#75 From Parking Cars to Parking Purpose: Robert MacPhee on Living a Values-Driven Life — Part One
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What is the purpose of living a values-based life?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chan, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. A few years ago, I joined a growing venture as the chief people officer. It lasted just six weeks. To that CEO, I may have seemed incompetent, but I knew exactly why I had to leave so quickly. It was a major clash of values. I believe in being true and ethical in both words and deeds, while he thrived on a man-made facade of showmanship and hypocrisy. Knowing my values made the decision clear. This experience ties directly to today's guest. Robert Mercier. He's the author of Living a Values-Based Life and the creator of the leadership model called Excellent Decisions. In this two-part series, we'll dive into what values really mean, why they matter for leading fulfilling careers and lives, and why figuring out our values can be challenging. We'll also explore how to make our values visible and sustainable in a world that's constantly changing.
If you feel stuck in your current workplace, it's not necessarily your fault. Often, it's just a misalignment of values. Don't bend your values to fit in. Instead, find a place and a tribe whose values resonate with yours. That's where true happiness and success lie. Let's dive in.
Robert, I'm really excited to dive into the ideas behind your book, not just the content, but also the why behind it. What's the story behind this calling to write a book about value? Before we get there, I'd love to hear about your journey leading up to who you are today and the work you do, which have been shaped by your past, your experiences, your highs, your lows, and your challenges? What moments or turning points in your life that brought you to this very stage?
What key experiences shaped Robert MacPhee's journey?
The story like that can be a very long story, but I'll start it in the middle. My first career really was very entrepreneurial. A friend of mine and I started a parking company when I first graduated from college, and it turned out to be a wonderful entrepreneurial success. And as part of that, I ended up being the person in the organization who was handling all of the training and developing and hiring and and growing our people and creating a culture, which I just absolutely loved. And eventually I loved it so much that I actually transitioned out of this parking company that we had created. My partner bought me out and I went into doing the training and development work on a full-time basis. And I had the opportunity to connect with an amazing man that Many of your listeners have probably heard of. His name is Jack Canfield. He is best known as the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. And he's well known for that because they sold over 600 million books worldwide.
I had the great pleasure and honor of working with him for close to 10 years on the training side of his company and learning from him and working with him. And then eventually going out on my own, developing a concept that I called Excellent Decisions, which was about making decisions based on your vision and your values rather than all the external stress and pressure that we're faced with in today's world. Eventually, I narrowed that down even further and really focused mostly on values first. Because I realized that it's great to have a really compelling and exciting vision. But if that vision isn't aligned with your values, then it's not going to take you where you really want to go. So my work right now and the book that you referenced, the Living a Values-Based Life book, is really focused on first helping people to clarify what their most important values are so that they can then create a life and in many cases, create an organization or a business. that lines up with those values.
By your own definition, what exactly are values?
You're right. It is a really big term and we can go really deep into it. And I love doing that. That's what really energizes me around this whole conversation. And at the same time, in my experience, when we talk about what values actually are, it can be a very simple answer. The answer I would give is that our values are what is most important to us.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the purpose of living a values-based life?
0:11–3:50
2
What key experiences shaped Robert MacPhee's journey?
3:50–10:04
3
Why are values so hard to define and articulate?
10:04–13:19
4
How can knowing your values influence your life decisions?
13:19–17:19
5
What are the categories of values and why do they matter?
17:19–25:43
6
How can aligning actions with values lead to personal transformation?
25:43–28:25
7
Can you share real-life examples of transformation through values?
28:25–31:43
Speakers
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