Values-Based Leadership: Paul Ingram's Decision Framework

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Paul Ingram of Columbia Business School on Values-Based Leadership and the Laddering Technique

Paul Ingram is the Kravis Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and author of What Do You Really Stand For? The One Question That Will Transform Your Work and Life. He tells Anika Jackson what his research shows about personal values and success at work, including the finding that values alignment explains more than 30 percent of job satisfaction, roughly ten times the contribution of salary. He also explains laddering, his technique for identifying the values you already hold.

His interest started almost by accident. Paul Ingram noticed experienced executives coming out of coaching sessions visibly changed after clarifying their core values. He wanted to know whether that change led to real outcomes, and the answer changed how he understood leadership.

Why do values matter more than salary for job satisfaction?

Because values alignment accounts for more than 30 percent of job satisfaction, about ten times what salary contributes. Paul Ingram's research shows that when people's values match their workplace, organizations see stronger collaboration, trust and performance. Employees share information more freely and contribute more. When values do not match, turnover rises and engagement falls.

He describes this as a rare equilibrium, where what benefits the individual also benefits the organization. Yet most people go through their careers without clearly naming what they stand for or which principles guide their biggest decisions.

What is the laddering technique?

A way to find your core values by repeatedly asking "why." Paul Ingram developed it because choosing from a ready-made list of values frustrates people: everything on the list looks important. Laddering works like this:

• Start with a practical question, such as a decision or direction you are weighing.
• List the alternatives available to you.
• For each choice, keep asking "why." Every answer reveals a deeper principle of evaluation.
• Keep climbing until you reach your core values, and see how they rank against each other.

The result is rarely what people would have picked from a list. It is the hierarchy of values they already hold.

Why do most people struggle to name their values?

They lack the vocabulary, not the values. Using this approach, Paul Ingram has surveyed more than 10,000 people around the world. Roughly 70 to 80 percent think about their values only occasionally and cannot articulate them. Without that clarity, decisions are easily driven by outside pressure, social expectations or short-term incentives.

His aim is to move leaders from vague aspirations to daily practices that build values into decisions. For entrepreneurs and brand leaders, knowing what you stand for is the basis for decisions you can defend and a culture people want to join.

Key takeaways

• Values alignment accounts for more than 30 percent of job satisfaction, about ten times the effect of salary.
• Aligned values improve collaboration, trust, information sharing and performance; misalignment raises turnover.
• Laddering, asking "why" about real choices, surfaces the values you already hold better than a pre-made list.
• Roughly 70 to 80 percent of the more than 10,000 people Paul Ingram surveyed lack language for their values.
• Clear values protect decisions from outside pressure and short-term incentives.

For readers who want to go further, Paul Ingram's book from Harvard Business Review Press, What Do You Really Stand For? The One Question That Will Transform Your Work and Life, offers frameworks and tools for clarifying your values and applying them to leadership.

Listen to Anika Jackson's full conversation with Paul Ingram on Your Brand Amplified.