Violating Your Values

What happens if for some reason you violate your values? Take, for example, a businessman who violates one or more of his values to make a sale, or just to get ahead.

Violation of values can cause depression, guilt, anger and resentment (just to name a few of the side effects). Victory can taste bitter if you violate your fundamental values to win. The side effects can be even worse if others witness your actions. Regardless of how well you cover your tracks, someone will always know what has happened - even if that person is you. This reminds me of a verse my parents taught me: "Be sure that your sins will find you out."

A victory that can be credited, in part or in whole, to some violation of values will destroy your credibility and your positive influence over others. Most great scandals in recent times can be tracked to the violation of fundamental values. Take, for example, former US presidents Nixon and Clinton, Jimmy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Enron and WorldCom. In each of these cases, the fundamental values of people, organizations, corporations or countries were violated. This violation resulted, among other things, in the loss of credibility of the leaders involved, and in many cases it destroyed the lives of those leaders.

Keep in mind, however, that should you make a mistake and violate a value it does not mean that you are forever doomed. What it does mean is that you must spend time reestablishing your values, and aligning your actions with those values. You may never again attain the level of influence that you enjoyed before the violation occurred, or you might possibly attain a higher level of positive influence. It depends on how hard you work at it.

Chuck Colson is an excellent example of this. Implicated and indicted in the Watergate scandal, he ended up serving time in jail. There he realized that he had not violated just one of his values, in the quest for power he had, over time, sold out his values completely. Winifred Gallagher describes Colson as follows: "Charles Colson would have beat his grandmother to death when he was with Nixon... However, the Watergate event changed him completely and since his release from prison, he has positively influenced more people than he ever would have as part of the Nixon administration... He probably always had a very emotional, intense temperament, but now he has different enemies and friends. His nature didn't change - he just does something else with all that zeal. One's mode of engagement with life may not alter much. But one's focus can."

How do values affect you as you strive for victory? What can you do to ensure that your values remain intact while you struggle to succeed in your endeavors? Is it even possible to attain victory while keeping your values intact?

In most cases, it is possible to maintain your values and still win. If you have to violate your values to succeed, it is better to lose. Losing while retaining your values and integrity is better than violating your values to "win." This relates back to the definition of value: "A value is an abstract concept that a person is willing to embrace at the expense of personal comfort." If you are not willing to maintain a value at the expense of personal comfort, maybe the value in question is not one of yours.

The Value of Integrity

One of the key ingredients in any successful individual is a stable values base. This stable values base is built on integrity. Integrity is crucial for every individual and it is crucial in the professional world. Without integrity an employer - employee relationship has no foundation on which to build and is destined for failure.

I ran into an example of this when Jed (not his real name), a newly hired employee, was placed on a design development team in Calgary. This team was working diligently to deliver a set of fully tested programs to another project team in Korea. The team in Korea was installing the programs and testing them on a system that would then be floated in Russia.

We hired Jed to be a controls systems expert. His resume looked good, he interviewed well, and his limited references seem to check out. His job was to provide quality assurance testing. During the first few weeks, he tested programming and completed the test sheets and signoffs as required. Then we had an urgent need for additional resources in our Korean office. Jed volunteered to go and we were happy to send him, as he seemed to be moving through his testing work rather quickly.

When Jed arrived in Korea, he began some on-site program testing. This work was similar to what he was doing back home, and he seemed to be doing well. However, a crack in the wall began to appear. We started to get reports about Jed having disagreements with the client in Korea. Then it was reports of people finding errors in the programs Jed had tested and signed off on in Calgary. These reports led to a complete reassessment of the work done in Calgary. It was determined that Jed had just been signing off test sheets without actually doing the testing. We did some more investigating, and discovered that the same thing was happening in Korea, where Jed was again signing off test sheets without doing the appropriate testing. Jed was subsequently brought back to Calgary and terminated for lack of integrity.

According to Paul Zane Pilzer in his book Unlimited Wealth, "....a new problem is emerging in the raising of preschool children, to which the problem of rearing more productive children pales by comparison. This problem is one of values - and it is threatening more than just the success of our public educational system; it is threatening the very fabric of our society. Simply stated, far too many of our children are being raised without a sense of the basic, common values that have enabled people to function together and survive as a society."

Integrity must be the basis of any employer - employee relationship. From this point, for you to maximize your performance - either individually, or as a leader, or as part of a team - you have to identify your values and understand how they affect you. You must ensure that you align your actions with your values, because you have to walk your talk. Failure to do this is a violation of your values, and will be seen by others as hypocrisy. This results in lack of credibility, and in a loss of positive influence on others.

Why Are Values Important?

Values drive individual behavior. Your values are like a compass. This compass does not point north, south, east or west. It points to what is right. Every decision you make is guided by this compass. It is imperative that you clearly understand, and can articulate, your values - this articulation is similar to a properly calibrated compass. When you understand your values, you will have the confidence to challenge the status quo based on what you believe. You will be able to make decisions confidently and consistently, and you will be able to explain the reasoning behind your decisions.

People who do not have clearly articulated values, or who have no values at all, are like ships without sails being tossed about on stormy seas, drifting wherever life takes them. These people are not consistent in their decision-making, as they have nothing on which to base their decisions. They just go wherever the wind blows. This can have a disastrous effect on them personally, and on the people around them.

I was involved as a project manager on a large offshore oil and gas drilling and production facility. This facility was being constructed in Ulsan, Korea in Hyundai Heavy Industry's construction facility. This vessel is about three football fields long and about ten stories high. An un-powered vessel, it does not have a rudder.

Korea is susceptible to seasonal typhoons. These are very similar to the hurricanes that are common in North America. During construction of the offshore vessel, Ulsan was hit by a powerful typhoon. The typhoon blew the vessel, its moorings and part of the quayside out to sea. Then the typhoon then blew it back toward shore, where it collided with, and crushed, a berthed freighter. Fortunately for our project, the vessel was only slightly damaged, although the freighter was a write-off.

Unfortunately, this is what happens to individuals who do not have clearly defined values. Without values to securely anchor them and without engines and a rudder to keep them powered and on track, when a storm hits they end up causing a lot of damage to themselves and to sadly to those around them.

Spend some time reflecting on your most important values and record these. Share them with your family and friends. Have them work through the same process and then discuss the values differences. Can you see where and why values based conflicts could arise? Now that your values differences have been identified what can be done to avoid potential conflicts?