Do you know your unique motivation code (your values)? Do your actions align with your values?

To win at work AND stay true to your values, you need to be able to answer YES to both questions.

Here’s a story that illustrates the point …

The Tale of the Man, the Boy and the Donkey

An old man, a boy and their donkey were going to town. The boy rode the donkey and the old man walked. As they went along, they passed some people who remarked it was a shame that the old man was walking when the boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe these critics were right, so they changed places.

Later, they passed some people who remarked, "What a shame that he makes the little boy walk". So they then decided they would both walk.

Soon, they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So they both rode the donkey.

Next they passed some people that shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey. The boy and man thought they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey.

As they crossed a bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and it fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story … If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass good-bye!

How does this apply to winning at work, without sacrificing your values?

When your goals and actions are based on your own values and value priorities, (your unique motivation code), you are much more likely to remain consistent in your focus, and therefore achieve your professional performance targets more readily.

Take a minute to share one of your wins or losses based on being true or NOT true to your personal values, in the comments box below …

Value your life, live your values The focus of this entire site is how to win at work, AND stay true to your values. Why the focus on values? Because your values are what focus you!

So, here we go with the top twelve things you need to know about your values:

1. Your values are what motivate you. They are the bridge between your inner desires and outer reality.
   
2. Your values are your lifestyle priorities and preferences, your unique motivation code. You need to know what your values are. They silently guide your words, your decisions and your actions. Get to know them … unless you want to be led through life by a stranger.
3. Knowing your values gives you clarity – you can make decisions based on choices, rather than habits.
4. Some of your values are more important to you than others. They are your core values and usually remain consistent over a long period of time.
5. Your values are with you 24/7. There is no distinction between personal and professional values. There is however, a distinction between what is an appropriate context for living out some values.
6. Your values are not necessarily predictors of your behaviour. For example, you and I may both value leisure and play. I might (would) choose to live that value by going to the opera, and you might choose to go rock climbing … same value, different expression.
7. All people, regardless of race, colour or creed, share 5 human needs: survival, freedom, fun, belonging and power. How you attempt to meet those needs depends on your values … your lifestyle preferences and priorities.
8. Your values come from your world-view. Your world-view is a set of (mostly unconscious) beliefs you hold about how the world works, or how you believe the world should work. The formation of your world-view was influenced by many factors as you were growing up: family, culture, geographic location, socio-economic conditions, media – old and new, peers, education, religious affiliations, groups such as Scouts and sporting clubs, and significant life events.
9. Your values and your ethics are not the same. Your values will motivate you, usually unconsciously. Your ethics will constrain you, usually based on conscious choice.
10. Clarity around what you value will help you choose more compatible friendships and business partners.
11. Knowing your values helps you to be clear about what you DON"T want in your life … your values are a guide to the boundaries you have in place in your life.
12. Consciously choosing to live your values leads you towards being more of who you were created to be.

Let’s make it a baker’s dozen and give the last word to the Bible:

13. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21) Your treasure is what you value, so get to know what your values are, and learn how to live them.

What experiences have you had as a result of living or NOT living your values? Take a minute to share your response in the comments box below.

Customer service focus: essential to excellence in professional performance

In previous posts I’ve identified two of the three dimensions that are essential for you to win at work without sacrificing your values:

• Engagement of your talent code
• Meaning, which stems from values alignment, your unique motivation code

In this post I’ll give a quick overview of the third:

• Customer service focus.

 Your customers or clients might be internal or external, individuals or corporations, paying or non-paying (as in community service clients)

Your customer service knowledge and skills may be expanded by training, strengthened by practising, or adjusted to meet changed needs or circumstances.

Your customer service attitude however cannot be improved by the above methods because it stems directly from your values. Your attitude can change if you CHOOSE a suitable path of integrated personal and professional development, which is based on your unique motivation code AND the aligned values of your employer.

Your customer service knowledge, skills and attitude can be maximized if:

• your personal values are service oriented (it’s not about you) AND
• your employer’s values behind their customer service practices are service oriented

The points I’ve just made have one thing in common – values alignment. We can conclude that identifying and prioritizing your core values (your unique motivation code) is essential if you want to excel in each of the three dimensions of winning at work: Engagement Meaning Customer Service Focus

Do you know how to identify and prioritize your values, how to crack your unique motivation code? Post your comments, questions or suggestions in the comments box below.

Next post: Value Your Life, Live Your Values – Why you need to live your values in order to win at work and avoid burnout

Unfold more meaning in your work to win at work without sacrificing your values

Here’s a true story about a colleague who had identified and prioritized his personal values (his unique motivation code), and how that self knowledge saved him from a potential professional disaster.

Paul, a colleague who is passionate about environmental conservation, told of the excitement he felt when invited by a legal firm who specialized in Environmental Law, to discuss a possible consulting contract. He envisioned the positive impact the partnership could have on the application of environmental legislation within the nation.

