Assess Your Career Values
The best career choices are ones that match your values. Each person has several values that are important to him. These values are highly personal and knowing them provides a clearer sense of what's most important to you in your life and career. Career values are the beliefs you consider important from a work standpoint. Values help you understand what you want from a job? Explore a few examples of work values that can influence career path and job satisfaction.
Most of us don't know what we want from our life, our job. We think we do, but we really don't. Most of the time, we only know what we don't want. Do you know what your life's topmost preferences are? Do you know what matters to you the most? How to find out what makes you happy, what is it around which your life evolves? Knowing specifically what you want is much different than knowing what you don't want. Once you know what matters to you, your intentions get focused and you channelize all your energies to accomplish that.
Initially, everyone has difficulty with this question because the answer is hidden deep within you, buried beneath a sea of shoulds. Over time, this self-awareness can become almost invisible if we let it. Find out what is most important and what is it that you truly want.
Recognize that to be happy, you must live the life that you truly want to live. It's your life and you are the only one who can truly determine what is right for you. We are just trying to help you with one tool that can start the process of introspection, helping you ask yourself what you have inside. Follow not what you are told, but what you are and what you love..."
My Values (What matters most to me?)
The following is a list of personal values that many people have identified as being important to them in their careers. To begin exploring your own personal values, look at the list of values that follows. These values describe a wide variety of attributes most people want to achieve in their life at varying levels. Watch our video to understand what these values mean and how they influence your life. Rate the degree of importance in choosing a career for yourself and shortlist what matters most to you by selecting five values that are the most important to you and list them in the space provided for values in the worksheet.
1. Independence - Freedom to think
Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience or ideas) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints. I want to have the freedom to think, time available for myself, and freedom to act as per my conscience
2. Expertise – Strive to be a Master
Expertise is a special skill or knowledge that is acquired by training, study, or practice. Expertise helps you stand out from the crowd and builds your reputation. To pursue learning and to become a known authority on what I do is my dream. I want to be a MASTER.
3. Social Service – Make a difference to Society
Social workers choose to impact the lives of those they encounter. The smiles and gratitude from the people you help are priceless. I want to make a huge difference to the society I live in. Helping fellow human beings gives me happiness
4. Friendship – Building Strong Networks
A recent Harvard study concluded that having solid friendships in our life even help promote brain health. Friends also help us handle stress, make better lifestyle choices that keep us strong, and allow us to rebound from health issues and disease more quickly. I want to spend time with people I like and I enjoy working hard to make them like me
5. Wealth – Enjoying Wealth the Honest Way
Wealth refers to the value of everything a person or family owns. Seeking true wealth may mean seeking deeper relationships, more personal growth, or ways to create more meaning in life. Achieving true wealth means possessing the ability to enjoy the small, ordinary pleasures of life. I want to attain wealth in a way that makes me truly happy and fulfilled. In the pursuit of wealth, I feel accomplished.
6. Family – What matters most to me
Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit - and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.
I want to have time to share with my family. My family is what matters the most to me.
7. Power - To be in Control
People with high self-control are happier. We all want to be happy. And to be happy we need to feel in control. I find happiness when I am in Control. I want power, control over others.
8. Leadership – To be influential
The happiest people make the best leaders, and conversely, unhappy people don't make good leaders. In fact, the best leaders put their own interests ahead of others and are happy as a result of doing so. I find happiness in being a Leader, to become influential.
9. Stability – Feeling a Stable and Secure
A stable routine gives your life structure and makes you feel in control. Living and spending time in a loving, secure, and stable environment is incredibly important for all of us. It is necessary for growth and success in life. What matters most to me is to have a stable and secure position.
10. Self-Development – Challenges that make me develop my Skills
The journey of self-improvement is an ongoing process of constant learning. It gives you the opportunity to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and to work on them. Deciding to walk the path of self-improvement and personal development gives your life purpose and meaning. What matters most to me is to have a job that is challenging and provides me with opportunities to grow
11. Location – I live where I want
For many people, the work location is an important criterion when searching for jobs. Office location is important because it affects employee job satisfaction and work/life balance. I want to live where I want to Live. Location is very important to me!
12. Achievement – Pursuit of something Worthwhile
Achievement is important for us to perform better. Achievement is more important than material or financial reward. Achieving the aim or task gives greater personal satisfaction than receiving praise or recognition. Achievement gives us such an incredible sense of satisfaction. To achieve important goals matters most to me. I want to constantly engage myself in pursuit of something worthwhile!
