Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This blog is a way of expressing my personal opinions thoughts and anecdotes, as well as my personal understanding of the scriptures, and conference addresses. It is not meant as a statement of doctrine, and may not necessarily reflect the views, thoughts, or doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

12 February 2014

Values, Principles, and a Goal (Not a #Weblog Wednesday post)

In my current MBA class, we are discussing ways to recognize our values, develop principles and establish goals. I found this to be a great exercise as it helps recognize strengths, weaknesses, and goals.
Enjoy! I was excited that I got to incorporate part of 2 Peter Chapter 1, since that chapter is AMAZING! and a great way to establish this same process. In the coming weeks, I will elaborate more on that chapter. It's a good one.

For those of you looking for a #Weblog Wednesday post, I will get one or two up soon. t's been a little bit busy. But let me know if you are reading them! It's hard to tell sometimes...

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In taking the Personal Values Survey, I found that I scored the highest in the following three Values: Transcendence, Knowledge and Wisdom, and Temperance.

These three values connect in a very real way to me, and have been something that I have been studying about during the past year or so. I was not greatly surprised at receiving these three as the highest values, and while they are strengths for me, I also see them as areas that I seek to improve.

Transcendence: This value relates to me in a strong way. Transcendence is a value that helps me seek for greater purpose in what I do in my daily life. Instead of just working for a paycheck or promotion, I seek to work to take care of my family and stay actively involved in my church. This value also helps me to have real purpose and gives me the ability to change the lives of others.

The admonition to seek for that which is greater than I and to build the kingdom of God first, allows other things to fall into place when I do so. I have recently started reading Spiritual Roots of Human Relations by Stephen R. Covey, and in it I find it a strong way to understand what I want to accomplish when it comes to Transcendence. I have sought to recognize leaders who share similar values that I do, such as Stephen R. Covey, Kim B. Clark, and a few others, and see what makes them successful. In doing so, I hope to be a more involved and culturally aware leader.

I know that it is important to incorporate spiritual elements into the business world, but see it as a challenge as well because of how it can be perceived. Some consider it a weakness, or as misguided, or insensitive to others when topics of spirituality, religion and belief systems are brought up, but this very exercise that we are completing has to do with how our values shape us as leaders. It is crucial to know what makes a leader from all aspects of life, and while it is not always necessary to agree on beliefs and values, it is imperative to understand them.

Once I recognize this value, it actually leads directly into the next value—

Knowledge and Wisdom: I am always desirous to learn and adapt to new information. When I receive knowledge, I seek to either incorporate it into my life or discard it as unnecessary, depending on its usefulness. I believe that a principle that comes from knowledge is how important it is to process information as effectively as possible. Experiences from work, school, family life, church, and every aspect of my life provide knowledge and experience that can be assimilated into making me a stronger leader in all of those realms.

Wisdom means that knowledge is applied effectively. While working in a professional environment, a manager told me the power of mistakes. It can be good to make a mistake. A good mistake means that you won’t do something again, or change the way that something is done. A bad mistake is when it continues to occur. True wisdom comes from the former.

Seeking after knowledge can be a powerful tool in an adaptive or analytical leader, but can be presented as a challenge when it comes to an assertive or empowered leader. This is an area that I am continually working on. I can be incredibly assertive if I am extremely informed on the information of which I speak. I address Financial Aid questions constantly in my job, I teach an adult Sunday school every Sunday to contemporaries who are in a variety of learning capabilities, and speak confidently in both of those areas, but I am always willing to learn, and have found it to be a challenge when speaking in a management style of leadership. 

Again, this value and its three principles lead into the next value which is Temperance.

Temperance: This means that I am constantly seeking to find and incorporate balance into my life.

Temperance also involves constant reflection and analysis to help me transform who I am into who I want to be.
Temperance, to me, doesn’t just mean self-control, meekness, or moderation, but a way to judge and make decisions. I once taught a class on this particular subject and learned some masterful lessons from it. In seeking for balance, it involves not just trying to diffuse a situation that is heated-up, but also to be empowered to stand up for, and defend something that is one-sided or indefensible. This takes courage and assertiveness, and is a key element to temperance.

