Using Values-based Leadership to Drive Performance€¦ · Using Values-based Leadership to Drive...

transcript

1/13/2015 Using Valuesbased Leadership to Drive Performance | Ideas for Leaders

https://www.ideasforleaders.com/ideas/usingvaluesbasedleadershiptodriveperformance 1/4

SEARCH

tel. +44 (0)203 031 2900

CHALLENGE US PINNED ACCOUNT LOG OUT

HOME ABOUT IDEAS LIBRARY IDEAS BY INSTITUTIONS

Home Ideas Library Using Values-based Leadership to Drive Performance

10.13007/472

Ideas for Leaders #472

Using Values-based Leadership to DrivePerformance

Key Concept

Values-based leadership can drive the performance oforganizations, and managing those values is the key tounlocking increased performance. Richard Barrett’smodel maps values for individuals, groups,organizations and nations. It can identify the gapsbetween observed and desired values and thenegative values that create dysfunction, and can beused to show where change needs to occur to createhigher performance.

Idea Summary

Richard Barrett’s Seven Levels of Consciousness model,founded on the principles of values-based leadership,is a guide to achieving exceptional performance inorganizations. Barrett’s framework based on hisextensive research across organizations andincreasingly whole countries is an extension ofMaslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a well-explored, butfrequently misrepresented, theory on humanmotivation. Although Maslow did not originate thehierarchy as a pyramid that is how it has come to bedepicted. However, the pyramid structure ismisleading in that higher levels can be achieved whilelower levels are incomplete, and elements of all levelsare interconnected. It is not like a video game wheresimple progression to the next level is achieved whenthe previous level is completed.

Level 5: Self-actualization (realizing personal potential, self-fulfilment, growth)

Level 4: Esteem needs (independence, achievement, status, self-respect)

Level 3: Social needs (belongingness, affection – friends, family,work)

Level 2: Safety needs (freedom from fear – security, stability, order)

Level 1: Physiological needs (food, shelter, sleep, sex)

Authors

Barrett, Richard

Institutions

The Barrett Values Centre

Source

The Barrett Values Centre

Idea conceived

January 2010

Idea posted

January 2015

DOI number

Subject

ValuesLeadershipPerformance Management

The model has been expanded since with additionallevels:

Level 6: Transcendence (helping others to achieve self-actualization)

Level 4b: Aesthetic needs (beauty, design, balance)

Level 4a: Cognitive needs (knowledge, meaning)

Richard Barrett has developed his Seven Levels ofConsciousness model so that each of his levels relate toMaslow’s levels as below, though Barrett had adaptedMaslow’s levels a little. Maslow’s 1 and 2 are combinedinto Barrett’s ‘physical’; 4a and 4b above become‘transformational’; and 5 and 6 are divided into‘internal cohesion’, ‘making a difference’ and ‘service’.

The critical change is the move from need toconsciousness – Barrett’s contention is that where anindividual still has a need, though it is unconscious,they are limited from progressing to a higher state ofmotivation.

“It was evident to me that when people haveunderlying anxieties or subconscious fears about oneof their lower order deficiency needs, theirsubconscious remains focused on that need…. Forexample, there are people who are never satisfiedwith the amount of money they earn. Even thoughthey may be very rich, for them, that need remainsunfulfilled. No matter how much they earn, they arealways left wanting more. Such people remainsubconsciously focused at the Survival level ofconsciousness even though they may have masteredseveral of the other higher levels of consciousness.”

Business Application

Barrett had developed the model alongside hisCultural Transformation Tools (CTT) for a variety ofdifferent scenarios, at the most general, the sevenlevels can be applied individually and also toorganizations. So where an individual’s base Survivalneed may be for food, shelter, stability etc., for anorganization it would be Financial Stability, includingshareholder value, cashflow, profits etc.

The model is predicated on the concept that highperforming organizations need to align their actualand desired values. Organizations that havedissonance between their actual and desired (orperceived) values cannot operate at the highest levels,

nor can those with high levels of negative values or‘cultural entropy’.

To measure the presence of the values, both positiveand negative, individuals within an organization areasked to select from a list of around 80 prescribedterms:

10 values that represent who you are [personal values]

10 values that represent how your organization operates [Currentculture]

10 values that represent how you would like your organization tooperate [Desired culture]

These are then mapped and aggregated. Each valueterm selected has a place on the egg-timer framework,‘honesty’ for instance is a ‘positive’ Level 5 value;‘hierarchical’ is a ‘negative’ Level 3 value. Negativevalues are ones that are limiting to growth andperformance.

The aggregated total of all the values gives theorganization (or individual or nation) their ‘culturalentropy’ score. Between 0-10% is healthy; 11-20%indicates minor issues; above 20% significant issues;over 40% indicates in crisis.

Barrett’s research shows a high inverse correlationbetween entropy scores and employee engagement.(High entropy = low engagement). It also shows a highcorrelation between leaders’ scores and those of theorganization.

Organizations that can lower their leaders’ entropyscores see simultaneous improvement inorganizational performance.

Using Values-based Leadership to Drive Performance€¦ · Using Values-based Leadership to Drive...

Documents