What Do You Really Value?

Learn what motivates self and others

Do You Know What You Really Value?

If someone were to come up to you this very moment and ask you what your core behavioral values were, could you immediately answer the question?

I was speaking at a conference and took 200 professionals through a simple, yet powerful values clarification process using CRG’s Values Preference Indicator (VPI) assessment. In just a few minutes, participants knew more about what motivated total strangers than they knew about individuals besides whom they had worked for years.
 

Values are different from vision and purpose; they are best described as behavioral needs and standards that contribute to your fulfillment, engagement and overall peace in your life. Not only is values clarification important to interacting and working with others, but it also has the greatest impact on you, both personally and internally.

What about values congruence?
Have you ever met someone who said their family was important to them (a value), but you knew that they never spent any time with them? Or an employer who identified honesty as a value in doing business, but whose business behavior was without ethics or integrity? What credibility did those people have with those around them? Questionable, at best, but over and above this outside lack of credibility is the internal price these individuals pay by not being congruent, or consistent.

When you are not clear about your values or when your actions contradict your stated beliefs, you shortchange yourself in the areas of your own credibility, performance and confidence. You set up an inner conflict within yourself.

You must be clear about your core values. Your values guide your decisions and behavior and can bring you mental and emotional freedom. Further, values should not be for sale; they must be non-negotiable. If your values have a price, I contend they are not really your core values.

Here is the reality: Life is way too complex to even attempt situational decisions. But what would it mean if you could make the “right” decision every time? Yes, this is possible if you use your behavioral values to filter your decisions.

Several research studies have confirmed significant benefits of values clarification:
 

• UCLA confirmed clarified values reduced stress and cortisol levels.
• The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that confirming and affirming one’s values can replenish and strengthen willpower.
• The University of Chicago found in their research that values affirmation exercises allowed participants to objectively evaluate information that would normally evoke a defensive reaction, and so increased openness.
• In a University of Toronto study, researchers found people who affirmed their values were more receptive to negative feedback and better able to recognize and correct their own errors. “Self-affirmation produces large effects.”
• In the book, The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, Jim Kouzes writes that leaders who were clear about their values and knew what they stood for were 42% more effective than those who did not. 

In the workshops, we conduct using CRG’s Values Preference Indicator (VPI), we asked individuals to identify their Top 7 values from a predetermined list of 21.

Many participants wanted to choose more than 7. Therein lies the power of this process. The reality is that people’s decision-making priorities are based on placing one value above another. And you can’t give top priority to all 21 values. Choices must be made. Some participants wanted all 21 values in top spot. Others believed they didn’t need to clarify or confirm their top values. 

With our workshop group of 200 attendees, it was obvious who had previously given thought to the hierarchy of their values. Those who had not were restless, uneasy and less content. After the individuals ranked their Top 7 values, we asked them to share their lists (called List A) within their small groups—but with a twist. At the end of the exercise, we asked participants to restate, in order, the Top 7 values of the person sitting next to them. Most were unsuccessful with this simple request. Why? Values are inherently personal and important only to the individual who determines it a value.

In the third part of our VPI assessment, we asked participants to rank each value against every other value five times, using a scoring matrix. This process requires individuals to make over 300 decisions in just a few minutes.

Would it surprise you to know that, in many cases, the second list created by the forced-choice process was different from the previous list created simply through “window shopping” yet still using the same 21 values?

Based on feedback from thousands of participants who have completed CRG’s VPI, we have identified the two most common reasons for this discrepancy:

Individuals try to embrace a value that someone else has imposed as a priority. This pressure could come from anyone of influence (especially family), or societal expectations. One of the values included in the VPI is wealth. The media message all around is that money should be everyone’s top priority. But for many individuals, money is not a Top 7 value priority.

Many people have never clearly identified or clarified what their values are; they have simply guessed at what might be important. The result is that their priorities shift with every blowing wind or daily influence. That is a very unfulfilling, unstable and even mentally dangerous way to live.

As a side note: you don’t have separate “home” values and “work” values; you take whoever you are to wherever you go.

Once individuals confirmed their top values, we asked them to look at their life and determine whether that value was being met or not in their life from a time and energy perspective. If a value was identified as not currently being fulfilled, we asked participants to document action steps to change that negative into a positive. If a value was being met, we also asked them to confirm what where they doing to fulfill that value, which they needed to continue to affirm or do going forward.

One individual rated that every single one of his values was negative or not being met (fulfilled). He presented a depressed demeanor. I asked him why he thought this had occurred in his life. His response was that his life reflected what his family wanted, not what he wanted.
 

CRG and HR.com have partnered to provide this breakthrough experience of value identification, prioritization and activation in a brand-new on-demand eCourse, What Do You Really Value? As part of your registration, you get a chance to complete your own values assessment. To learn more or register for this highly interactive and transformational course, go to https://web.hr.com/s1vmk

Ken Keis, Ph.D., is a foremost global authority on behavioral assessment strategies and processes and an expert in leadership, purpose and wellness. He has authored over 4 million words of content, including 500+ articles, 4 books and a dozen assessments. Dr. Keis is President and CEO of Consulting Resource Group International, Inc. (CRG), which has served thousands of companies, associations, industry groups and leaders in over 30 countries. In the past 32 years, Ken has personally conducted more than 3,000 presentations and 10,000 hours of coaching and consulting. He is a highly sought-after author, speaker, trainer, podcast host and TV and media guest. His latest books include: Why Aren’t You More Like Me?, Deliberate Leadership and The Quest For Purpose. Visit https://crgleader.com/  Connect Ken Keis