I find Temperance to be an element that must have knowledge and transcendence behind it, for one cannot judge or make key decisions if they are not based on prior knowledge and a purpose behind it. A business leader should not make decisions that will lead to anything besides a greater impact for the company (purpose) and backed by at least some knowledge.   

In 2 Peter Chapter One (in the Holy Bible), Peter mentions faith, virtue, and knowledge, followed by temperance. I feel that faith and virtue (understanding a higher power and being willing to act—virtue—) are steps that lead to greater knowledge; and, once that it obtained, more balanced (temperate) decisions can be made.

Goal

A goal that I seek to establish is based on really all three of these values and their associated principles, but, to focus on one, it would be from the Transcendence value. Throughout the past 6 weeks, I have recognized more than ever the strength of a spiritual leader. One of the weaknesses that I have is not speaking with authority and empowerment. I find great insight in studying the lives of spiritual leaders because of how empowered they are. They are steadily bound by a higher power, but dutifully speak with power and authority because of the knowledge they have. Therefore, I feel that with the bulwarks of knowledge and temperance, I need to put more faith and knowledge into my decision-making. I will study the lives of great spiritual leaders and journal what makes them the way they are and create an action plan for how to implement the actuating principles more into my life. With the strength of analyzing and gaining knowledge, I can become a more empowered leader by incorporating these three values more into my life.  

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 I plan on incorporating this exercise more into the future. Once Values are established, focus on what principles gain be brought out of them. (My favorite way to do that, although not done for this post is with if/then statements -- If I do or don't do this, then this will or will not happen). Once principles are governed, a more solidified and hopefully measurable goal will emerge. Measurable!


Now I can incorporate my love of Biographies into my personal development!! Yay!
I recently finished a biography on Brigham Young and will attempt to get a book review up for that soon. 

Have a great week!


4 comments:

  1. Not surprised either. I see all of those traits as some of your greatest strengths. As such, probably a good idea to keep working on them. I wonder how that fits in with Ether 12:27.

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    1. That is a good thought to mention. Thanks for the kind words also. :)
      I think this sort of thinking can be readily seen in Alma a lot, and the strategic leadership that is incorporated in the war chapters. Once or twice they mention how instead of spreading thin, and focusing on all areas, they at one point solely focus on their key strength areas and let go of the rest. That would an interesting comparative study... At various times and places I think it's important to work on both strengths and weaknesses.

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  2. That verse of scripture has always been interesting to me (Ether 12:27). I think it is interesting that the Lord mentions "weakness" and not "weaknesses", but when we talk about this scripture we generally say "weaknesses". I don't believe we lined up in the preexistence so the Lord could pass out our individual weaknesses. I think Lord is trying to teach Moroni and all of us that the mortal condition itself requires weakness so that we rely more on the Lord and not ourselves. Jacob reminds us in Jacob 4:7 that "the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace... that we have power to do these things. We also need humility. I love that in Ether 12:39 Moroni tells us that he spoke to the Savior face to face and that he spoke to him in "plain humility". I love that phrase. We as a society are so obsessed with other peoples weaknesses. The prophet Joseph Smith reminded us that "there is no salvation in believing an evil report against our neighbor" and "The devil flatters us that we are very righteous, when we are feeding on the faults of others". Our weaknesses are paraded across the news and entertainment airways every night. Part of what CS Lewis calls "the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and microphones of our day". I think that we should be more concerned about our own "beams". CS Lewis says elsewhere "Try not to think--much less, speak--of their (other peoples) sins. Our own are a much more profitable theme". It's very refreshing to hear someone talk about ways we can work on self improvement. Thanks Orion!

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  3. John, that's a great bit of information; thanks for sharing! I like in Ether how it says "come unto Me" and not to others, necessarily. There are definitely some issues in life that need additional attention, such as medical and mental issues, but He lets us know with the same message from the entire gospel: Come unto Me. He doesn't want other people to show us our weaknesses. We should be above that as you have mentioned. Good thoughts!

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