TLI – February 5, 2026 – Coach John Hackett

February 5, 2026

Question: How many of you use a GPS when driving? I admit I would be guilty. I use Maps almost every time I am in the car, even when going to places right down the road. I also am aware that sometimes I look at the MapS route and say, ” No, this is not a good choice, even if it saves 2 minutes, which rarely happens. The truth is, GPS takes you the most expedient, convenient route. On a short car trip, it’s not a big deal. In one’s leadership practice, choosing convenience over a harder, true path often leads to more serious complications and rarely results in steady, sustainable growth. My dear friend, colleague, and mentor, Dr. Jeanne Ford, a fellow Maxwell Leadership Executive Program Leader and experienced educator, shares the story and lessons from her journey as a school administrator in her soon-to-be-released (February 24, 2026) book, The Principal’s Leadership Journey, to inspire and guide future leaders. She notes leadership starts with finding your True North and mapping your values to guide your path. In fact, as Martin Luther King said, we (leaders) need to return to values that have been misplaced or left behind in favor of a GPS approach to convenience or, worse, self-interest. What Leaders need today in a changing world to guide their way is not GPS; it is a moral compass that points to True North. Dr. Ford eloquently says, “We don’t need a new theory; we must first find our True North .” True North will always be True North

When leaders talk about bringing their “best self” to those they lead, they are really talking about leading from their values, their True North that anchors purpose, mindset, and motivation. These elements are the core of leadership. Values are not a “nice extra”; they are the non‑negotiable core of leadership. Values are the foundation of our leadership practice because they define what matters most, shape why you lead, frame how you think, and fuel how you act under pressure.

big deal. In one’s leadership practice, choosing convenience over a harder, true path often leads to more serious complications and rarely results in steady, sustainable growth. My dear friend, colleague, and mentor, Dr. Jeanne Ford, a fellow Maxwell Leadership Executive Program Leader and experienced educator, shares the story and lessons from her journey as a school administrator in her soon-to-be-released (February 24, 2026) book, The Principal’s Leadership Journey, to inspire and guide future leaders. She notes leadership starts with finding your True North and mapping your values to guide your path. In fact, as Martin Luther King said, we (leaders) need to return to values that have been misplaced or left behind in favor of a GPS approach to convenience or, worse, self-interest. What Leaders need today in a changing world to guide their way is not GPS; it is a moral compass that points to True North. Dr. Ford eloquently says, “We don’t need a new theory; we must first find our True North .” True North will always be True North

Jewel Kinch‑Thomas, in a Tune into Leadership Blog, Dr. King: A Leader and His Values,notes that there are many effective leadership models—conscious, transformational, adaptive, servant—but “no advantage can be gained from any leadership model if there are no sustaining values.” Without values, even the best tools and techniques become hollow, manipulative, or short

Martin Luther King Jr. captured this so clearly, saying, “My friends, all I’m trying to say is that if we are to go forward today, we’ve got to go back and rediscover some mighty precious values that we’ve left behind. That’s the only way that we would be able to make our world a better world.” His point still holds: progress without values is dangerous; progress with values is transformational.

Many leaders active in the media demonstrate that values are “missing” today, not because organizations lack mission and values statements or because they are explicitly absent from government constitutions, but because there is often a gap between what leaders proclaim and what they practice. Kinch‑Thomas highlights that leaders often fall short when they “not behaving in a way that upholds our values.”

Dr. King’s life reminds us that values like justice, love, dignity, discipline, and service are not abstract ideals; they are lived commitments that cost something. When leaders lose contact with their deepest values, they drift into short-term self-interest, fear‑based decision-making, and reactive leadership that erodes trust.

This Thursday’s leadership Insight continues the series on bringing your Best Self in your leadership practice. This article explores the foundational power of values in a leader’s True North and how values show up in one’s leadership practice. Next, we will share how to find, review, and follow one’s True North, starting with values. A source for reviewing values and three questions developed by leadership author Mark Miller will be shared, with practical applications for answering them and addressing values misalignments.

A leader who understands, acknowledges, and acts in line with their values creates a True North. This values framework of behaviors provides clarity for the organization about what leaders will and will not do, even when it’s costly. It gives consistency, so people know what to expect from you. Values-based actions shape the culture because an organization’s culture (what we think, how we act, and how we interact )ultimately reflects its leader’s values.

A leader cannot articulate a coherent vision without first doing the inner work of self‑discovery and values clarity.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Values Shape Daily Leadership Practice

Values show up in everyone’s leadership every day, often in small, hidden moments. Richard Barrett defines values‑based leadership as “a way of making authentic decisions that builds the trust and commitment of employees and customers.” In practice, that means:

1. Decisions: Under pressure, a leader’s values determine whether you choose transparency or spin, people or politics, long‑term health or short‑term optics.

