Do you know what your core values are & how they drive the decisions you make?
Just as you learn to understand your team’s beliefs, it is important that you also get to know their values. If you do this, you will understand what motivates them, and this will make it easier for you to engage and inspire them both as individuals and as part of the team. As you start to delve a little deeper into your team’s values, you will discover that each of them uses a number of words to describe what they value. This is important because once you know what words they use, you can begin to find out what those words mean to them. It is important that you excavate that meaning, so you get a more detailed and accurate picture of what is at the true heart of their values.
Remember, good communication with your team will lead to greater rapport and trust.
1. Where do our values come from? Whereas beliefs are formed as the result of experiences and what others tell us, values are exclusively passed on by others such as parents, siblings, friends, colleagues and organisations. Our values are what drive us to do what we do. They also directly impact our motivation, which in turn impacts our performance. The more deeply you understand your own or someone else’s core values, the more you will be able to help them raise their performance and improve their results. In a work environment, when personal and company values are compatible or mutually supportive, the individual and the business will achieve the best possible outcomes.
2. How do you identify a value? A value is typically expressed as a single word such as honesty, family, security, growth, respect. In the same way, the word we use to describe what motivates us is also usually encapsulated in a single word. Often, the words we use to describe our values and the word we use to describe our motivation are one and the same.
3. How do you elicit a value? I use a values elicitation tool called “Ultimate Beliefs” that has been developed by Pam Lidford from the Coaching Academy. This helps me get to the root of what a value means to a member of my team. In summary, you ask your employee to write down their core values. You then take each separate value and ask what it means to them specifically and whether it is a positive or negative value (in other words, does it help them achieve their goals or does it stop them from achieving their goals). You continue the questioning until your employee has identified their top three values, otherwise known as their core values. To give you an example of how a value can be negative or positive, I’ll share my value of ‘security’. When doing a values elicitation, I identified that I had a desire for security. On the negative side, security can keep me rooted to the spot and prevent me from moving forward. But on the positive side, when I feel secure, I am able to launch myself forward from a firm platform. As I need to feel secure before I can take a risk, security is a value that works in my favour. It allows me to take calculated risks because when I believe I am secure, I am able to take action. To be honest, I never wanted security to be one of my core values, but when Pam Lidford elicited them in front of a crowd of 100 aspiring coaches, I had to accept it even though I know it can both help and hinder me. Being aware of this, I sometimes experience internal conflict and discomfort as my need for security both holds me back and helps to drive me forward. Knowing I have this value has helped me make decisions much faster because I understand how it plays out for me both positively and negatively.
4. How do you interpret and use the information? You can only interpret your team’s values by listening to them carefully. When eliciting someone’s values, you need to begin by writing down the values they express and what those values mean. You can keep a record of these meanings and their top three values in their one-to-one document or in your personal learning journal. They can then make a note of what they have learnt in their own personal learning journal, too. Using this information, you can make sure you talk their language when you communicate with them because you will truly understanding what their value means to them.
Once you are aware of your own values, you can begin to understand how they can help or hinder your performance as a leader (through goal-setting and developing leadership qualities) as well as that of your team. You will also be able to understand how your own values align with those of the company you work for. Conflict arises when your personal values and those of your company don’t match. This lack of congruency between personal and corporate values is one of the main reasons why employees leave a business. The pressure exerted by a mismatch of values creates overwhelming conflict that is too much to handle because they relay the message that, “I am unable to remain true to my true authentic self”. It is your role as a leader to talk to your staff if their values are not aligned with those of the business otherwise, you will never understand the issue or be able to help. Ultimately, if an employee’s values cannot be aligned with that of the business, it may suit both parties if the employee leaves.
Why do values and beliefs matter?
Values and beliefs are important because they play a big part of what makes you who you are. They drive you to exhibit certain behaviours and perform particular tasks, whether those actions are helpful or not. Sometimes your team will have no idea why they do the things they do, so it’s important that you have the knowledge and skills to be able to raise their awareness of their positive or negative values, so they have a better understanding of their own internal motivation. It is also important that you take time out to reflect on your personal values and beliefs and how they may differ from those of your team. This is important as it will affect your relationships and your impact on your ability to inspire, motivate and encourage your team for peak performance