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Tips and stories to add value to you and your organisation

Do You Value Your Values?

23 February 2014

What are the values you hold dear for a happy life? Maybe to be fair to people, work hard and keep learning? How do you uphold these values on a daily basis and how do you pass them on to your children, or share them with your partner?

With my Transactional Analysis training poking me in the ribs to be Ok-Ok with people, I find that my values have shifted a bit since I was in my 20’s. For example, I was asked once if TA was a gift or a commodity? ‘That’s easy’, I answered brightly, ‘it’s a commodity – I paid for my own training and now I charge people for my organisational work.’ Now though I would say both – I can choose to give gifts to people, and have done so many times. The concept of Okness has helped to shape my values and I applaud that.

This value of giving gifts has percolated into my business and we’ll come back to that next week when thinking of CSR (not a new crime show, you’re thinking of CSI Miami).

So then, what values does your organisation hold dear? Equality for male and female workers? Promotion based on merit, and not on being the MD’s daughter? An equal share of the bonus pool, or one that recognises attendance levels? Do you uphold honest conversations and promote dialogue, or do you like to hire people ‘for their brains’ and then whinge when you catch them thinking (clearly they are being lazy….no?).

The reason that I’m asking if you value your values to encourage us all to take a fresh look at the values we have at the centre of our organisation. Do we know what they are? Does everyone else know them? And crucially, what do we do to uphold them on a daily basis and not just once a year at a strategy review meeting?

A modern, competitive organisation that is good to work for has sincere, meaningful values at their core and they live them every day. What does your organisation really do with their values, and what do you do at home? What is one thing that can be changed for the better?

Enjoy valuing these questions!

Next week: CSR Norfolk (Like CSI Miami, but with less bodies and more crabs)

PS. Thank you to those kind souls who tuned in to my TA Tuesday last week. We had a great time – with me talking about TA and life and business for 60mins. If you missed it and would like a FREE ticket to watch it within the next few days please email me and I will send you the link.