V IS FOR VALUES

A useful exercise when entering into a coaching assignment is to identify what your personal, team or corporate values are.

This is not as easy as it sounds and it's possible to get stuck quite early on in your thinking. So I have developed a tool to help you overcome thinker's block.

I call it V is for Values.

Your values determine your priorities and, deep down, they're probably the measures you use to tell if your life is turning out the way you want it to. When your experiences, responsibilities and environment are aligned with your values, life is good – you're engaged, learning and fulfilled. When these don't align with your personal values, that's when things tend to feel wrong.

Can you identify the five values that you hold most dearly?    

I invite you to to try the following exercise.

I have set out below a generic list of values. I invite you to use this as a prompt. We’ll start with a long list and gradually pair it down.

Step 1 – Make a long-list

Take a look at my A-Z list below and identify at least one motivating value from each letter of the alphabet that is important to you. Don’t feel constrained by my list, it’s only there to prompt you – if you have a personal value I haven’t listed for a particular letter, include it in your long-list.  Write your long-list down (this is very important) on a piece of paper or your notebook or device.

Do this reasonably quickly and don’t agonise too much about your choice. At this stage, we are just getting your thinking going.

Once you have written down your long-list, put it to one side.  Clear your mind, have a cup of tea, go and get on with your day.  If you like, you can even put your long-list away for the day and return to it the next day.

Step 2 – Revise your long-list

Have a fresh look at your long list.  Get it down to 20 values or less.  What values are you going to cross off?  What to re-capture with a slightly different word?  You may have a new one to add – if you do, make sure you cross enough of the old ones off to come within the 20 limit.)

Take a little more time with this, give it a bit more thought. Refer back to my A-Z if you want to.  Once you are happy with your revised long list of values, put it to one side again, clear your mind, and go and get on with your day.  If you want to put your revised long list away for the day and return to it tomorrow, go ahead and do so.

Step 3 – Turn it into a short-list

This time I want you to be ruthless!  Identify the ten values from your revised long list that are the most important to you. Use whatever process works for you - you might be able to put your finger straight on your top ten or you might prefer to eliminate the least important until ten remain standing. It’s entirely up to you - the important thing is that you have ten values remaining on your list.

Step 4 – Prioritise, eliminate

The fourth and final step is to prioritise and eliminate.  Take your ten values and list them out in a priority list in order of importance to you.  Make sure you are happy with your order of priority.  Take your time over this, have a short break if you need it.  Then eliminate the bottom five.

What remains are your top five most important values. 

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy the exercise.  You can then decide what reflections you want to bring into our coaching conversations.

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A: Authenticity, Accountability, Altruism, Ambition, Adaptability, Autonomy, Agency, Appreciation, Assertiveness, Affection, Aspiration, Animals, Adventure, Apolitical, Activism, Academic, Anti-

B: Balance, Bravery, Boldness, Belonging, Benevolence, Brilliance, Brotherhood, Belief, Body, Buddhism

C: Compassion, Creativity, Commitment, Curiosity, Courage, Consistency, Compassion, Conviction, Clarity, Collaboration, Charity, Children, Country, Challenge, Christianity, Conservativism, Confidentiality, Centredness

D: Diligence, Dignity, Diversity, Dependability, Decisiveness, Dependability, Devotion, Dynamism, Delight, Discovery, Development, Difference, Directive, Disabled, Discretion, Demonstrative

E: Empathy, Excellence, Equality, Encouragement, Endurance, Enthusiasm, Efficiency, Elegance, Empowerment, Ethics, Excitement, Environment, Equality, Evidence, Extroversion, Empathy, Emotional intelligence,

F: Fairness, Freedom, Flexibility, Forgiveness, Fortitude, Friendliness, Fidelity, Foresight, Faith, Family, Fun, Flag, Fatherhood, Free speech

G: Gratitude, Generosity, Growth, Gentleness, Graciousness, Grit, God, Gut

H: Honesty, Humility, Hope, Harmony, Health, Helpfulness, Honour, Happiness, Humanity, Healing, Home, Humour, Heart, Hinduism, Humanism, Humanitarianism, Human rights, Hierarchy  

I: Integrity, Inclusion, Innovation, Independence, Inspiration, Imagination, Initiative, Insight, Instinct, Intelligence, Introversion, Islam, Intersectionality, Information, Image

J: Justice, Joviality, Judiciousness, Joyfulness, Judgement, Jubilance, Joy, Judaism, Jainism

K: Kindness, Knowledge, Kinship, Keenness, Kind-heartedness, Kudos

L: Love, Loyalty, Leadership, Liberty, Liberation, Learning, Life, Logic, Liberalism

M: Mindfulness, Modesty, Motivation, Mercy, Mastery, Magnanimity, Money, Mind, Morality, Motherhood

N: Nurturing, Nobility, Neutrality, Nerve, Newness, Novelty, Niceness, Neatness, Nation, Need

O: Open-mindedness, Optimism, Originality, Order, Opportunity, Openness, Orderliness, Obliging, Oomph, Optimism

P: Perseverance, Patience, Peace, Positivity, Passion, Practicality, Purpose, Progress, Power, Planet, People, Personal responsibility, Proof, Practice, Pessimism, Political, Parenthood, Populism, Philosophy, Private, Public, Patriotism

Q: Qualitative, Quantitative, Quick-wittedness, Quietude, Quintessence, Queer identity, Quality, Quickness, Quietude, Quirkiness  

R: Respect, Responsibility, Resilience, Reliability, Radiance, Resourcefulness, Realism, Reason, Religion

S: Sincerity, Strength, Support, Selflessness, Stability, Status, Sympathy, Self-control, Service, Spirituality,

Self-interest, Sisterhood, Seeking, Secular, Science, Sex, Sikhism, Scepticism, Socratic, Sport, Socialism, Simplicity, Self-sufficiency, Self-esteem, Sensitivity, Style

T: Trust, Transparency, Tenacity, Tolerance, Trustworthiness, Tactfulness, Thankfulness, Teamwork, Theory  

U: Unity, Understanding, Uniqueness, Unwavering, Uprightness, Usefulness, Urbanism, Unknown

V: Valour, Versatility, Vision, Vitality, Virtue, Vivacity, Veganism, Vegetarianism  

W: Wisdom, Warmth, Willpower, Wonder, Welfare, Wellbeing, Willingness, Woke (or anti-woke)

X: X-factor

Y: Yearning, Youthfulness, Yielding, Yes-mindedness, Yoga

Z: Zeal, Zest, Zen, Zing, Zionism

Enjoy!

Clare

Clare Fielding

Coaching • Facilitation • Mediation