13. Enjoyment – Enjoy the Job & Life
Enjoyment, understood as a positive impression due to positive stimuli, or otherwise feeling of satisfaction, is an indispensable element of a balanced life. But enjoyment also means pride in doing a good job, a sense of satisfaction, well-being, love, affection – all the things in life that make your heartbeat. I want to enjoy my job and have fun doing whatever I do!!
14, Self-Respect – My esteem is important
Having self-respect helps others to see and treat you with dignity and worth. Often the backbone of self-respect is knowing your values and living by them. Having self-respect often means that you need to stand by your character and be willing to defend your values and actions. My image and self-respect matter to me most. I want to be regarded as successful!!
Download the template provided here free of cost and use the template to shortlist five top values that matter most to you. These values will be used in a later exercise to understand your career options and developmental plan.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
Concept & Definition of Stress
Stress is a popular expression used by people in day to day life. Pressures of day to day living sometimes necessitate coping or dealing with them and stretch the body beyond its natural capacity. They are called stressors. Stress is a natural, ongoing dynamic, and interactive process that takes place as people adjust to their environment.
-
Narrative leadership is interpreted as the leader who aspires to construct leadership by telling stories. Leadership is a task of persuasion, of winning people’s minds and hearts. Storytelling is thus inherently suited for the task of leadership. Learn about the narrative leadership style and how to use this style to inspire and motivate followers or to manage change.
-
“Level 5 Leadership”, this term was coined by Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great” and it is all about achieving "Greatness" as a leader. This article will explain what we mean by Level 5 Leadership and what the characteristics of a Level 5 leader are. What it takes to achieve greatness as a leader, and what are the steps and strategies that one can use to move up to this top level of leadership.
-
Improving Skills & Competencies
Whenever you are looking for a job or having your yearend discussion with your manager, two terms generally referred to be “Skills” and “competencies”. Today success in a career is an outcome of having essential competencies and building required skills. Skills could be a major distinguishing factor for you to move up on the career ladder and jump from one role to another. Leadership skills when combined with relevant domain and functional expertise can transform your entire career growth and help you have a fulfilling career.
-
A good leadership style is something that every effective leader must have in order to succeed, but identifying what that entails or does not entails might be difficult to understand. Most of the research on leadership focuses on the exemplary, best practices, and positive attributes of effective and successful leaders. This article talks about a new approach to learn leadership using lessons from bad leadership. That is the lessons to be learned by examining leaders who have not effectively exercised their power, authority, or influence.
-
What are some of the smartest things you can do in your early career that can help you become successful? The more you challenge yourself early on and gain a multitude of experiences and skills, the more successful you'll become down the road. In this article, we have compiled our best career advice including tips from career and recruitment experts. Here are some important tips to keep in mind as you plan your education and training, your career, and your life.
-
How often do you have a plan for how you are going to spend your day but you aren't able to complete the tasks on your plan because of unimportant tasks, interruptions, or your own procrastination? Wouldn't it be great to be able to manage your schedule and your time while avoiding, or at least controlling, these time stealers? Learn the strategies to manage your schedule while still handling interruptions and demands on your time.
-
In our present Hitech scenario, society is changing very fast. What are the skills that are most relevant for leaders in relation to the changing economic environment? Leaders need to develop skills to drive innovation and change in order to play a more central role in their organizations’ activities. How do managers accept the change and meet business expectations by becoming a key figure in driving change and innovation?
-
Tips for Effective Time Management
After studying and analyzing how time is spent, why time is wasted, and where time is wasted you need to decide about the changes required for effective utilization of time. For this purpose, a large number of remedial measures can be taken by you. The first and foremost determinant of a planned and purposeful utilization of time is to develop consciousness of the value of time at all levels of the organization. Planning, goal setting, and defining priorities are concerns to addressed immediately.
-
Reasons behind Wastage of Time
Under-utilization of time may be due to the faulty system or faults of manager/officer/leader or due to lack of planning. There could be many factors driving the procrastination behavior like system issues, personal work habits, and lack of delegation, personality traits, and bad working habits of the leader, failure to tackle interpersonal conflicts, obstacles, and lack of far-sightedness.
