Why do values matter in your career and how can you figure out what yours are?
How to understand values and the implications they can have in your career & life overall.
Hi all,
This newsletter was written on Saturday as happily out of the office living it up in Margate on a staycation. Here’s a snap of last night…
Because I regularly tell you I write on Wednesdays I have no excuse not to show up each week, holiday or no holiday. It’s a form of accountability I need to do the work I believe in and know is important.
What could you do as a form of self-motivation to encourage yourself to do something important consistently?
Now, onto the question in hand:
Why do values matter in your career and how can you figure out what yours are?
What are values?
Values are a fancy way of describing what is important to you.
They are not a personality test, but they tie into why we do certain things and how we act.
Think of it this way…
Your career is a journey. The end destination is the vision you have for where you’re headed. You haven’t got there yet but ideally you have a good idea of what it will be like. To get to your vision you will set milestones (goals) along the way, which can let you know that you’re on track and leading you closer towards the end vision. Values are like your GPS navigation as its their role to show you the way. By using your values to make decisions about which path to take you can set yourself up for a journey with fewer wrong turns.
Your GPS system (values) intuitively know when you are making choices that are good for you, and when you aren’t. Consider them an internal compass guiding your decisions; triggering your intuition when something feels ‘off’ about a situation. Sometimes it’s easy to tell when misalignment has occurred and other times it takes a little more tuning in.
I’ve allowed my intuition to guide me and make decisions which at times even defied logic (such as quitting a job without a backup plan months after getting my mortgage) yet upon further inspection when judged against my values made perfect sense.
Ultimately, that decision got me closer to where I want to be (going self-employed and building The Ask) so much faster than the alternative would have done.
Wondering how to know what your values are?
Knowing your values starts by asking the right questions, such as:
What do you care about the most?
When you do this do you feel aligned?
How do you judge personal success?
What do you factor into life decisions?
To narrow down top values you can review from a list, discarding those which do not feel important, using questions like the above to help. Keep narrowing your list until you have between 3-6 top values. It can help to combine words which feel like they are saying the same thing for you.
I’ve included an exercise I’ll use with my coaching clients. Feel free to use this list (NB there are many other words that could be on here too).
You create at least 3 top values and no more than 6.
Why do values matter within the context of careers?
Careers can be a minefield. Endless seas of difficult decisions to make and subject to changes and influences outside of our control.
But by identifying your values and then living in alignment with them, your decision-making capabilities will improve.
Decisions can be judged good or bad depending on your values, and the compound effect of those decisions is more likely to lead you to that end destination (vision) you want.
Even if you don’t hit every milestone (goal) on the way to that vision, if you do follow your inner compass and make decisions that feel aligned to your values, then your career path will simply feel better to you along the way.
My vision is a content-led career coaching business that helps people do the work they are most suited to doing in the world.
My values are Contribution, Connection, Authenticity, Faith, Improvement.
When I am struggling with a choice, I seek a decision that brings me the best version of at least one or all of them.
For example, if there is a question as to whether or not to connect with someone (providing the context is meaningful), I will. If it helps me to improve on something, I will strive towards that. If I get to be authentically me then I’ll choose that route.
Conversely in the past as an employee, either consciously or unconsciously, I have left jobs if and when one or all of the following applied:
I don’t feel I am making a meaningful contribution (Contribution value).
I’m not connecting with colleagues/customers (Connection value).I can’t be my authentic self (Authenticity value).
I can’t bring my faith to work or have no faith in the work (Faith value).
I feel I’m not improving (Improvement value).
That’s it for today.
Working out your values can feel fluffy and somewhat intangible but I encourage you to spend time reviewing yours. It truly will enhance your decision making capability and lead to a more fulfilling career.
Values are highly personal so what feels right for one person will be totally different to another.
Do this during some reflective time where you can really break down what the findings mean for you, and how you are or aren’t currently living in alignment with your values.
Each month I do a review of how that month went, and I’ve just realised I should do a section per each of my values. So there’s my homework too.
Until next time.
Before you go!
I get many lovely comments from you about these weekly newsletters. My aim is to serve as many people as possible with free, actionable content and I need your help spreading the word <3
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Until next time,
Ellen Donnelly, Founder & Chief Coach, The Ask
