Find your values to find your dream job

Do you recall meeting a career advisor who quizzed you on what you enjoyed doing as a child? Initially this may seem absurd, but it is actually a perfectly logical question. Things you enjoy doing out of work identified in the “feel good” memories of ourselves as a child are the basis of our true personal values.

Once you have identified your true underlying values you can understand what matters to you, needless to say the more of which you have incorporated in your job, the better you will perform and more enjoyable it will be.

Too often we meet highly successful professionals who on the outer appear to have the “dream job”, you are surprised to find they are unhappy at work. There job is consuming most of their time and fails to incorporate values most important to them.

Take time to really contemplate and understand what your core work and personal values are. Rank them to get an understanding of their importance.

It is unrealistic to think you have all your values constantly for filled at work every day. You should also recognize that values change overtime given your environment and personal situation so constantly check in with yourself as to where these are ranking throughout your career. What values you were seeking in a role and company early in your career may change to when you have a family or when you have an established career path.

Once you understand the dynamics of your values, you can educate those in your workplace. It is also beneficial if you have an understanding of the values of those in your team. It may provide a better sense of understanding as to why the act in a certain way! Who knows, minor changes to the way things are done at your work may make all the difference. We are all individual with our own values, recognizing this is a key leadership trait.

One the surface, values are just words. The value “challenge” in a work or personal level will conjugate different thoughts for different people. If you identify this as a core value missing from your job but as essential, then sharing this with your manager/potential employer by providing insight into what ‘challenge” means to you will be beneficial. Sometimes if you have an example of where you have felt such a “challenge” will be easiest to communicate. Otherwise, it is possible that your manager will identify such “challenges’ and simply add them to your list your responsibilities which won’t help, it may even hinder!

The list below will help you to begin to encapsulate your values: remember they are just words it’s the meaning behind them which make them significant to you.

Achievement
Adventure
Alone
Affiliation
Authority
Autonomy
Balance
Challenge
Change
Community
Competition
Creativity
Decision
Diversity
Education
Excitement
Excursing
Family
Flexibility
Freedom
Friendship
Growth
Global
Helping
Honesty
Income
Independence
Influencing
Integrity
Intellectual
Justice
Knowledge
Leading
Morality
Power
Predictability
Problem solving
Recognition
Responsibility
Safety
Sales
Security
Spirituality
Stability
Status
Structure
Support
Team
Tradition
Travel
Variety

The key message: check in regularly, what are your core work and personal values right now? Do they balance? What areas are lacking? Can you make changes to incorporate or balance these better or do you need to share it such insights with those you work? Or, do you need to find a new job or workplace?