Chief Change Officer
#76 From Parking Cars to Parking Purpose: Robert MacPhee on Living a Values-Driven Life — Part Two
Fri, 22 Nov 2024
Part Two. In this 2-part series, we sat down with Robert MacPhee. From parking cars to co-piloting lives, Robert has gone full throttle with his best-selling book Living a Values-Based Life A former right-hand man to Chicken Soup for the Soul’s Jack Canfield, Robert now helps people figure out their life’s GPS—or rather, their VBS (Values-Based System). Why are we so bad at knowing what we actually value? How can aligning your actions with your core values make work feel less like work? And why does he have such strong opinions about clarity? Robert dishes out wisdom with a side of wit, helping us tackle life’s big questions with plenty of “aha” moments and a few laughs along the way. Key Highlights of Our Interviews: Why It’s So Hard to Define Our Own Values “Most people’s initial list of values often reflects what they think others want to hear. We’re so conditioned to impress others or meet external expectations that it’s challenging to pause and ask: What truly matters to me? The real magic begins when we strip away external noise and align with our authentic priorities.” How a Values-Based Life Can Improve Work “Clarity about values doesn’t just make personal life better—it’s transformative for work too. Aligning your actions with priorities like contribution or integrity can help you show up fully, even in challenging moments. That alignment makes work feel purposeful instead of draining.” Do Values Change Over Time? The Short Answer: Yes. “Values aren’t set in stone—they evolve with life stages and circumstances. For instance, what mattered to you in high school may be worlds apart from what tops your list in your sixties or seventies. Life experiences, like becoming a parent or caring for aging loved ones, naturally shift our focus, making values an ongoing conversation, not a one-time declaration.” Keeping Values Visible “The importance of keeping your values front and center can’t be overstated. Whether on your phone, bathroom mirror, or bedside table, revisiting your values regularly keeps them aligned with your current life stage. A daily reminder to reflect, re-anchor, and adjust ensures your values stay relevant.” _________________________ Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Robert MacPhee Chief Change Officer: Make Change Ambitiously. Experiential Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives Global Top 3% Podcast on Listen Notes World's #1 Career Podcast on Apple Top 1: US, CA, MX, IE, HU, AT, CH, FI, JP 2 Millions+ Downloads 50+ Countries --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.18 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1.5% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>170,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Why is it important to know your values?
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. My follow-up question is about what happens after we identify our values.
Chapter 2: How can we practice our values consistently?
Even if we genuinely figure out and believe in them, whatever those values are, like honesty, humanity, the next step is the hardest, practicing them consistently. How do you advise your clients to implement their values in daily life? For businesses, this could be challenging, but equally difficult for individuals. Even with the best intentions, staying mindful and consistent isn't easy.
How do you suggest we monitor and sustain our actions to align with our values? Talk is cheap. I believe talk and talk and walk the walk matters when it comes to implementation of values. If I were your client asking, we've identified my values. What do I do next? How would you guide me?
I'm so glad you brought that up because without that approach, without saying, how do we apply this? How do we put this into action? How do we implement it? It's all really just an interesting conversation. And you brought up a really good point. Sometimes people can get caught up in the words that really sound good and will make a good impression on someone else.
When people are first doing this work, We live in a world where we're trying to impress other people and make other people happy so much of the time. Sometimes it's a really big stretch for people to really be honest with themselves and say what really is, aside from what anyone else might think, What is really most important to me? And for most people, that takes a period of time.
Their first list might reflect what sounds good to other people. That's just normal. That's just the world we live in. But where the rubber really hits the road, where this really makes a difference in people's lives, is when we start to apply it. And this is one of the beautiful things.
This is one of the reasons why I think our values-based life approach, where we are taking values and dividing them into these two categories, why it's so useful is because it's actually pretty easy to apply. Once we have these two lists, we can literally look at those lists and in any moment we can self-assess how we're doing
in the areas or the qualities and characteristics that are on that list. For instance, again, myself, I can look at my list of priorities and say, okay, I have declared that my relationship with my children is number one on my list. How am I doing? How are my relationships with my children? How much, how's the communication? How much time am I spending with them?
Do they know, do they really know that I love them unconditionally? Do they know that I'm here to support them in any way I possibly can? And I'm really blessed because I can ask those questions and We'd have to double check with them to be 100% sure, but I'm very confident that the quality of those relationships that I have with my children is really good.
I put the time and attention into that because I know it's always on the top of that list when I look at it. And I'll go right down the list and I'll say,
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Chapter 3: Do values change over time?
