Balancing Act: Managing Competing Values in Leadership Decision-Making

Nobody said leadership is easy. People who lead have to make tough decisions on behalf of themselves and others every day. When those tough decisions involve a competition of values, leaders may find themselves stuck or making decisions that are not in the best interest of those they serve.

Choosing between two (or more) values is an act of leadership. Competing values are something we all deal with at some point in the human experience. Such examples might include the following:

• an executive who states they are supportive of employee well-being, while also managing their own value of being in the board of directors' good graces when it comes to profit maximization;

• A non-profit leader who states they want to serve more people in the community, but also values being a good steward of the budget;

• A father who states they value their child's ability to make their own decisions on whether they want to participate in school sports, while also valuing the experience as a high school athlete and wanting to pass that experience down to their kid.

People have a hard time having to choose among conflicting values. Many of us shy away from the tough task of prioritizing values. We often opt for comfort over risk, predictability over progress, status over impact, and our own preferences over the greater good. We also tend to avoid making difficult choices consciously.

It all comes full circle to the very beginning of this article - leadership is hard. But to balance competing values, you will need to make some tough decisions down the road as to which value you want to honor.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when a conflict in values arises:

1. Become more self-aware of your competing values. This requires some introspective work. When you find yourself resisting your well-known and outspoken values, ask what you are valuing that is in conflict. For example, you may say you value innovation at your company, but your unspoken value of stability may be getting in the way when an opportunity to innovate comes across your desk for approval.
   

2. Name your unspoken values. As indicated in the previous example, you may discover that you have a hard time with your spoken value of innovation when the opportunity arises. Identifying the conflicting, underlying, and unspoken values is critical to understanding why there is a conflict in the first place. You may know something is holding you back, but you have never put a name to it before. Naming the unspoken value of stability can trigger the lightbulb in your mind to turn on, opening up new insights as to how and why that conflict is getting in your way.
   

3. Share your conflict in values. This step might scare leaders, as they may be revealing this conflict to their teams, peers, or bosses. If this decision is uncomfortable for you, then all the better reason to do it! If it is something that carries a reasonable degree of certainty that your job might be on the line, then maybe consider talking to a coach or confidential advisor/mentor first. But either way, do not keep this information to yourself! Trusted minds may be necessary to help you push outside your comfort zone, and lead you to the final step.
   

4. Make the tough decision. Eventually, you have to just get into the freezing cold water and start swimming. There is no way around having to make a tough decision on behalf of yourself and those you serve as a leader. But it will be easier once you have done the work of identifying, naming, and sharing your conflict in values (named and unnamed) to help you make the final decision.

Competing values lead to stalled progress on the challenges you care most about. The better you get at managing your competing values, the better your organization/family/self will be for it.