Chief Change Officer - Life GPS: Robert MacPhee on Values-Based Living — Part Two

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

Part Two. Robert MacPhee once parked cars—now he helps people find their parking spot in life. As a former right-hand to Chicken Soup for the Soul’s Jack Canfield and the author of Living a Values-Based Life, he’s all about helping people shift gears toward purpose. In this episode, we tackle life’s tricky intersections: Why do we struggle to define what we value? How does aligning your actions with your values make life smoother? And what’s with Robert’s strong opinions on clarity? Tune in for some deep insights, a few laughs, and maybe even a tune-up for your own life’s GPS. 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 2.5% Podcast on Listen Notes World's #1 Career Podcast on Apple Top 1: US, CA, MX, IE, HU, AT, CH, FI 5 Million+ Downloads 80+ Countries

Hi everyone, welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. I'll show it 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 their 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.

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 Merci 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, in. Instead, find a place in 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. 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 the values in daily life? For businesses, this could be challenging,

but equally difficult for individuals. Even with the best intentions, staying mind-vote 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 a hundred percent 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

contribution is second on my list. How is that going? And honestly, that's an area I'm putting more time and attention in, because this values work, I feel like can be such a huge contribution to individuals, to organizations, to the world. Just imagine if more people, what if everyone was really clear

about what their highest values were? Imagine how that would change just like the political discourse for starters. Like, what a difference that would make if people were coming from a place and acting from a place of real clarity about their highest values. So again, we can look at our priorities and say, how do I want to shift my time and attention to create more of the results and more of the experiences that I want?

And the same thing with the ways of being. I can look at my list and I can say, I've said that it's my intention to be really humble. How am I doing with that? Am I being Mr. know-it-all? I have all the answers and telling everyone else what they should do. That doesn't sound very humble. Or am I really showing up in my relationships with other people and listening and asking

questions and being curious and genuinely wanting to support, then I'm doing pretty good. Like I can literally look at all the items on my list of highest values and I can self assess and we actually we use a process in our work called the four A's as an implementation process. And it starts with this assessment. And the second A is area. It's assessing or choosing an area to focus on. Like I told you with my priorities, I might choose contribution as an area to focus on.

I say, I wanna make a bigger contribution. What actions can I take? There's that third A. That's the next thing we're gonna look at and say, what is an action I can take? What are multiple actions that I take? There's that third A. That's the next thing we're going to look at and say, what is an action I can take? What are multiple actions that I can take that will allow me to make an even bigger contribution? Because making a contribution is really important to me. And then the fourth A is accountability.

Because it's one thing if I say that I'm going to take an action to make an even bigger contribution. But if I declare that I'm going to take an action to make an even bigger contribution. But if I declare that action to you and I know you're going to check back with me and say, hey, remember you told me that you were going to get on five podcasts a week to really get your message out there? How's that going? That level of accountability is going to create the opportunity for me to be even more likely to complete those actions that I'm saying I'm committed to take.

Do values change over time with new experiences and perspectives? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think the simplest way for anyone who's listening to this conversation and thinking about their own values and what they might be. You can think back to an earlier time in your life. I'm in my 60s. I can think all the way back to college or high school. And what was important to me at that time in my life has changed.

So it's just, it's situational to some degree. And I think as my life progresses and I get into my 70s or my 80s and I'm retiring, the things that are most important to me, some might change and some might not, but they're definitely not fixed. I had a fascinating conversation with someone this week who I had just talked to about this whole values conversation about two months previous. And I was catching up with her and she was telling me a story about how her mother is not well her mother had a

fall and was requiring quite a bit of attention and care and help and so this had become a big priority for her so literally just a couple of months ago it wouldn't have even been part of the conversation about what her highest values were but in all of a sudden that got changed like the world it wouldn't have even been part of the conversation about what her highest values were. But all of a sudden, that got changed. Like the world situations, the circumstances, the events that were happening in her world forced her to alter her values, to alter where it was most important for her to put time

and attention. So her family and her relationships were probably already on her list, but that specific relationship and caring for her mother and making sure her mother had the care that she needed had been bumped right up to the top of the list because of the specific situation and circumstances that were happening for her.

So just in terms of navigating through our life from one stage to another, when we're single, our values might be different than when we get married. When we're in school, our values might be different than when we get a job and we start our career. If we have a job and then we decide we want to be an entrepreneur, our values might change. So that's a long answer. I probably could have just said, yes, values change. But those are some examples of all the situations and circumstances and just stages of life that would lead to values changing and explains why this is an ongoing conversation. I would love to say that someone could read my book and declare their values and those will be their values for the

rest of their life. But it's really a case of one of the things I spend the most time doing is encouraging people to keep their list of values in front of them. Keep them visible. Have it on your phone. Have it on your bedside table. Have it on the bathroom mirror, whatever it is, but have it somewhere so you keep revisiting that list.

I actually have mine in my phone and I have a daily alarm that goes off reminding me to just take five minutes, take a breath, relax, go in, revisit those values, re-anchor into them, remember them, and in some cases say, you know what? For this week or this month or this stage of my life, I'm gonna make an adjustment here. I'm gonna make a little change. There's or this stage of my life, I'm going to make an adjustment here. I'm going to make a little change.

There's something going on in my life that feels like it's calling me to alter my list. We can do that at any time if we keep revisiting and clarifying what our highest values are. As you were sharing, I couldn't help but think, it's 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. It's 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 it's a conscious recalibration. Other times it's 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, but 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. 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 but we're really not a couple 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 example from my own list. I told you I have values on my list,

like 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 characteristic. Sometimes it's things like discipline and

strength and focus and things like that. Like those are the qualities that I need to bring if I really want to make a bigger difference, if I want to make a bigger contribution, if I want to build a successful organization, which is also on my priorities list, I can borrow those values situationally. I can bring them in. It doesn't mean I'm no longer gonna be humble. It doesn't mean I'm no longer gonna be kind and caring.

It doesn't mean I'm no longer gonna be calm and peaceful because I feel like those are actually very valuable qualities and characteristics in running a business. But I'm also gonna be strong and I'm gonna be disciplined and I'm gonna be focused because those are also like really important for this area that I'm focusing on and creating the results and the outcomes that I really want to create. So we can borrow values. We want to make sure they complement each other. We want to, we don't want to say I can build this really successful

business and make a lot of money by lying and cheating and stealing. That's never going to come out of the type of values work that we do. But in my experience, being strong, being disciplined, being focused does not conflict with being kind and caring and with being calm and peaceful and with being humble. It's almost bringing in extra team members to get more done like that that strength and discipline and focus is going to help me create the results that I want in that area called contribution or building a successful organization. Robert, we've got a lot of good stuff today in our interview. Any final message you'd like to share with the audience?

I think the message that I would want to finish with would be actually an invitation. And what I find when I have these conversations about values, they're usually very interesting and intriguing to people. Most people understand the importance of values. And we've talked about some real specifics around values here and I think probably 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 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 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 lives. So I'm thrilled we had the chance to do this. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show, leave us top rated reviews, check out our website,

and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.