From Values Clarity to Strong Ground: Living Your Leadership Values Under Pressure

In my previous article on personal and organisational values, we explored how to identify your values and operationalise them into behaviours. We discussed how values show up when we’re making decisions and functioning at our best, and how teams can build connection through shared understanding of what matters most.

But here’s the challenge that many leaders face: What happens when you’re under pressure? When uncertainty hits your organisation? When the ground beneath you feels unstable?

This is where Brené Brown’s latest work, Strong Ground, takes us deeper into values-based leadership. And it’s a conversation that’s particularly relevant for leaders navigating today’s complex business environments.

The Problem with Fifteen Values

During Dare to Lead™ programs, I often watch participants circle ten, twelve, even fifteen values from the list. They’re all important. They all matter. And that’s exactly the problem.

In her research on daring leaders Brené found something fascinating: they never had more than one or two core values. Not fifteen. Not ten. One or two. Even if they started wtih that many initially. 

In Strong Ground, Brené explains that these daring leaders recognise many things as important, but they identify just two values as the foundation where everything else is built. These are the bedrock of how these leaders make decisions and show up in the world.

Your core values aren’t just items on a list. They’re the foundation of who you are and where all your other priorities, decisions, and behaviours are forged.

Values Aren’t Just What You Care About—They’re What You Sacrifice For

During a recent conversation between Brené Brown and organisational psychologist Adam Grant, there was a powerful reframe from Adam which could change how we think about values identification.

He said: “Values aren’t just what you care about. They’re what you sacrifice for.”

This distinction is crucial for leaders. We all care about many things. But what are you willing to give up? What do you actually sacrifice time, comfort, ego, or ease for?

Adam shared his own example: He noticed himself sacrificing time with friends to respond to people’s requests for help. That revealed that being helpful, making a contribution, was a core value. He saw himself walking into situations where he might fail because he wanted to get better, revealing his commitment to excellence and integrity.

The Sacrifice Test: A Practical Exercise

Look at your calendar and your decisions over the past month. Ask yourself:

• What did I give up, and why?

• When did I choose the harder path, and what was I honouring?

• What made me uncomfortable, but I did it anyway?

• Where did I invest time or energy that wasn’t required?

Your answers may reveal your true values. Not the ones you think you should have, but the ones you’re actually living.

Finding Your Strong Ground: Why Two Core Values?

Brené’s two core values are faith and courage. In Strong Ground, she describes how these values show up in her daily leadership, even when it’s difficult. Her commitment to faith means choosing to see the humanity in everyone, even when it would be easier to write someone off. Her commitment to courage means having more difficult conversations, because avoiding them would mean living outside her values.

When you narrow to two core values, something powerful happens:

• Decision-making becomes clearer

• You can articulate what you stand for

• Your team knows what to expect from you

• You have a compass when the ground feels unstable

This is your strong ground—the foundation that holds steady when everything else is shifting.

The Body Knows: Energy-Giving vs. Depleting

Here’s something I’ve observed facilitating Dare to Lead™ programs, When we ask participants to share times they were aligned to or unaligned to their values, a pattern emerges.

Connected or aligned with your values: Difficult, challenging, sometimes exhausting—but ultimately energy-giving. You might lose sleep preparing for a hard conversation, but when it’s done, you feel more energised, more aligned, more yourself.

Outside or unaligned with your values: Easier on the surface, but absolutely depleting. It’s easier to complain about someone than to talk to them directly. It’s easier to avoid conflict than to address it. But these “easier” choices leave you feeling hollowed out.

Alignment isn’t just a cognitive exercise. It’s something you feel in your body.

The Embodied Values Exercise

This exercise, drawn from Dare to Lead™ and expanded in Strong Ground, helps you connect to your values through your lived experience:

1. Recall a time you were unaligned with your values. What did it feel like in your body? Where did you feel it? 

2. Recall a time you were aligned with your values. What did it feel like in your body? How was it different?

3. Notice the pattern. Unaligned values often feels depleting, heavy, disconnected. Aligned values feels energising, whole. Even when it’s hard.

This body-based awareness becomes your early warning system. When you notice depletion, resentment, or disconnection, you can ask: “Where am I unaligned with my values right now?”

Strong Ground in Leadership

In my work with APAC organisations across mutliple sectors, from construction to IT, advertising to retail, I’ve seen how values clarity becomes even more critical during times of change.

Mergers and acquisitions. Restructures. Market disruption. Leadership transitions. These are the moments when your strong ground matters most.

Leaders with clear core values can:

• Make faster, more confident decisions

• Communicate with clarity and authenticity

• Build trust even in uncertain times

• Model the behaviour they want to see

• Create psychological safety when teams need it most, demonstrating consistency

This isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about having a foundation to stand on while you figure things out together.

From Identification to Integration: The Next Step

If you’ve already done the work of identifying and operationalising your values, the Strong Ground framework invites you to go deeper:

1. Narrow your list. If you have more than two core values, ask: which two are “foundational” for everything else?

2. Apply the sacrifice test. What are you actually willing to give up for these values?

3. Notice the body signals. When do you feel aligned vs. depleted?

4. Practice under pressure. Your values aren’t truly yours until you’ve lived them when it’s hard.

Building Your Strong Ground: Next Steps

Values work isn’t a one-time exercise. It’s an ongoing practice of alignment, especially for leaders who want to create cultures of courage and psychological safety.

In the Dare to Lead™ program, we spend significant time on values, building them into team culture, and using them as a foundation for courageous leadership. 

If you’re ready to do this work with your team:

• The full Dare to Lead™ leadership development program is available in person over three days

• We can conduct a Fearless Organisation Scan to assess psychological safety in your team [this is a  separate piece of work]

• Individual executive coaching is available for leaders wanting to deepen their practice

After an initial consultation, I’ll submit a full proposal with detailed objectives for how the program can meet your organisation’s leadership development needs.

Your Strong Ground Starts with Clarity

In times of uncertainty, your values are your strong ground. One or two core values that you can name, that you sacrifice for, that you feel in your body, and that you live even when it’s hard.

That’s the foundation of courageous leadership. That’s your strong ground.

Ready to find yours?

Get in touch via julia@tceo.com.au to discuss how Dare to Lead™ can help you and your team build the strong ground you need for the challenges ahead.

Reference:
Brown, Brené (2025). Strong Ground. Random House.
Brown, Brené (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts. Random House, pp. 185–217.
Grant, Adam & Brown, Brené (2025). “Brené Brown on Courageous Leadership.” ReThinking with Adam Grant podcast, TED Audio Collective. Link to YouTube