Career Review Part Two: Understanding Your Real Values and How They Impact Your Career

Do you know what values are really driving your career choices?

Values are the rules we live our lives by. They drive our behaviour.

They are the things that are important to us. They are the moral, social, and ethical standards that underlie every decision and action (even if we’re not consciously aware of them!). Our values govern how we behave, communicate and interact with others.

It stands to reason therefore, that we are going feel our most fulfilled, our happiest where we can fully experience our values in and through our work. Given that you are reading this on the Women in Sustainability blog, it stands to reason that ‘making a difference’, ‘living ethically’ or ‘being of service’ are likely to rank highly in your values.

But how clear are you on the rest?

If you think you are clear, have you spent any time digging a little deeper, to explore those values you simply must experience in your career to feel your most fulfilled?

Part Two in our Autumn Career Review guides you through a proven, step by step process, of first unpacking your values. Then we explore and build your understanding of the often unconscious rules you apply to experiencing those values.

It’s this final that step that often gets forgotten when doing values work. (Which I would argue, puts you at a huge disadvantage when understanding what you really want to get from your working life!)

Whilst we might share similar values, how we each interpret and want to experience those values can really vary. As you can imagine, this can create conflict and miscommunication, as well as unease and frustration when you can’t understand why you feel they way you do.

Finally, if you aren’t aware of how you need to experience and live your values at work, you’ll find it far harder to identify what needs to change for you to honour and experience them more.

Download this values elicitation exercise  WINS Career Review Part 2  and work through the instructions to complete part two of your Autumn Career Review.

If you get stuck or have any questions, do get in touch here and I’ll do my best to support you.

(If you’ve not yet done Part One, take a look here.)

 

Author:

Rhian Sherrington, Successful Transitions Coach

Rhian Sherrington, FRSA, MSC, ACC,

Founder of Women in Sustainability Network and Successful Career Transitions Coach