The Value of Values
Values are our deeply held beliefs. When all is said and done, they are what matter most to us.
While many of us have some idea of our values, few of us have full clarity. Which is a shame, given that our values determine so much of how we think, feel and act.
In coaching, exploring the coachee’s values is often one of the first things we do. That’s because values act as leadership’s compass, guiding everything we do… and don’t.
How getting clarity of values helps leaders
If your organisation determines its values without consultation or only pays lip service to them, it’s hard not to become cynical.
Yet, done well, values are truly valuable to leaders.
Feeling overwhelmed? Values can help prioritise.
Feeling indecisive? Values can help bring certainty to decision-making.
Feeling uncomfortable about something you’ve been asked to do? Looking at your values will likely illuminate the conflict.
And these examples are to name but a few.
The practical value of values
Values act as our moral compass and wellbeing guide - for how can we ever be confident or content if we spend too much time pursuing work, people or things that fly in the face of what we truly value?
Values guide our choices, ensuring we’re headed in the right direction. It’s hard to operate without clarity of values.
Values underpin our authenticity. Being self-aware is difficult without clarity of values.
Values impact our lives and the lives of those we lead. Expressed in everything we think, say and do, they are leadership’s building blocks.
How to identify and clarify values
Getting clarity about our personal values is time well spent, so here is a simple but effective exercise. And even if you think you are pretty clear already, going through these five steps will sharpen your understanding.
Select 10 values that matter most to you. The World Values Day Guide offers a good list.
Write down what each of these values mean to you. This step is important because what ‘freedom’, for example, means to you and what it means to me might be very different.
Cut your list in half, keeping the five that matter most. You’ll know what matters most by selecting those you most uphold in your every day.
It’s difficult but now select your top three. Doing so forces you to think about what you’re not prepared to compromise on.
Write these three down, together with your definition of what each means to you.
We recently went through this exercise for Liebfrog and ended up with this list:
Clarity: Competence, Focus, Transparency, Structure, Confidence
Decency: Integrity, Trust, Honesty, Respect, Morality
Commitment: Ownership, Action orientation, Dedication, Outcome focus, Conscientiousness
What if your personal and employer’s values don’t align?
As you might expect, the values of small organisations and their founders often align perfectly. But that’s unlikely to be true for anyone employed by bigger organisations, where there can be a mismatch between personal and organisational values.
So, what should we do when this happens? It helps to establish the extent of the misalignment.
When our values are in direct conflict with those of our employer, it’s unlikely we’ll ever find happiness or fulfilment in our work. Violation of the values that matter most to us make us feel uneasy, even angry.
The same is true if our values align on paper, yet in practice the organisation brings them into direct conflict with our own by regularly compromising them.
When our values broadly align but don’t exactly match our employer’s, it can help to find a connection between them and something we value.
Here’s an example. When working with an organisation that values ‘integrity’, it’s easy to find alignment if your own personal value is ‘decency’.
When we’re largely happy but our employer doesn’t meet all our values, it can help to think about activities outside the day job to bridge the gap – volunteering for example. Work isn’t meant to be the only thing in our lives, and so it doesn’t always have to fulfil all our values.
Leading with our values
Once we understand our values, it is far easier to put them into practice. Their guidance helps us live consistent, authentic and fulfilled lives. They help us lead with clarity and decency. They enable us to fully understand our worth, align it with what we truly value, and help those we lead to do the same.
October 2022
If you or your team need help determining your values or putting them into practice, get in touch. We’d love to chat.
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