Expectations for a corporation and its leaders are changing. Candidates, customers, and communities now want to see that a corporation has values that are aligned with their own. This is especially true for the next generation: PwC found that millennials are 5.3x more likely to stay with an organization when they feel a strong connection to the organization's purpose.

This new landscape has created a dilemma for leaders who haven't examined their own values. The simplest solution may seem to be that someone just adopts their company's corporate values as their own. But, that approach creates a dissonance between what someone truly values and what they say they value, which results in leaders who are uncomfortable, stressed, and inauthentic.

At the rate that Salesforce is growing and innovating, we need our leaders at their best, which is why our talent development team created a new leadership program called Leading Ohana (“Ohana” means family in Hawaiian and represents an idea central to our company's ethos). Leading Ohana aims to help our executives find their personal values so that they can be more authentic leaders. This takes investment and courage from Salesforce.

Over the course of a year, Leading Ohana participants take part in individual reflection, peer coaching, meaningful volunteering, and more. Like a family, the facilitators at Leading Ohana don't hold back, peeling back a leader's myths and inauthenticities that may have built up over the years.

The four questions that Leading Ohana asks may seem simple, but they can help bring about massive, positive changes for the leader and their families, colleagues, customers, and communities:

1. Why are you a leader? Whereas two of our other development programs, Leading for Success and Leading for Growth, help Directors and VPs hone how they lead, Leading Ohana helps Salesforce executives understand why they lead. It's important for leaders to remember why they are where they are if they are going to lead authentically.
2. You can execute, but are you relating? Leaders at Salesforce know how to execute. We pride ourselves in creating presentations with bell curves on every slide. But, if pushing ourselves and our teams goes unchecked, it can lead to really unhappy employees. In Leading Ohana, leaders are pulled back to a raw state where they recognize how to build a connection — beyond a smile and a handshake. To be a true leader, someone has to know who their peers, customers and the people in communities are, what they're about, and more.
3. What Are Your Personal Values? While Salesforce's values explain what the company is about, they aren't necessarily an individual's values. We all have values that were already inside of us long before we ever even heard the word “Ohana.” These guiding principles are the ones that shape who we are and how those around us experience us as leaders. Salesforce asks our leaders to connect with what really matters to them. In Leading Ohana, the participants work to gain clarity into their values and purpose, which will then guide them to make the best possible decisions for the company, their teams, and themselves.
4. How will you achieve work-life integration? Trying to maintain a separation between work and home isn't realistic for how we live today. In Leading Ohana, we tell the participants that taking control over how all parts of their lives are integrated and putting energy into the things that matter to them is a more sustainable way to lead.

Halfway through this year's Leading Ohana, we're excited by what we've seen and are excited to continue to evolve and shape the program through the next two modules.

We believe that encouraging our leaders to discover and adopt their personal values will help Salesforce maintain its status as one of “100 Best Companies to Work For” and the “World's Most Innovative Company.” Leading Ohana will help blaze a path forward.

Angela McKenna is the SVP Global Talent Development at Salesforce. With more than 15 years in the field, she leads Salesforce's talent development team, driving learning and development within the company. She earned a bachelors degree from the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, an MBA from the University of Birmingham and a Professional Certificate in Coaching from the Henley Business School.