that he got a good point - a scout leader have learned that being a leader is about helping other people and getting people to work together as a team - the core values are not money but doing good stuff, being kind to others and to have a good time.
Maybe hard times splits the managers from the real leaders?
But why keep your core values and believes when the guy with the crazy core values wins? When people goes for short term gains and treats other people bad they are likely to lose on the long term!
Why? My take…
- I believe that is important to keep being yourself if you want people to trust you now and in the future.
- I probably got 30-35 years of work ahead and I will most certainly meet the people I trashed again in the near future and that may not be that fun
- I am an INFJ Meyer-briggs-type which makes core values very important for me. I get physical ill and my soul dies (the big questions arises, who am I, how could I do that, etc.) when I do not follow my core values. Just to clarify: an INFJ type can still be an asshole
Can/Do you keep your core values when the shit hits the fan?
Porcupine X is hosted by Jørgen Larsen a dynamic and new thinking leader in the information technology industry. Privately he spends his time with his family in Copenhagen and acts as and semi-professional photographer.
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