Imagine his horror when, at their first meeting to explore how they might work together, he learned that the focus of their firm was to find loop-holes in environmental legislation in defence of their clients. He declined their invitation, of course.

Can you imagine the scenario if he had not been 100% certain of his motivation code? If he had not been true to his personal values?

What if he had convinced himself that he needed the contract for financial reasons and decided to go ahead? How soon would he have experienced the first symptoms of stress? How soon would he have started coming home from work with feelings of anger and resentment, and directed those feelings towards his wife and kids? How soon before he could barely get out of bed to face another day working on that project? How soon before he was in full burnout … weeks, months? You get the picture …

We can avoid burnout by being very clear about our personal values and not engaging in work that has little or no meaning for us.

Meaning arises from values alignment

If you believe that your work contributes something of worth to an organization that offers a service or product that you value to the community, then you are likely to experience your work as meaningful and satisfying. In other words, values alignment creates a feeling of connection to the mission of your employer and your colleagues.

A healthy sense of meaning, along with a high level of engagement, plus a customer service focus, are three key indicators of high professional performance.

Was this information useful? Please post your comments, questions or suggestions in the comments box below.

Customer focus

My next post will reveal why your focus on customer service will help you to win at work.

Why engagement helps you to WIN AT WORK without sacrificing your values

My previous post identified 3 dimensions of professional growth that are vital to your professional performance – engagement, meaning and a customer focus.

Remember that engagement at work stems from actively applying your natural talent code at work. Highly engaged workers display more confidence, more intense focus & higher productivity than non or poorly engaged workers. Let’s examine each of those benefits:

Confidence

Success at work breeds confidence. Success comes from engagement with your work. Engagement comes from working on tasks for which you have a natural talent. When you develop that talent code into professional strengths, and have daily opportunities to apply your strengths to produce quality work, your confidence soars and leads to even deeper levels of engagement … an upward spiral of performance and success.

Focus

Maintaining the motivation to stay “on task” and focused is a real challenge to all of us if we are not working in our strength zone AND working on tasks we value. Your values are your inner desires, and one of the keys to motivation. Think back to a time or situation when you felt successful, and were able to maintain focus on your tasks for extended periods of time … I can guarantee that you valued what you were doing, and had a natural aptitude for the skills required to succeed.

Productivity

Peak performance stems from the alignment of the task at hand with your strength zone and your values. We can express that as a simple formula: * strengths + values + aligned task = productivity.

Transform yourself into a valuable employee by applying this formula for professional performance.

Are you ready to maximize your engagement at work? Post your comments, questions or suggestions in the comments box below.

Live your values: find meaning in your work

My next post will reveal why you need to find meaning in your work to win at work without and avoid burnout

Engagement, meaning and service: how to win at work without sacrificing your values

You might be surprised to discover that these 3 things are vital to your professional performance – out of a dozen or so common Quality Management Practices, development in these 3 areas ensures your value as an employee:

Engagement

Engagement happens when you are actively working with your natural talent set and developing them into strengths. If you are engaged with your work, you will feel confident, be focused and productive, and contribute well to your employer’s business outcomes, while enjoying a greater sense of success than around 80% of your colleagues

Meaning

A sense of meaning or purpose in your work arises from the alignment of your values with your employer’s values. When you believe that the work you do contributes something worthwhile to an organisation that is offering a useful product or service to the community, you are likely to experience your work as meaningful and satisfying

Service

An attitide of service is the mark of all real winners. If you gain great satisfaction from delivering a high level of customer service, (internal or external customers), doing everything in your power to meet your customer’s needs, and sticking with a challenge until you have found a solution for your customer, then you are likely to be valued highly by your boss

Contribution to business results and your professional performance

If you ranked yourself highly on the 3 dimensions above, chances are that you are highly productive, have an immense sense of satisfaction, and are making a valuable contribution to the business outcomes of your employer … creating a win-win outcome.

Engaged workers are more productive …

My next post will reveal why you need to find a way to be an engaged worker.

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Training changes performance, development changes lives Do you want to win at work by maximizing your professional growth? Start with this understanding of the difference between training and development … John Maxwell, one of the world’s great leadership writers, makes this distinction

“When we train people, we focus on the job. When we develop people, we focus on the person. When we train people, we’re adding value to specific things, such as what their job description is. When we develop people, we add value to everything. They not only become better in their jobs, they become better in life. Employee training is a necessity for any business that wants to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. But leaders who want to make a lasting difference also recognize that training by itself is not enough. Training people is helpful for a short time, Developing people is helpful for a lifetime. And while the result of training is changed performance ….. The result of development is changed lives.”

How to maximize your professional performance: My next post will reveal:

The 3 areas for you to focus your time, money and energy to win at work without sacrificing your values