Transforming Leadership Through Values
Kevin Cottam is a leadership coach, inspirational speaker, and author. He is also a former elite figure skater, choreographer, and director of the 1988 Calgary Olympic Closing Ceremonies. Today he leverages his real-life research to grow and encourage leaders to lead masterfully with a deeper awareness of themselves and their organization.
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by Emma Aasa
Hi Kevin, what is your story with Point of Value?
Kevin: I became a certified Point of Value facilitator back in 2005. This has become a driving force and change maker in my leadership coaching. Once people realize their values and we go through them, suddenly, the light starts to go off on the way they see the rest of their lives, their actions, and their relationships.
I’m very invested in value work. I often hear phrases like "Well, it doesn't work with my values," and then I will ask, "Well, what are they?" And they'll say the same as everyone else will say: trust, honesty, loyalty. But these people often don't know the expansiveness of their values. And that's where you need to go deep-diving to find them. And when you do this, an instrument such as Value.Online is useful. And the provocation is, why not go deep-diving? What would that do for you as an individual, and what would it do for others? What would it do for your conversations? What if it would help you discover the fullness of who you are and what the situation is asking for?
You have done a lot of traveling and living in different parts of the world. Has it impacted your work as a leadership coach?
Kevin: It has greatly expanded my viewpoint. My understanding of individuals, of cultures, of human capacity. My aspects of values have also widened. I spent time with Maasai in Kenya, Berbers and other tribes in Sahara in Southern Morocco and with bushmen and the Himba in Namibia, and their whole being is interconnected, not only with nature and animals – but also with the stars and environment and community. All of this to them, is interconnected, and so are their values. Even though the nomads have a more simplistic way of life, the urban society has become too complex. Therefore, we can't even see the forest for the trees. But they see the forest, they see all these things in their simplicity.
Can you share something you like about Point of Value?
Kevin: One thing I love about Point of Value is something I call de-transforming the soup. Imagine that your values are swimming in a cream soup inside of you. And in that soup, you have no idea what's in it. Maybe you taste something, but you can’t really distinguish what it is. So, we're doing a reverse transformation; we're taking the broccoli, we're taking the cumin, the carrots, the potatoes or perhaps the alphabet macaroni – we're taking all the ingredients out and pinpoint them. Now you can see them and experience them. And that's what we're doing with values. We are transfixing them and shining a light on them.