Know Your Values, Being Intentional is Vital

Your Values are what is important to you in life. Knowing your Values helps you understand what drives you, what you enjoy, what inspires you, and what you want more. As individuals, building a life and lifestyle around our values, we create a more satisfying and meaningful life. Likewise, as a company, many of these values must be incorporated into the leader’s vision, mission, and purpose of their company.

These values need to be more than words, phrases, or quotes. They must be concepts, characteristics, and tangible demonstrations with which employees can align their values to make a unified culture. You can try to change people’s values to meet yours, but I have always found that this methodology fails and results in distrust and, in some cases, chaos.

Personal values are not set in stone; they evolve and deepen as we better understand ourselves. Some values may be consistent throughout our lives, while others may change depending on the situation. This is why self-awareness and daily practice of our values are crucial.

We are each unique. While we may have similar values as someone else, the emphasis and motivations may differ; therefore, I emphasize the alignment of values, not necessarily exact replication. If you struggle to define values, start with a single word and expand based on personal introspection. Defining your values is a unique journey that can help you understand and appreciate your individuality.

Based on your point of view, there will undoubtedly be words missing from this list, and there will be different words that better sum up your value. If so, feel free to add those words to the list below.

Here are a few words to use for your exploration:

1. Accomplishment

2. Accuracy

3. Acknowledgment

4. Adventure

5. Authenticity

6. Balance

7. Beauty

8. Boldness

9. Calm

10. Challenge

11. Collaboration

12. Community

13. Compassion

14. Comradeship

15. Confidence

16. Connectedness

17. Contentment

18. Contribution

19. Cooperation

20. Courage

21. Creativity

22. Curiosity

23. Determination

24. Directness

25. Discovery

26. Ease

27. Effortlessness

28. Empowerment

29. Enthusiasm

30. Environment

31. Excellence

32. Fairness

33. Flexibility

34. Focus

35. Forgiveness

36. Freedom

37. Friendship

38. Fun

39. Generosity

40. Gentleness

41. Groundedness

42. Growth

43. Happiness

44. Harmony

45. Health

46. Helpfulness

47. Honesty

48. Honor

49. Humor

50. Idealism

51. Independence

52. Innovation

53. Integrity

54. Intuition

55. Joy

56. Kindness

57. Learning

58. Listening

59. Love

60. Loyalty

61. Optimism

62. Orderliness

63. Participation

64. Partnership

65. Passion

66. Patience

67. Peace

68. Presence

69. Productivity

70. Recognition

71. Respect

72. Resourcefulness

73. Romance

74. Safety

75. Self-Esteem

76. Service

77. Simplicity

78. Spirituality

79. Spontaneity

80. Strength

81. Tact

82. Thankfulness

83. Tolerance

84. Tradition

85. Trust

86. Understanding

87. Unity

88. Vitality

89. Wisdom

As I mentioned in the title of this article, being intentional is critical for success, and it’s important to find a way to motivate people through your example. Defining your company culture based on values is vital because you always have an anchor to return to when times are troubling.

“It’s important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don’t necessarily nurture the soul. The soul has different concerns of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and people; and any animal’s rhythm of rest and activity.” Thomas Moore

Takeaways: Values are important to you as an individual and vital to your company. If you are the owner, you are responsible for setting the standards.

If you are a member of a corporate leadership team, you have the empowering responsibility to ensure that you align with the corporate values. Look for ways to support the company values without compromising your values. If you can’t align with the company values, you have a choice to make, a choice that can empower you to shape your professional path.

If you are an employee within a company, you have the same responsibility as a corporate leadership team member.

Leadership Question: How are your company values ingrained into your company culture, or are words hung on the wall to look pretty? What vehicles do you use to communicate, embrace, and live the values as an example to every employee?

Keys: |Application: Leaders and employees |Status: Strategic |Duration: DNA Embed |Impact: High