In This Episode…
In this episode I deepen the exploration on Values and their impact on productivity I began yesterday. I look at a range of possible values that might affect my productivity and explain their influence. I also drift into considerations about my productive identity. I end by sharing my 6 productive values that work for me.
Episode Show Notes
00:09 – In yesterday’s episode, I explored the impact that values might have on deciding what to do on a daily basis. Today I am going to dive a little deeper into understanding my values.
01:05 – I have done a bit of work on eliciting my values in the past and so am familiar with the approach. I thought I would start by brainstorming potential (professional) values and see what I come up with. Then I’ll go to Google.
01:31 – It is important I make the distinction I’m looking at values that will affect my professional productivity. That means I won’t be looking at things like love or family.
02:00 – Here is the list I first came up with:
- Discipline
- Accountability
- Professionalism
- Fun
- Contribution
- Integrity
- Flexibility
- Cooperation
- Collaboration
- Growth
- Learning
- Honesty
- Trust
- Efficiency
- Effectiveness
02:32 – Discipline is an important value to me. I notice how my effectiveness and efficiency is affected when I let things slip. I think it is a key value to hold dear if I want to be productive.
03:28 – Accountability is another big one for me. Doing what what needs to be done when you say you’ll do it should be a no brainer in any organisation. The lack of accountability is one of the key drivers to poor team and organisational performance I’ve experienced in developing leadership in large organisations over the last 8 years.
04:09 – Holding myself to account will be a key factor in my achievements.
04:24 – The reason professionalism is such a key value for me is because of my experience as a Submarine Officer in the Royal Navy and having worked in some of the most highly regulated industries in the world.
04:39 – Professionalism however can be a double edged sword when it comes to productivity. Wanting to do too good of a job can lead to a paralysis of analysis and excessive procrastination. Over-Engineering something also has the potential to drive me into overwhelm.
05:16 – Fun is an important value to me because I do want to enjoy my work. It is also the value that helps inform who I choose to work with – difficult people generally are not much fun to work with.
05:49 – When I enjoy my work then I do better quality work. However fun as a value has the potential to making me vulnerable to pleasurable distractions if I let it dominate my value set.
06:11 – Contribution is an important value for me because I really enjoy helping people. I am by nature a rescuer.
06:39 – Integrity is a very important value. It is about doing the right thing, not the convenient thing. I believe honesty and trust are also tied in with integrity and so I’ll lump them together under the same value.
07:30 – Flexibility is an important value to me because it represents and is evident of a growth mindset. I’ve got to be able to adapt my approach in achieving my goals but also recognise when I need to change what I am striving for when it no longer serves me to do so.
08:05 – I have linked cooperation and collaboration together. These are about working together nicely with other people. I think holding these values dear is important because long gone are the days when we can do everything ourselves. We need to rely on the skills, expertise and effort of others.
08:43 – I have made the distinction between growth and learning because I have realised I need to continually grow as a person in order to lead a fulfilling life. Along the way I am going to learn lots of things that will enable me to grow.
09:31 – Whilst I was thinking as I was speaking I added courage to my list of possible values
10:19 – Writing out this initial list of values and mulling over them has been useful to increase my clarity over what is important to me when considering my productivity.
10:37 – Just to make sure I have not missed anything, I went to Google to see what other values I could find. These words jumped out for me:
- Positivity
- Dependability
- Loyalty
11:10 – As I sifted through the Google search returns, the words that came up seemed to be something I would more associate with someone’s identity rather than a value set. Things like:
- Strong work ethic
- Self motivated
- self confident
12:06 – As I reflected on these words and what they mean to me, I realised I probably need to explore the concept of identity in a little more detail. I think I am going to do that in tomorrow’s episode.
12:32 – After this brief analysis, I have identified my initial set of 6 values:
- Integrity
- Discipline
- Accountability
- Professionalism
- Learning
- Fun
15:09 – This is a good starting point for me and one that probably requires a bit more of a deeper analysis.
Until tomorrow…