Chapter 4: How can we keep our values visible and relevant?
As you were sharing, I couldn't help but think... is not just about the different stages of our lives or the roles we play. For example, I transitioned from corporate life to entrepreneurship, moving from a world of abundant resources to one where I'm spending my own money testing ideas and navigating uncertainties. Big changes like these influence our values,
Now, one could argue that if I value honesty, it should stay constant regardless of my circumstances. True, but even the interpretation or perception of honesty evolves over time. As I play new roles and build up different experiences, I found that how I uphold honesty adapts For example, with certain people or situations, I might feel the need to stand firm in my values.
But with others, especially those who don't operate, honestly, I might decide it's not worth engaging or holding them to the same standard. is not about abandoning my value, but recognizing when and how to apply it. This evolution, I think, speaks to how our brains collect data and adjust over time. Sometimes is a conscious recalibration.
Other times is our minds engaging in what I call self-justification. helping us rationalize our actions in ways that align with what we want to believe. So when values may shift, the interpretation and application of those values change as we grow and learn.
Yeah, I think this is a really good example that you brought up a couple of times about honesty, because it points out a few things. One is just because honesty is not on my list of my top five most important ways of being doesn't mean that honesty isn't important to me.
And for some people, like this process of narrowing down their list, we generally go through a process where we do brainstorming and we tap into a deep heart energy to get beyond just our mental capacity and really tap into what's really most important to us. And we gather all these words that describe our ways of being and how we want to show up in the world.
And we have honesty and integrity and commitment and kindness and care and love. And there's all these wonderful, amazing words. And then I feel like I'm torturing people because I say, okay, now pick your top five. And sometimes it's really hard for people and understandably because how it feels like you're saying no to some of these amazing qualities and characteristics. But we're really not.
A couple of things we can be aware of and something that we can do. One thing to be aware of is we can do what's called borrowing values. Again, I'll use an example from my own list. I told you I have values on my list like money. calm and peaceful and caring and kind and humility, these are the words that come up over and over for me. And I'm also an entrepreneur.
I run a business like this work with values. I'm coaching people and I'm doing consulting with organizations and I'm getting this work out there and trying to make this big difference. And you know what? The truth is sometimes being kind and caring and calm and peaceful is not the most important quality and characteristics. Sometimes it's things like discipline and strength and
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Chapter 5: What steps can we take to implement our values?
gotten people to understand even better how important values are and hopefully this approach of dividing values into two categories and getting really clear about what our highest priorities are and what our most important ways of being are. Hopefully people can see how valuable that would really be. So the invitation that I would want to leave people with is to do two things.
To begin to explore what your own highest priorities are and what your own most important ways of being are. And you can do that by first asking yourself a question. To begin to explore what your highest priorities are, you can begin by setting a timer for three to five minutes and taking a blank sheet of paper and asking yourself the question, what is important to me over and over again?
Just ask yourself, what is important to me and write down whatever answer comes to mind. Don't question it. Don't judge it. Try and put them in order. Don't Wonder where it came from. Just ask yourself the question. Let your brilliant mind do the work to capture as many answers as you can in three to five minutes to that question. What is important to me?
And from that, you can then start pursuing this conversation about maybe that top five list and what are the most important. But the first step is to capture the answers to that question. What is important to me? And then the second part of the invitation would be on the ways of being side. And the first step I invite people to take is to finish a sentence.
And the sentence is, it is important to me to be blank. And you can do the same thing three to five minutes with a blank sheet of paper and just fill in the blank at the end of that sentence over and over again. If it was me, I would be saying it is important to me to be kind and caring. It is important to me to be humble. It is important to me to be peaceful and calm.
And I might borrow those values I was talking about. It's important to me to be strong and disciplined and focused. But take those three to five minutes and answer that question and fill in the blank at the end of that sentence. And then you've taken the first step on this journey to being able to clearly articulate what your own highest values are. And from there, you'll be able to start thinking
Thinking from that place of knowing what your highest values are, making decisions based on those values, most importantly, saying no to the things that are not on your list, and then taking action. Again, like you said, and I'm so glad you did, implementation, application, putting it into action is where we really make a difference. And without that, it's really just an interesting conversation.
I like your quote. without implementation is just a nice conversation. Thank you so much, Robert.
Thank you for having me. When I first saw Chief Change Officer, I knew that you and I needed to have this conversation because values are such an important part of making the changes that we want in our life. So I'm thrilled we had the chance to do this.
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