Core Value Alignment Within DAOs

I may be beating a dead horse on this one, however; top teams since the dawn of time have used core values as a powerful tool. They're a tool that can attract the right talent to our team just as easily as it can repel the wrong talent.

Our values, passions, purpose, principles, all come together and create our ethos. Both on personal and professional levels. They help create the culture and environments we want within our organizations.

Beyond that, on a personal level, they act as our north star. Guiding us through life and keeping us in alignment with who we are. This is even more critical at scale, on a corporate level. We have such a mix of personalities, bias', backgrounds and more within a DAO. Different time zones world views, cultural demeanour.

We can surpass all that by creating a set of values for our teams to align around. Giving them a common purpose and a common behaviour to help encourage the growth of the culture you need to thrive.

What are you aligned with?

My core values are largely represented within DAOlationships as well as Sovereign Health & Crypto. They also share the same values and culture as the movement and programs both feed off of each other.

Values:

  • F3: Fail Forward Fast. We’re all students here.
  • Ensure our goals are very motivating to the guild and wider DAO teams.
  • Get curious and ask questions with courage
  • Be optimistic and strive for excellence.
  • Seriously desire to contribute to the mission. Are you willing to contribute to the higher and greater good of not just our DAO, but all of our ecosystems? Set ambitious goals that you’re willing to follow through with full conviction.
  • Understand the gap between your skills and knowledge, and what will be required of you to succeed at a high level. If the difference is too much to overcome within the time frame you have, you may want to consider delegating a new team or re-evaluate the goal.
  • Always ensure that you have the intellectual and emotional capacity to achieve the goal.

Ethos:

  1. Pursue an examined life, and embrace the cycles.
  2. Know our One Thing, our purpose, and principles.
  3. Connect all your small actions to these.
  4. Develop mental and emotional control to weather the DAO & market storms
  5. Challenge yourself to find your 20X potential, and improve daily.
  6. Turn to others in service, and develop a winning team.
  7. Align to win in all three spheres of "l, We, and It." (Wilbur's integral theory)
  8. Select SMARTP-FITS targets. (Use our planning modules)
  9. Employ KISS "good-enough" planning. An 80% good enough plan will always outperform a perfect plan that never gets executed.
  10. Take massive action, and then fail forward fast.
  11. Never, ever quit.

As you can tell from the values and ethos I shared;

  1. Growth mindsets are valued greatly
  2. We don't chance perfection & embrace learning opportunities or failure
  3. Toxic attitudes are not accepted
  4. Put the team first
  5. Ensure you have the skills, attitude, everything you need to succeed at a task
  6. Lean on the team

Within the DAO's which these values are shared within my teams we have a reputation for being one of the warmest and most welcoming guilds within the organization. This is no small accomplishment to have under our belt.

It takes a lot of work, self-discipline, intentional actions to make this work at scale. It's not the work of "I," it's the work of "WE." Every member of the team must be bought into the values and the culture. Every member must embrace being a steward of the values and reflecting them within all of their interactions.

Of course, we're human, we all make mistakes and drop the ball at times. That's okay so long as we learn our lessons and keep moving forward. We've all watched enough cartoons to know what happens when you stand on the X for too long (you get smoked, right?).

Your one thing mission is the 16 foot domino you're currently working on getting through, your purpose is akin to your life work (or the overall vision of the organization), your principles are your core values and the foundation for the culture within your digital walls.

When you share your values and culture with the world you start attracting more of the right collaborators and partnerships into your circle as well. It's not a be all end all things. Posting values on the wall and calling it good is nowhere near good enough. We must both be stewards of values and adjudicators of the behaviour behind it.

If we are operating out of alignment with our posted values it creates integrity gaps and attracts the wrong people into our midst. If you're wondering "Why it's not working," go back to the mirror and flush out those integrity gaps, get back into alignment. Alignment can come from re-doing your values or putting more emphasis on aligning your teams around how they fit into your bigger vision.

Closing Remark

Have you joined the Sovereign Collective? The collective is a (free) private community for DeFi Degens & Crypto Pros who want to become the best version of themselves possible.

Join us and discuss health, nutrition, fitness, performance, crypto and more!

It's a great place to get assistance, share your insights, wins, breakdowns, breakthroughs and much more!

Coupled with the Sovereign Academy, which is an on-demand training platform for all things mental toughness, leadership development, and team building, I've equipped you with the tools and resources to tap into that 20x potential and 20x performance that's driving you insane by sitting around dormant.

I look forward to seeing you on the other side!