Welcome to Amandla – The Power Within’s brand new segment: “Go Deeper”!
In this series, host Mpeo Nkosi teams up with Coach Alicia Pieterse of Nurturing Growth Trading to explore the burning questions that arise after guest interviews. Get ready for actionable insights, practical tools, and authentic conversations that will empower you to live a more intentional and fulfilling life.
In this inaugural “Go Deeper” episode, Mpeo and Coach Alicia tackle the question: “At what point do we start living a values-driven life, and does it even matter?” Inspired by a conversation with Melusi Tshabalala on the episode “Magenge we need to talk”, Mpeo reflects on the importance of integrity and the challenges of aligning actions with core values. Coach Alicia shares her expertise, offering practical tools like the “Wheel of Life” to help listeners identify, prioritise, and evolve their values.
The question Mpeo and Coach Alicia sat with is one almost every leader meets sooner or later: at what point do we start living by our values, and does it actually change anything? It does — and the difference shows up in how steady you are under pressure, how clearly you make decisions, and how people experience you over time.
What is a values-driven life?
A values-driven life is one where your daily choices are guided by what genuinely matters to you, rather than by habit, fear, or other people's expectations. Your values are the deep, non-negotiable principles — integrity, courage, family, growth, service — that sit underneath your behaviour. When your work and your life are aligned to them, you feel coherent. When they are not, you feel the friction long before you can name it.
Values-driven leadership simply extends that idea into how you lead. Instead of reacting to whatever is loudest, you lead from a clear centre — and that centre becomes the filter for where you spend your attention, energy, and trust.
Why values-driven leadership matters
Leaders who drift from their values rarely fail dramatically. More often it is quiet: saying yes to things that drain them, postponing hard decisions, and slowly losing credibility with the people who matter most. Leading from your values does the opposite — it roots you and clarifies what deserves your focus.
- Clearer, faster decisions, because your values do the deciding for you.
- Greater consistency — people know what you stand for and what to expect.
- More energy and less burnout, because you stop spending yourself on what doesn't matter.
- Deeper trust, which becomes your real legacy as a leader.
It's not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are. — Roy E. Disney
How to start living by your values
Living by your values is a practice, not a one-off declaration. A simple, repeatable process helps you move from good intentions to deliberate choices:
- Identify the values that genuinely matter to you — start with a long list, then narrow it down.
- Prioritise your four core values, the ones you would protect even when it costs you something.
- Define each one in action: what does integrity, or courage, or growth actually look like in your week?
- Align your calendar and commitments to those values, and renegotiate what doesn't fit.
- Review regularly — values are stable, but how well you are living them changes constantly.
Use the Wheel of Life
One of the practical tools Coach Alicia uses is the Wheel of Life — a simple balance profile. You rate your satisfaction, from the centre (no satisfaction) to the outer rim (complete satisfaction), across the key areas of your life and work. The gaps between where you are and where you want to be quickly reveal which values you are honouring and which you are quietly neglecting.
Where values-driven leadership shows up at work
The pay-off is not abstract. When your values do the deciding, hiring gets clearer — you know the character you are looking for, not just the CV. Feedback gets kinder and braver. Strategy stops swinging with every trend, because it is anchored to something that does not move. Your team learns what you will and will not tolerate, and that consistency is exactly what earns their trust.
It also protects you. The leaders who burn out quietly are usually those who have outsourced their priorities to other people's urgency. A clear set of values gives you permission to say no — not out of rigidity, but because you have already decided what your yes is for.
Common questions
What is the difference between values and goals?
Goals are destinations; values are the direction you travel in. You can achieve a goal and still feel empty if you got there in a way that betrayed your values. Values give your goals meaning — and keep you steady when a goal falls away.
How do I know what my core values really are?
Look at where you feel most alive and most resentful. Energy points to a value being honoured; resentment usually points to one being crossed. A structured exercise — like the Wheel of Life or a coaching session — turns those signals into a clear, prioritised list.
Can my values change over time?
Your deepest values tend to be remarkably stable, but their order can shift as your life changes — a new role, a new season, a loss. That is exactly why it helps to revisit them, rather than assume the list you wrote years ago still leads you well today.
Gain clarity, realign your focus, and lead with purpose. If you want to lead with greater focus, this is where it starts.