Your Values Are Your
Leadership Operating System

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Hey Spark Family,

As the first month of 2026 comes to a close, I’ve been thinking about something that doesn’t make many leadership headlines - but quietly shapes everything: values.

Most leaders can list their company’s values. Fewer can name their own. And even fewer can point to where those values show up in their calendar, their decisions, and their culture.

Your values are the anchor of how you lead.

They determine what you protect, what you pursue, and what you walk away from. And when there’s a gap between what you value and what your company says it values, everyone feels it.

The Research Is Clear

➡ Studies from Deloitte show that companies with strong, clearly lived values outperform their peers by over 30% in engagement and profitability.

➡ Gallup’s 2025 data backs it up: employees who feel connected to their organization’s values are five times more likely to stay long-term.

Yet most organizations stop at the poster version - aspirational words on a wall, not lived experiences in daily work.

The same goes for leaders. When values become vague statements instead of active filters, decision fatigue sets in. We start reacting instead of leading.

What I'm Seeing In The Field

The best leaders I work with right now have one thing in common: they lead through their values, not around them.

When things get chaotic - a tough conversation, a team reorg, a shifting market - they return to their values as a compass, not a slogan.

And every time they do, they lead with more clarity, calm, and conviction.

At Spark Brilliance, we’ve done this work from the inside out: clarifying our individual leadership values, then codifying them into shared commitments we can all see and act on together.

Inside Spark Brilliance, our core values guide how we work and how we lead:
✨ Move with purpose. Build with speed.​
✨ Own it fully. Celebrate it loudly.​
✨ People over everything. Always.​
✨ Keep it brilliantly simple.​
✨ Play bigger. Lead what’s next.​
✨ Rise together. Win together.

Each one grounds how we think, decide, and show up - but one in particular has become our north star lately:

Play Bigger. Lead What’s Next.

That value is our reminder that leadership isn’t just about reacting to change - it’s about creating what comes next. It’s about courage over comfort. Imagination over imitation.

And it’s the belief that when we stretch beyond what feels familiar, we give others permission to do the same.

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When your values are visible in your behavior, not just in your branding, leadership feels a lot more natural.

People know what to expect from you. Conversations get more honest. And culture becomes something you shape on purpose, instead of something that quietly happens around you.

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🌟 Your Challenge This Week

Take ten minutes to reflect on your own leadership backbone:

1. What are the three values that matter most to you - the ones you refuse to compromise on?
2. Where do those values show up in your actions, not just your intentions?
3. Where might you need to realign?

Values aren’t just what you say. They’re what you repeat, protect, and prioritize.

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With gratitude,
​Jackie

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P.S. – If you’re leading a team, try this: ask each person to share one personal value that guides how they work best. You’ll learn more about your team in ten minutes than most managers do in a month - and you’ll see how personal values and shared values shape your culture in a whole new light. ✨

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