Values are defined as ‘principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what’s important in life.’ It makes sense that everyone has values as each individual has their own principles and stuff they hold important to them. Jami shares her experience with learning how to value her values.
At Rambutan, we pride ourselves on our values because they’re truly at the heart of everything we do. Some organisations feel the same as us and talk about their values regularly whereas some may have them posted on an office wall or in an induction booklet. If you were a company or a brand, which one would you be?
A few months ago, my personal values might have been hidden away until I heard Craig, our senior Rambutan consultant, talking about a values workshop he was designing for a client and it sounded fascinating. It made me realise that I had no idea what my personal values were. I asked Craig to coach me to help me identify what my values were, and I came away with a lot to think about! I now have an insight into what I value in people and life in general; I found that just being aware of this made me value my values more.
There’s a difference between knowing your values and prioritising them that I’ve found really interesting in times when I need to make decisions or have difficult conversations. One thing I value is spending quality time with people I know. So, when it comes to deciding whether to stay at home and do odd jobs or go out and meet someone I haven’t seen for a while, I know the latter will mean more to me. Although the odd jobs could do with some attention, valuing your values means devoting time to making sure they’re fulfilled.
If you ask me now where my personal values would be, if I were a brand or company, I could tell you with confidence that they are in daily conversation and in all of our material! It just needed some coaching and commitment to their importance. What about you?
