leadership are derived from your beliefs and
convictions, but you will not know what your
true values are until they are tested under
pressure. It is relatively easy to list your values
and to live by them when things are going
well. When your success, your career, or even
your life hangs in the balance, you learn what
is most important, what you are prepared to
sacrifice, and what trade-offs you are willing
to make.
Leadership principles are values translated
into action. Having a solid base of values and
testing them under fire enables you to develop
the principles you will use in leading. For example,
a value such as “concern for others”
might be translated into a leadership principle
such as “create a work environment where
people are respected for their contributions,
provided job security, and allowed to fulfill
their potential.”
Consider Jon Huntsman, the founder and
chairman of Huntsman Corporation. His moral
values were deeply challenged when he worked
for the Nixon administration in 1972, shortly
before Watergate. After a brief stint in the U.S.
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
(HEW), he took a job under H.R. Haldeman,
President Nixon’s powerful chief of staff. Huntsman
said he found the experience of taking