2. How people can expect to be treated by leadership: Dr. King’s commitment to love, forgiveness, and the “beloved community” shaped how he spoke about opponents and how he urged others to respond to injustice.

3. A leader’s values decide whether you use influence to serve, hoard, or harm. King’s belief that “everybody can be great… because anybody can serve” redefines leadership as service, not status.

4.. A leader’s values shape the organization’s culture. Jewel Kinch‑Thomas emphasizes, “an organization’s culture is a reflection of its leader’s values.” Your character becomes the organization’s character if your values are clear and lived, your culture trends toward clarity, trust, and alignment; if they are fuzzy or ignored, your culture trends toward confusion, fear, and cynicism.

“Leaders know the way, show the way, and go the way.”

John Maxwell

Leadership author Mark Miller offers three simple, searching questions that help leaders bring their values to the forefront as the True North of their practice. These questions go to the heart of leadership character, which becomes the organization’s character.

1. Do you know your values?

At the most basic level: Can you name your top three to five core values—the few that, if violated, would feel like a violation of who you are? Many leaders have vague ideas (“integrity,” “respect”) but haven’t done the hard work of prioritizing what truly sits at the center.

John Maxwell and many leadership practitioners, including me, suggest a values card sort activity, such as the Maxwell Leadership Values Cards, to help leaders identify and prioritize their top values. This can be done individually and as an executive team exercise. This process is most powerful when used as a periodic review with a professional coach, who provides objective, unbiased questions to help a leader and their team assess alignment across all leadership actions. An important point here is that, when completed with a team, it isn’t essential to have the exact same values and priorities, as long as they move in True North.

A periodic review can consider changes in context, in which leadership needs to re‑clarify what must remain non‑negotiable. Also changing responsibilities surfaces new tensions, revealing which values are truly core versus preferred.

For leadership cabinets or executive teams, a Maxwell Leadership values card activity helps clarify, often sparks vulnerability, and deepens trust and shared understanding. It also provides the opportunity to address misalignment and how to address it.

2. Do you share your values?

Are your values as a leader visible and communicated in a simple, usable form? Are the leader’s values reflected in the organization’s values and mission statement? Do the people a leader leads know what you stand for and why?

A clear statement of values sends a specific message to everyone in the organization and becomes a standard to guide decisions and leadership practices. Shared values function like visible guardrails: they help leaders and teams move in alignment with clarity, especially when the road ahead is foggy.

When values are written, displayed, and discussed, they also do something subtle but important: they remind everyone that even minor variances matter. When leaders rationalize “small exceptions,” they step onto what lawyers call the “slippery slope”, small compromises that lead to larger ethical breaches over time. In values language, the slope begins when we say, “Just this once.” The problem is that, just this once rarely is ever just once, it can become a drift away from who a leader and their organization say they are.

3. Do you and the organization live your values?

Actions speak louder than placards; here’s where the rubber truly hits the road. “It is possible to have a framed values statement and still make fear‑based decisions. Leaders can talk about a substantial value of respect and still tolerate and practice toxic behavior from high performers or preach service while leading from ego.

When leadership actions are aligned with proclaimed values, they model a way forward that people can feel and trust. When actions are misaligned, they send another subtle but clear message: “do as I say, not as I do,” which erodes trust, credibility,y and engagement.

Living your values requires: daily choices that cost you something—time, comfort, or convenience. Living your values requires courage to challenge misaligned practices, even if they are long‑standing.

Living your values requires inviting feedback when others see a gap between leadership intent and leadership actions and impacts. A leader must be able to ask and listen to responses to these three questions and act appropriately.

1. “What is it like to be on the other side of me?”

2. What do we say we stand for?

3. What are we known for?

Listening and responding to one’s values sends a clear message to followers, clients, and ourselves and our communities that leadership is striving to bring our best selves to our leadership practice, that True North is just that True North, no matter the cost.

The Leadership challenge for you then is :

1. Will you choose to review your values? Identify your top three to five core values and write them down. If you haven’t done a values card sort or exercise recently, schedule time this month to do it.

2. Will you choose to share your values? Communicate them with your team, connect them to your organization’s mission and values, and invite others to hold you accountable when they see gaps.

3. Will you choose to practice your values? Choose one difficult decision, one relationship, and one routine practice where you will consciously align your actions with your values this week, with no excuses, no shortcuts.

When you choose to share and live your values, you bring your best self to those you lead. In doing so, you follow your true Northand help your organization, as Dr. King urged, “go forward” by returning to the values that make our world and our workplaces better places for all.