I’ve had a love / hate relationship with the concept of core values for – well, just about forever.
Are they important? Of course. Is it worth knowing what your values are? Absolutely.
But then there’s the thorny question of how do you REALLY know. And there are a gazillion different approaches to that. (Yes, I counted!) From lists of values (more on that in a minute) to different exercises you can do, from books on the philosophy of values to other books on supposedly “practical” ways to determine what yours are (or ought to be?), it goes on forever.
If you already know yours, and are comfortable in how you live them, go you.
If you work for an organization that’s gone beyond pretty posters on the wall and website to actually walk the talk – go you! (And go them; that’s sadly rare.)
But if you, like me, are curious and want to go a bit deeper, what can you do?
I don’t have a definitive answer (sorry!), but I do have some thoughts and opinions. (There’s a surprise, right?)
About those lists of values: I’ve never found them helpful, in part because there are so many on there, and all are worthwhile. How can one not embrace the lot?
But then I heard someone point out that those lists, those concepts that most people talk about when they talk about values – those are VIRTUES. And that clicked something into place for me.
Kindness. Autonomy. Happiness. Responsibility. Growth. Self-respect. (I’ll stop now, but you can Google “list of values.”)
These are virtues we can strive for. It’s good to be a kind person. It’s great to have autonomy, and to be happy. We should all try to be responsible, to grow, and to have a healthy sense of self-respect. And so on.
But if those are virtues, not values – what, then, are values?
“Values are what you repeatedly do,” according to Aristotle.
Yes, and sometimes they’re what we wish we would or could do, but don’t, or perhaps can’t because of a personal life situation.
Values aren’t necessarily about making ourselves better people. That’s what striving to embody those virtues is for.
Values are about what gives us peace, makes us happy, helps us feel fulfilled and energized in our life.
So – what ARE they?
The same person who pointed out how those lists of values are actually virtues has an answer. It won’t be the answer for everyone, but I – and some of my clients – found it revealing.
Suzy Welch, widow of the Jack Welch (and I won’t go into questions about his leadership), studied values for her doctoral dissertation, creating the “Welch-Bristol Values Inventory.” As her Values Bridge website says, “The inventory builds on, and reflects, nearly a century of academic and empirical research into psychology, social science, identity, and human behavior.”
The inventory identifies 16 values – I won’t list them here, but I’ve included a link to the Values Bridge site below, where you can also take the assessment and see what you think. (There is, as is often the case, a limited free result and a more in-depth paid result.)
With the exception of one or two, you won’t find those 16 in the lists of virtues. And to be clear, these are not values that apply to organizations; these are personal values relevant to individual humans.
Does this work for everyone? No, of course not. Some of my clients find their assessment results highly insightful, and some don’t. As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.
But whether you agree with your results or not, it’s an interesting and different perspective – and it just might help you come into better alignment with what matters to you.
The Values Bridge: https://www.thevaluesbridge.com (I am not affiliated in any way and receive no fees whatsoever)
Photo credit: Photo by Sean Stratton on Unsplash