#57: STICK to Your Values with John Saunders

Saunders spent more than two decades as a Wall Street SVP, sales team leader, and award-winning sales executive. He is now a coach, consultant & author. He spent years as a member of the Georgetown McDonough MBA Alumni Advisory Council and is an active angel investor. He is a long time regular contributor to the Executive MBA mentorship program and spent 3 years on the committee that built the mentorship program for the EMBA and MBA programs.

Top 3 Takeaways

1. Follow your heart. Life throws a lot at us, and we’re asked to make tough decisions every day. Being clear about our values helps us navigate with intention.
2. Put it to the test. When you’re clear about your mission and vision, these serve as a kind of litmus test to determine whether a given idea is worth pursuing. Otherwise, an idea may fizzle.
3. Balance it out. As storytellers, we need to ensure that our message is rooted in a strong foundation. Persuasion, structure, and the right amount of detail turn a good story into a great one.

From the Source

“The simplest definition of vision I'd like to use is: It's your ideal and maybe aspirational future. And maybe you never get there, but it's that big North Star that you say, ‘Hey, that's what we want to be when we grow up,’ right?”

“That's where the power is, that's where it became really powerful. It was pushing her, challenging her to think bigger.”

“It brings clarity on sort of how to think about things and how to bring new ideas forward for innovation and growth.”

“We're all in this together, but we need you all to come forward with ideas on how we get this, get this going. And it was all based on their values, mission, and vision.”

“It gave them something to lean on to say, ‘How do we make these decisions here in this very difficult environment?’”

“This is a message that needs to permeate every aspect of your organization.”

“You know that the inevitable stress point is going to come. And that cannot be the day that you suddenly say, ‘This is what we stand for, people.’”

“It's such an important part of being a leader to live and breathe those values and showcase that ‘This is how we do things.’”

Connect with John

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcs-optimizer/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcs_optimizer/

Links

Get John’s storytelling tip sheet: https://www.johncsaunders.com/storytelling