Importance of Knowing your Values
There are two topics that come up time and time again in coaching:
- How to make better decisions
- How do I set healthy boundaries at work
When it comes to better decisions, yes it’s about making the right decision, the one that will be a success, but also a decision that I can stand by and defend with conviction when I need to.
When it comes to setting boundaries, this can involve knowing when to say no and when to say yes, but also making clear the rules that I live by and that will make for a good relationship with me whether at work or elsewhere.
In both cases, the one thing that will guide you is knowing your values and being able to communicate them clearly to all of your stakeholders.
In one of my previous global roles, I had to lead a team of coaches in a complex project which required a balance of direction from me and an ability of them to do the right thing at point of delivery.
One of my core values is trust - I give trust first and all you can do is either keep it or lose it. I made it very clear to the team that this was a core value of mine, that I respected them as senior coaches and that I trusted them to follow the broad guidelines and then do what was necessary (within those guidelines). All the coaches respected this and enjoyed the freedom it gave them to do their best work.
However there was an incident when a coach decided (with great intention) to ignore the guidelines in order to get the success they wanted in a difficult market. Being clear on my values and having communicated them clearly, made it simple for me to have a “robust’ discussion with the coach where I could clearly articulate what value had been violated, how that made me feel and what I wanted to see happen next. Had I not been clear, this would have been far harder to deal with.
One of my clients spoke to me the other day about a difficult decision he had had to make. He needed a new job and was offered a great job. “Amazing!” you might say, “What’s difficult about that?” you might also say.
Well, this client is an athlete, he takes part in Iron Man competitions and ultra marathons. And the company that had offered him a role is a tobacco company. He neither smokes nor approves of smoking - so what does he do?
Take the role and take care of a value he has around family and looking after them, or not take it and honor his value around health and wellbeing?
So not only is it important to know your values but also what order they come in…
Which one of them is most important to you and why?
Today Harry and Meaghan are releasing a Netflix series where they tell their story. Their love story and the story of Harry’s family and how they handled or didn’t handle Meaghan joining it. What values are they honoring? They campaign against racism and they campaign for mental health. What values do they honor? They both seem to value family too but what do they consider family and where does it come in the pecking order of values?
What are the values that guide your decisions and your boundaries? Let me know in the comments and tell me how they guide you..
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✨ About Sonia Gavira ✨
Sonia Gavira MBA, PCC is a leadership and executive coach, consultant and Certified Practitioner in Brain and Behaviour Change and Master Practitioner in NLP. Coming from a strong commercial background in marketing to Marketing Director level. Sonia has spent more than 20 years working with Executives, Directors and Managers in organisations helping them lead themselves, their teams and their organisations successfully.
Today Sonia’s interest lies in helping leaders embrace a new style of leadership that allows people to be themselves and embrace compassion, care and kindness as well as strength, power and decisiveness - polarities that too often drive leaders one way or the other. This has lead her to be involved in a number of programmes helping women ask for and progress to senior roles within organisations, and do so in a way that balances all aspects of their life.Sonia is also an expert in motivation, enabling individuals, teams and organisations to tap into what will drive them to peak performance.
