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What are your five?

I jump at any chance I get to take a leadership development course. Last fall, I had the opportunity to participate in a leadership development program through Leadership Triangle. During our second session, we were given the task of identifying the values that are of utmost importance to us. We had to do this by narrowing a stack of 70 cards with different words or phrases on them down to five cards. Examples of these words and phrases include autonomy, balance in work and life, humor, financial gain, loyalty, making a difference and courage.

It was difficult for me to narrow the deck of cards down to five because there are so many things I value. I value certain things in my professional world, and other things in my personal life. Once we narrowed our values down to five, we then had to create value statements for each of them and present them to our learning team at the end of the program.

Last week, the Community Leadership Team went on a retreat to the Haw River State Park, and I had the pleasure leading our team through this same activity. I am a part of a team of high achievers, and they each picked their five core values in less than five minutes!

I then asked each of them to take a few minutes to write their own value statements. Each member of the team read their five values aloud along with their statements. Some created a statement for each value, and others wove each value into more of a personal philosophy. My five values are integrity, respect and trust, efficiency, making a difference and personal development. Okay, technically I picked six, but I told you it was hard!

We all finished the activity with a better understanding of what we value as individuals and as the Community Leadership Team representing the North Carolina Community Foundation’s eight regions across the state. We left the retreat feeling refreshed and ready to take on the 2018 grants and scholarships season.

So … what are your five?