What are Your Core Values?
Think about a company you most admire.
Check out their Core Values on their website. Core Values steer the way the company and its C-Suite team satisfy a need, operate with purpose, create value--for the long term. Those Core Values are not just on posters in hallways. They are foundational to hiring and training, they inform performance evaluations, they guide decisions that impact the future. They get people in BIG trouble and make headline news when violated.
Do you have Core Values for your own life?
Just like the companies we most admire, we each exist to satisfy a need, to operate with purpose, to create value. And we are in it for the long-term.
Yet, most of us haven’t articulated our own Core Values in a deliberate, thoughtful way. We likely haven’t formally shared them with those most important to us. And we certainly don’t go back and revisit them with any regularity to see how well the decisions we make are lining up to those values.
Take time to ask: “What are my core values?”
People appreciate both being asked and asking others this question. The usual response is, “Thank you for challenging me to think about my Core Values.” It’s a meaningful exercise to conduct alone for self-reflection and an energizing exercise to conduct with life partners, closest friends, children, mentors.
For inspiration, I recommend starting with examples from the companies you most admire. Then think about where you prioritize your time and how you make key decisions. Think about the people you choose to bring into or leave out of your life. Perhaps think about a time when you stepped away from what was right for you. These experiences are likely good indicators of your inherent core values. (TIP: Some Me-Suite readers have used colored sticky notes to capture their reflections and cluster them into themes, and from those themes the core values evolve. This exercise helps you identify overlapping concepts, narrow down the list and ensure you have mutually exclusive categories.)
Try to land on 3-5 core values. Share them. Live them daily. Use them as deliberate guideposts for making key decisions. Here are a few ways to get started:
Check out the Core Values podcast
Listen to podcast guests share their Core Values in each interview
See my Core Values in the About section of the website
