Values Alignment
What are values?
Simply stated:
Values are those things that are important to you.
They are the centre of who you are – they are states of mind and principles of action.
Values are usually context dependent – what people value in relationships may not be the same as what they value in their professional life.
Values are abstract, for example love, honesty, fun, respect, freedom and loyalty.
Values alignment leads to greater personal harmony, confidence and success.
When your values are aligned it transforms the way you behave and the results you will achieve.
Having the right values pays huge dividends in sales and training, communication, mentoring, and coaching.
Once transformed, your communication skills will skyrocket and you will be a joy to do business with.
This is particularly relevant for relationships in all walks of life.
Management skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, social skills and social development will all improve significantly.
Values-based behaviour is no longer an interesting philosophical choice – it is vital to devise systems for resolving misalignments between individual, work group and corporate values.
You discover a person’s values by asking questions such as:
“What is important to you about…?”
“What matters most to you here?”
“What do you get out of doing this?”
In life we all need to achieve and this is done through setting goals.
Goals are dreams with legs.
It’s important to keep moving in your own direction, otherwise people will be only too willing to move you in theirs!
You may need to clarify what is happening in your life by asking questions such as:
“What are your goals in this situation?”
“What are you trying to achieve?”
“What is important to you in this situation?”
“What are you paying attention to?”
“What are you doing to achieve your goal?”
“How do you view the other people involved and how would you describe them?”
“Is there any conflict at any level about your beliefs and values, or skills, or behaviour?”
We all need to define our own purpose and values and put them into daily action in ways that are truly meaningful.
If this is avoided, sooner or later you will ponder: “What am I doing here?”
Beliefs are the rules of your life, the rules that you live by.
These rules may be liberating and empowering and give you permission to get your goals and live your values.
They may also obstruct, making goals impossible to achieve or lead you to believe you are not capable of getting them.
We work with clients to overcome limiting beliefs.
We explore the client’s values and ensure the client is aware of them.
We work with our clients to clarify their goals and check that they are congruent with their values.
We do not impose our own values on to anybody else.
Corporate
Today, every company is facing complexity, competitive challenge and accelerated rates of change.
The practices that have produced the best results from the sixties onwards are not as effective today and will doubtlessly fail in the years ahead.
The key success indicators are almost always based on results.
Perhaps more than at any previous time, an organization must know what it stands for and on what principles will it operate.
It needs to know its values and align its practices to those values.
You want to create an environment that is truly motivating for your people – one where your employees can see that working towards the company’s goals is in their best interest.
Companies need a process for making sure that their values are sound and lasting.
This is done by aligning both the strategic decisions and day-to-day actions with their guiding values.
Individuals
It is not surprising that you can find any number of people who appear outwardly successful but who are actually inwardly unhappy and unfulfilled.
Ask yourself:
“Has your life been about following your dreams, or has it been about following somebody else’s dreams?”
“Has everything up to now been a preparation for what you really want to do?”
Only you can answer these questions.
In order to do so, you often don’t have to look any further that where you are right now.
You have to dig deeper to the level of your inner values.
“What are the core values that guide and shape the way you fulfill your purpose?”
After you’ve identified these values you can ask the tough question:
“How are you demonstrating these values in your everyday dealings with the world?”
Relationships
The breakdown in relationships is all too common today.
It is hardly surprising when you consider that very few people understand their own values in the context of a relationship.
It is even less surprising when you realise that even fewer people have any idea of the relationship values of their partner.
We need to connect – relationships are what matters most in life and this is achieved by aligning yours and your partner’ values.
Values Alignment in short
Companies can over time find themselves with a number of different cultures and a position where the values are not aligned with the strategic direction.
It is important to assess the alignment of the organisation’s values.
We are happy to undertake a cultural audit, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and then write a comprehensive report for management.
We would then use the organisation’s values as the basis for a values alignment program for senior managers.
These programs are typically designed to:
- Develop a shared understanding of the values and how they apply to the challenges of management
- Align behaviour to values
- Give mangers feedback on how their personal behaviour contributes to both the current and the desired culture
- Teach managers values-based leadership
- Communicate the values throughout the organisation.