One thing that was always key to the way I work was being aligned to my values. But until about 2 years ago I had never spelled them out clearly. All I knew was that if my gut told me things weren’t quite right with the way I worked or what I was asked to do, then I better listen.
Now before you expect me to spill some juicy gossip, I’ll have to disappoint you: I didn’t ever work on projects or with people who asked me to go against my ethics or to do work that was shady in some way.
Getting clear on my values, as a person and business owner, was really important, though. And when I’ve had great leaders in my corporate life, they stood out because of their clarity, too.
One went as far as saying “we don’t work with arseholes!” and it was true!
If you’re feeling a bit unsure about this whole values stuff, e.g. because you don’t love the corporate values printed on posters around the office, or you may not see them actually lived in the organisation, it might be worth spelling out your personal values.
While this isn’t an exercise I offer as a coach (I have been on the ‘participant’ side for this stuff), you can find resources online, including questionnaires.
In the meantime I can offer a few questions to help you think about this:
- Are you proud of the work you’re doing?
- Does it feel like your employer’s values are aligned to your own?
- How do you describe the impact of your work?
- If you removed a specific value from your life, what would be the impact of that?
As a business owner I have the freedom to stick very firmly to my values and that is cool. Especially, because “Freedom” is one of my top 5 values, right after purpose and independence (Love is #1).