Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,
What does it take for a life to be lived to the fullest? What does it take for an organization to consistently achieve its purposes and to be a quality workplace and a valuable corporate citizen?  What does it take for a community to thrive and create quality of life and opportunities for its people?  What does it take for a nation to provide a reliable foundation for it communities, organizations and people and to be resilient in a global context? 

We think it begins with identifying what really matters to us--the values that represent what we most deeply desire for ourselves, for others, and for the planet—and consciously and consistently reflecting them in our decisions and actions.

Breaches of the public trust revealed in the economic collapse of 2008 and alleged negligence in the largest oil spill in US history represent tactical, short-term choices that eclipse enduring values that serve the common good. It is time to turn our attention to the kind of leadership which replaces discouragement and skepticism with a vision of what’s possible and the courage and imagination to realize a better future. We often tolerate dysfunction and disengagement in our workplaces like a low grade headache that seems inevitable. It’s time to pay attention to the cultures of our organizations—our everyday habits of thought and action—that generate our workplace experience. It’s time to focus on what generates sustainable prosperity. It turns out that is coincident with respect and service to others as well as respect and care of the natural environment.

Bringing values into the same sentence with leaderhip has been on the rise for the past decade as evidenced by increasing discussion in professional and trade publications and in public media, yet there are currently few professional academic organizations focused on this form of leadership practice. The Royal Roads University Institute for Values-Based Leadership was established to create knowledge and fostering leadership practices that strengthen the cultures of communities and organizations to support leaders to deliver on their goals and purposes in a way that balances health self-interest and the common good.  It is about developing leadership capacity characterized by wisdom, long-term perspective, commitment to service and to one’s personal best.

We invite you to explore our website and we hope you will contact us  and actively join with us in advancing the practice of values-based leadership. 

To read more about Marilyn's perspective on values and VBL, click here to visit our blog.

Marilyn M. Taylor, PhD
Director, Institute for Values-Based Leadership