Values. What are they? What are yours? How do your workplace values affect you and others around you?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Host(s): Jonathan Saar from Market Me Social and Mark Howell from Howl Creative Concepts
Show Highlights
When was the last time you really stopped and took stock of what makes you tick? This article focuses on three key objectives we all need to consider as we work towards bettering ourselves personally and professionally.
Objectives:
- Why are values important if we are going to be good team members or leaders?
- How can our values keep us focused?
- Never lose sight of your values!
Key Questions/Topics Covered
Why are values important if we are going to be good team members or leaders?
Have you ever sat down and written a list of what you believe are your values? If you haven’t, I strongly encourage you to do so ASAP! Why? Knowing your values is the first step to understanding who you are as a person, what is most important to you, and how those things align with your personal and professional choices.
For example, do you know the mantra or message that your company aligns itself with? Does it match yours? What should you do if you find that your values are different or that your company doesn’t have one? Create your own and use them to guide you as both a team member and a team leader. We are people, not robots. We can’t just fall back on policies and procedures and expect that will be enough. Our values will aid us in being better team members and leaders and, at the end of the day, how we will be remembered.
How can our values keep us focused?
It’s easy to be a good person when everything is sunshine and rainbows around us. But how do we act, or where are our values when storm clouds start to form? Mark shared a perfect example of how quickly values can be shot out the door from a recent shopping experience.
A mystery shopper reported that they went into a leasing office only to find it empty. The leasing agent eventually showed up but was quite flustered at being late and subsequently was rude to the shopper and resorted to policies and procedures that they couldn’t give them a tour without an appointment. We all hate to be late, and it can make us panic, but having the right core values would have helped this leasing agent regroup and avoid the negative review they received. Our values can keep us focused even when faced with challenges and help us make better choices instead of compounding the situation.
Never lose sight of your values!
We all have a choice. We can choose how we are going to let other people’s actions or situations affect us. A choice to either lower our personal standards and values or choose to stand fast for what we believe in. We are surrounded by so much negativity, but we can choose not to let it crowd out our light.
In closing, I challenge you to take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror and ask, “What is your legacy? What do you want to leave behind?” This is where you will find your values.
Class dismissed!
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out :