A practical, research-based guide to maximizing the most overlooked driver of lasting success and fulfillment-your values.
What if one simple shift could make you feel as satisfied as getting an $84,000 raise? Research shows that really understanding your core values-and living by them-can deliver just that. Yet most of us struggle with this. We go about our work and our lives with only a vague sense of the values that underpin everything we do.
In What Do You Really Stand For? Columbia Business School professor Paul Ingram reveals that values are far more than a moral compass-they're a source of advantage that can boost your performance, your leadership effectiveness, and your well-being.
Drawing on decades of research and the frameworks he's used with students and executives, Ingram presents a set of exercises and tools to help you articulate your values, integrate them into your work and life, build stronger relationships, and achieve better outcomes in all that you do.
Whether you're navigating a career decision or managing conflict, leading a team or an entire organization, or simply trying to live with greater purpose, What Do You Really Stand For? offers a powerful guide to taking more intentional control of your life and career-and leading yourself and others with more clarity, confidence, and purpose.
About the Author :
Paul Ingram is the Kravis Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. He has received Columbia's highest recognition for teaching, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, as well as the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence and thirteen teaching awards voted on by graduating students at Columbia and Cornell Universities.
Review :
Advance Praise for What Do You Really Stand For?:
"Paul Ingram has changed my life. And What Do You Really Stand For? will change yours too. His insights into the importance of values are not only rigorously scientific but deeply practical. His engaging exploration will lead you to epiphany upon epiphany and prepare you to transform the world around you." — Adam Galinsky, bestselling author, Inspire; coauthor, Friend & Foe
"Paul Ingram has written a masterful book that will be invaluable to anyone seeking to elevate both their organization's performance and the quality of their relationships. The tools he has crafted for discovering one's values are truly priceless. With clarity and wisdom, What Do You Really Stand For? simplifies both work and life, empowering you to operate on a higher level." — Claude Grunitzky, CEO and Managing Partner, the Equity Alliance; cofounder, Trace Television and True Agency
"All good leaders know that values are important, but what can be less familiar is how to turn them into better, longer-term decisions, relationships, and performance. This practical and powerful book offers a way. What Do You Really Stand For? provides helpful tools for improving yourself, your leadership, and your organization." — Marco Amitrano, Alliance Senior Partner, PwC UK and Middle East
"What Do You Really Stand For? is about how to stand tall as a person. It's unique because it marvelously balances poetry and plumbing: the book shows how values imbue our lives with meaning but also provides a suite of very practical tools to enable you to walk your talk. A must-have for both the novice and the veteran!" — Hayagreeva Rao, Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources, Stanford Graduate School of Business; coauthor, The Friction Project
"This book provides a powerful framework, showing how aligning individual values with organizational goals can foster authentic leadership, enhance psychological safety, and build a truly inclusive and high-performing culture. A leadership must-read." — Erika Irish Brown, Global Head, Talent Management and Engagement, Citi
