Leading and Living by Your Core Values

Your core values are the foundation of who you are as a person. They are your guiding principles (whether consciously or subconsciously), impacting the way you make decisions, build relationships, and relate to the world. Understanding your values, and the way those values have been shaped throughout your life, is the key to tapping into your innermost potential.

“Understanding your values, and the way those values have been shaped throughout your life, is the key to tapping into your innermost potential.”

This is why we guide our mentees in a core values exercise, so they can begin the process of truly knowing themselves and what they stand for. This exercise is not only meant to uncover your values as a human and leader, but to help you understand the stories that shaped those values and how you articulate those values to the world.

An example: In the 92,000 Hours podcast (releasing Oct. 13) we explore core values with Dick Chapman, whose value of humor is one of his hallmarks as a professor at Westminster College. As an employee years ago, he was given feedback that he should leave his humor at home; it had no place in the workplace. He followed (and valued) his core values, and stopped working for that company soon after. Now, his humor is positively noted by hundreds of students in course reviews and websites like Rate My Professor. As his former students have written:

“Chapman is my all time favorite professor at Westminster. He's extremely intelligent, and fills lectures with anecdotes and funny stories.”

“Tests are mainly lecture based and require a lot of studying, but his lectures were always fun to listen to thanks to his insights and hilarious stories.”

He lives his value of humor (despite being told he should do otherwise), and it has paid off by having a fulfilled life and career that he enjoys.

Determining your core values: an exercise

We provide these core values cards to our participants. You should start by printing these out and cutting them into individual cards. (You can do this virtually, but we like the tangible process even though it requires a lot of work!)

First, take five minutes (set a timer, you don’t want to overthink this) and sort all the cards into one of three stacks:

• Very important to me

• Somewhat important to me

• Not important to me

You can use the blank cards to write in your own value if you don’t find the one you want listed.

Second, take all the cards from the “very important” pile. Narrow them down to 10.

Third, narrow them down to five.

Next, narrow them down to three. 

As you remove some of these cards, you may find some overlap and begin “writing” your own definitions for these words in your head. For example, personal development and learning may both be very important to you, but you could combine them into a single card if you broaden your perspective a little bit.

Finally, write down your personal definition for each of the three values you chose. We then guide our participants in discussing some key questions related to their values, which we encourage you to think about as well:

• What are core values? Why do they matter—to us personally and as an organization?

• How can identifying our core values help us succeed (in life, in the workplace, in our families and organizations?)

• What does it look like when you are living your core values?How can they guide what we do day-to-day?

Core values serve as our guides during time of conflict or confusion. They give us a direction and keep us on the path that’s right and authentic for us. They help us make decisions that honor what’s worthwhile to us and who we are as individuals. And, they give us a big-picture sense of purpose.

What are your core values? Did this exercise help you understand yourself better as individual? Let us know on Facebook or LinkedIn—we may feature your comments in an upcoming episode of 92,000 Hours.