Following one of my keynotes on Return On Integrity, a participant approached me with great enthusiasm. He seemed completely energized by the session and engaged in the process of discovering his personal core values. He had already given a good bit of thought to his list of values, but rightfully admitted he had a way to go.

After talking about his commitment to his core values, he drifted to a judgmental assessment of his teammates. He began to complain, “if only they had the same commitment.” His tone changed from positive to pessimistic. And then he posed his inevitable question:

How do you deal with people like that?

Knowing that he was looking for some kind of behavioral roadmap for him to fix the team, I simply said … “I’m not sure. How would your core values answer that question?” He humbly smiled and said … “I got it. I got some work to do.”

Values build value.

And, while they don’t always provide direct black and white answers, they provide the trajectory of wisdom for exactly what you need.

I’d love to hear how you have “dealt” with a difficult teammate by dealing with your own core values. Please share below!