Values is a term often used by organisations – “Our Vision and Values” – a list of concepts and behaviours we support and adhere to.
In this post I’d like to look at how you can align your personal values with what you are doing day-to-day at work.
Personal Value Statement
In this post we will use a Personal Value Statement as a means of benchmarking where issues lie and how to address them.
I may take great pride in my core value of empowering and developing people however if every day at work I am having to tell people what to do and be a directive manager this will create a stress that may eventually lead to real problems for me and my team.
Values are constant. They are not a task that is completed, they are a code of conduct, direction of travel that sits behind everything you do. The easiest way to identify what matters to you is to think of a role in your life that is particularly important and central to you. Then analyse the behaviours that would exemplify you performing that role really well.
For example, if being a loyal friend is very important to you, what do you do when you are being a loyal friend? Your Personal Values Table might look like this:
Personal Values Table
Value | Behaviours that express this value |
---|---|
Supportive | Offer help if they have a problem. Always willing to listen. Coach them through crisis. |
Caring | Proactively checking they are OK. Show interest in their life as a whole. Empathise. |
Generous | Going out of your way if necessary. Expecting nothing in return and not adding up who has done more for who. Share your good fortune. |
There may be more items on the list that aren’t so important, for example remembering their birthday, visiting their parents – focus on the fundamentals.
Now if you are feeling very stressed at work it may be worth cross checking to what extent you can live these values at work. How able are you to offer support, check in on your team, compromise what you are doing to help them? Are you nursing resentment because you feel you are always helping Person X and they are never helping you and has that started effecting how you communicate with them?
Actioning your Values
The final step is as always what actions, if any, can you take to redress this balance? Using our example above your Values Actioning Table may be:
Values Actioning Table
Value | Score/10 | Action |
---|---|---|
Support | 7 | See if I can delegate more so I can play more of a support role. |
Caring | 5 | Take a minute at lunch to check in with everyone individually either face to face or email. |
Generous | 1 | Acknowledge with the team that I have no time for anything outside my immediate objectives. Speak to Mary to say how I feel and try to work out a more equal relationship. |
While Values themselves are not goals or tasks that can be completed, they may need concrete actions to ensure you are living them. Even the process of being so specific and creating a plan can have a positive effect.
Why not try this exercise yourself? I’ve made it easy for you – download this PDF, print it out and start filling in your own values on page 1. Consider different areas of your life – work, family, friends, leisure – the main objective is to define a set of values that define your ideal positive state. Then, on page 2 score out of 10 how you currently feel you’re able to display that value, and if it’s lower than you are happy with then in the next column suggest what you’re going to do to address it.
Good luck with the exercise, and let me know how you get on by dropping me a line!
Sun and Moon have been developing courses to help people build their personal resilience. Check out the video below and get in touch if you’d like us to work with your team.
David Solomon
Managing Director, Sun and Moon Training
@SunMoonDavid
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