What Values Do You Bring to Work?

Finding a job is easy. Succeeding in it is the real challenge.  In the last few days I met people who have all the right opportunities to make it big but failed to do so on the account of their failure to capitalize both on the opportunity and their abilities.

This happens when we fail to acknowledge the importance of what we do and why we do it. The "why" part of the last sentence gives us a sense of purpose, a motivation to give it our best, without which all we'll see is the amount of time we spend at work and the financial entitlement for those spent hours.  We fail to account for our contribution. In fact we might not even want to talk about results, just hours spent or a semblance of effort. The "whys" represent or manifest our values.

So, what values do you bring to work? What gives you a sense of purpose to give your job your best? What do you want people to say about you and your contribution after you are gone? Is it a sense of achievement,  Family, personal growth, financial success, helping others, material possessions, a sense of integrity, fairness, making a difference? What, and how do you manifest or intend to manifest them. The what and how of work is easy, it's the why that gives us the real drive to succeed.

Here's my call to action, write yourself a list of things that you value the most. Rank them by order of importance. Ask yourself how you intend to show that you do value them both inside and outside the workplace and then make a commitment to really show them.


How do you know that the things you said you value are authentic? If you are having difficulty matching action with values and finding it difficult to keep up with your commitment, it isn't authentic. The opposite is true if it is. If you are having trouble keeping up with the values you identified, maybe you should rethink them or rethink your job. Maybe you are not in the right one.

If you followed this advice, I'd love to hear how it changed the way you see and deal with work.