Change and growth can be difficult experiences to tackle. This is increasingly the case when one is not honest and able to speak frankly about the realities one is facing. Candor is a value that I strive to embody in every aspect of my life and work. It speaks to an expectation of a certain level of integrity and provides a clear compass around which actions can be taken.

Kindness is often mistaken for niceness…do not be fooled; they are different. The kind choice does not always make friends and is not always the most polite, but it ensures that one is intentional. When you are kind, you have taken the time to choose what you care about and prioritise actions based on choices that have consciously been made. This is a round about way of saying that I do not like waste. To be effective, you must genuinely care about what you do and when you care about something, kindness should be a given.

The interesting thing about acting authentically is that it opens doors. It leaves very little space for grey around how decisions are made, because you know why you made them and can speak clearly about the why. Embedding a decision tree of this nature into how you go about your life and work means you have an increased amount of freedom and flexibility to focus on what’s important and achieve what you really want.

The importance of committing to a consistent quality of experience and ensuring that the results I produce are both dependable and reliable are not factors that I take lightly. Trust is a value that has well been established as one that should never be taken for granted. What is interesting is that safety is oftentimes on the opposite end of this spectrum. Unfortunately, spaces (both concrete and figurative) are not often created to allow one to take healthy risks. It is for this reason that I’ve coupled these two together and also why they are priorities for me…both are necessary and key to getting to one’s destination while allowing room for succesful growth.

Empathy is key to all aspects of the work that I do. It is, therefore, integral that when assessing a challenge, I work to bring a balanced and pragmatic voice, or ensure that there is balance amongst the voices, actions and decisions being made. With many of the surrounding values mentioned, a balance between them comes into play to ensure sound and effective communication is possible in circumstances that need it (which, let’s be honest, is pretty much all circumstances where best possible outcomes are the goal!).

Stability speaks in part to an aspect of sustainability. I speak at great lengths about the importance of building and defining products and decisions on solid foundations. If decisions and actions are not built on a clear why and how, it makes for tough situations in which it then becomes very difficult to justify that value is actually being delivered and even to have a view into what success is supposed to look like. It is for this reason that I value stability in the environments that I create: build strong foundations, set clear expectations and provide suitable conditions to ensure that success is possible and well understood.