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We spend most of our awake hours at work. So, it is imperative to match your personal values with your job. If you do, it will boost you, if you don’t – it will drain you. That’s why I’ll introduce you to the tool values light house in this article.
The values light house consists of personal values. You and everyone else have some top values that drive your behavior. Maybe you are aware of what your personal top two or three values are, maybe you are not. If you are not, it is worthwhile to explore, because compromising on those values for too long will drain your personal energy, and when you live your values, it feels good, maybe even meaningful, and that will boost your energy and wellbeing.
Do you prefer reading in Danish? Then read the Danish version here.
What is a personal value?
A personal value is a deeply held belief or principle that you as a person considers important and worthy of upholding in your life. These values guide your behavior, choices, and actions, serving as a framework for decision-making and providing a sense of direction and purpose.
Personal values can vary greatly from one individual to another. They often encompass moral, ethical, and philosophical beliefs about what is right, desirable, or meaningful in life. Here are some examples of personal values: honesty, integrity, compassion, fairness, loyalty, responsibility, authenticity, and respect.
If you havn’t already found your values you automatically guide your behavior unconsciously. Identifying and understanding your personal values can help you to make choices that are consistent with your beliefs and lead to more wellbeing at work and a more fulfilling, and purposeful life.
You can read more in my book, Power Barometer – how to manage personal energy for business success, and get it here.
Why values matter
Surely, you can compromise your values sometimes, and often we have to when working for someone else, collaborating or just co-existing with other people. But if you do it for years, you can crash. Consider this story about a leader, let’s call him Mark.
Mark is a director in a multinational company. He works in tech. His direct manager Dan is very innovative. He is a firm believer of failing fast forward, which makes completely sense in a startup, but in the old multinational company where Mark works, it clashes with the many processes and the work of other people – Mark’s colleagues. People that Mark appreciate and respect. So, it hurts Mark to see when his manager asks him to drop something on the floor. As often, the effect is more overtime for Marks colleagues – and it is not like they are not putting in a lot of hours already. Also, Mark’s boss was also not just using the fail-fast-forward approach when testing new solutions (that the concept: fail fast forward is meant for), Dan applies it to almost anything.
Mark is a stable person with a quite uncomplicated background. He is one of the few people for whom life has never been tough. But recently work life has felt draining – he is feeling very stressed, and he cannot find out why. In a coaching session, Mark and I started talking about what his top values are. Mark finds that team spirit and quality are two values that drives, motivates, and define him as a person. That gives us the answer to why Mark feels drained: He has been with his current manager, Dan for 3 years. He does like working for him a lot, but to Mark it is draining to drop things on the floor so often, because of the damage it has on the overall quality of the firms’ deliveries, and how it affects people in his team.
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Finding direction with values
Subsequently, we build Marks lighthouse of values to find the direction he should stear towards. This means that every time Mark feel doubt, he can look toward his lighthouse. The value lighthouse consists of Mark’s values. When he is facing it and thinks about a choice, action, or decision he must make, he can easier feel how it will affect him. Sometimes he must compromise, but then at least he is aware of it and can compensate somehow. Facing his value lighthouse, he also finds ways that are not compromising with his top values. Hence, it affects the sum of his choices, actions, and decisions. So now, he feels much more energized at work. The stress relief without any dramatic actions.
Several of the leaders I coach have become so happy about their lighthouse that they’ve painted it and hung it in their home even though they normally don’t see themselves as painters – others just keep their value lighthouse in mind.
Would you like to build your own lighthouse of values? Stay tuned and sign-up for receiving when the next article is posted where I will guide you finding your top values and creating your value lighthouse.
If you also, as Mark, need more clarity and a lighthouse for direction, maybe you should consider coaching. Helping you to discover and dealing with the real challenges you face. Reach out here or take a closer look at the coaching page.
We help people in multinational companies to handle challenges in a meaningful way and take business to the next level.
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