There is a great divide between the patterns exhibited by the people who are extremely successful and ones who struggle.
The same divide applies to businesses which grow from strength to strength and the ones that don’t.
Have you ever wondered why that might be?
As two guys coming from a normal 9 to 5 background and having successfully set-up a blogging business before and selling it, we totally understand that very struggle.
We were forced to take a step back with the biggest learning of our lives.
i.e. Lack of Identity
Lack of recognition of what we really stand for. But, not anymore……
We made some tweaks in our life style to figure out what we stand for, what our values are and how we transfer them into our everyday life.
Here is the deal:
This post is going to really help you to understand and explain how to establish that identity for yourself and start living you, as a personality.
1What Will You Learn:
- What Are Core Values?
- How to Identify Your Core Values
- Piloting Your Core Values
- Why Core Values Are Important
- How Do You Resolve Conflicts With Your Core Values
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2How To Identify Your Core Values?
The Conscious Listing:
The easiest way to identify your core values is to take a sheet of paper and start listing down what you really think you are about and what you stand for.
Define every word that you think applies to your personality and behaviours you exhibit.
Now, classify those words into groups and choose a word that from within the words in the group to define the group.
For example:
If a person has put words of solution mindset, problem solver, strategic, creative, adaptive then you could consider grouping them into “solution mindset”.
Arrive at as many groups as you can based on what you think your behaviours are and what you think you stand for.
You may very well ask your community as a question on what they think you are, if you have to be summarised in one word.
Now:
What you have is a conscious listing of what you think you are about.
Here is where the toughest part starts going into your subconscious mind and putting them to test.
The Subconscious Listing:
One always has a subconscious mind where he/she will exhibit few default behaviours. That’s like in the above example of solution mindset grouping where the person, irrespective of whose problem is thrown at him/her, they always find solutions and remain focused on providing solutions to questions.
Subconscious behaviours are those which you get involved in by default irrespective of the person or a situation in front of you. You enjoy behaving such a way.
It’s the natural instinctive response you provide when either positive or negative scenarios are thrown at you.
Now:
Bring out few scenarios that you have gone through in the past and imagine what behaviours you exhibited, in other words what values have you shown.
Collating Core Values:
It only makes sense to collate the values that you have listed consciously and subconsciously and then marry them up to see what are those values that you are currently living by and what are those values you wish to live but have compromised for one or the other reason.
Once you have found out the high level groups of core values that you are associated to, let’s list those to arrive at meaningful list between 7 and 10 values that you think are essential for you to stand by and ones you can also transfer into whatever you do.
Note: 7 to 10 does not mean you have to restrict your values to just those numbers. Those number are just a steer for starters. However, I would caution listing too many of them given you will have to go through a journey post listing. Let them evolve over time than list too many.
3Piloting Your Core Values:
Simply listing your core values and knowing them on the paper does not mean you have understood them.
Sadly, here is where people go wrong mostly.
You will have to pilot the core values and start living them day in and day out so you are on a journey figuring out following.
- Understand them to depth and see if they are personal to you and represent you
- Find the inconsistencies and conflicts so you can fine tune them
- Check if you can transfer them into your business branding and communicate them
In short:
Question yourself, does the values you listed give you a personal identity?
Set yourself a period of time to implement your values in everything you do and fine tune them, rank them, prioritise them as you see fit personalised to you.
4Why Core Values Are Important
The importance of core values are less recognised when life runs smoothly with minimal distractions, however when one is being torn apart from all sides they become the rock to hold you to what you stand for.
They have the power to dictate our behaviours enabling us to stay sane and not get carried away with external influences.
Here are the key advantages:
The Decision Makers
Value based decision making is a great tool to keep you focused and honest about what you as a person want to do.
Its easy to get diluted with external influences and what you think is good for clients or your business but make a note that those very customers and business have come to you looking at you.
The Communicators
Core values helps you communicate your identity without any confusions and if you own a business, they help you communicate a common message across to all the team members on what is expected out of them as part of them working for you.
The Behavioural Influencers
They have the power to influence your behaviours based on what you stand for in the event of both positive and negative hype periods and balance you at your neutral state.
