A Job Done Well - Making Work Better

Values at Work: Are They Just Corporate Wallpaper?

• Jimmy Barber, James Lawther • Season 3 • Episode 17

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This week, Jimmy and James welcome back Dr. Jackie Le Fèvre—aka “Dr. Values”—to dissect the messy, often hypocritical world of organisational and team values. Spoiler: those shiny plaques in the foyer? Probably bollocks. But don’t despair—this episode is your survival guide to navigating the gap between what companies say they value and what they actually do.

Jackie pulls no punches: if your boss keeps “second-guessing” your work, it’s not (always) about trust—it’s about their own values. And if your company’s “core values” feel more like corporate wallpaper than a compass, you’re not alone. The trio digs into why stated values so rarely match reality, how to spot the difference, and what to do when your personal values clash with your employer’s. Turns out, values aren’t just fluffy HR buzzwords—they’re emotionally charged, stress-buffering, performance-boosting powerhouses. When aligned, they make work feel meaningful. When ignored or faked, they turn offices into soul-sucking pits of disengagement.

Key points:

  • Explain yourself: If you’re a manager, your quirks (like obsessing over quarterly reports) make sense to your team—if you tell them why.
  • Actions > words: An org that claims to value “innovation” but rewards cost-cutting is lying. Watch what they do, not what they post on the intranet.
  • Team charters, not manifestos: For small teams, a shared “how we work” agreement beats a forced values workshop every time.
  • The Enron effect: Nothing destroys trust faster than a company that preaches integrity while cooking the books.
  • Do it well or don’t bother: Half-arsed values initiatives backfire. Either commit to the hard work of alignment, or save everyone the eyerolls.

With Jackie’s mix of neuroscience, war stories, and dry wit, this episode arms you with the tools to cut through the BS—and maybe even enjoy your job a bit more.

Got a question - get in touch. Click here.

Speaker 5:

Hello, I'm James. Hi, I'm Jimmy and welcome to a Job Done Well, the podcast that helps you improve your performance enjoyment at work.

jimmy-barber_2_01-26-2026_152859:

Hi James.

james_2_01-26-2026_152858:

Hello, what we talking about today? Then?

jimmy-barber_2_01-26-2026_152859:

Well, It's actually the second part of the episode that we did recently on values where Dr. Values herself, Jackie Lafe, talked about individual values. This week we've got her talking about organizational team values.

james_2_01-26-2026_152858:

Ah, I'm looking forward to that'cause Jackie was very interesting, not us spouting our normal clutcher.

jimmy-barber_2_01-26-2026_152859:

She was, and the episode was so good. We cut into two. So now you can enjoy part two.

james_2_01-26-2026_152858:

If you haven't heard the first one, you really should go back and listen to it. We published it a couple of weeks ago. It's called Understanding Your Values.

jimmy-barber_2_01-26-2026_152859:

Let's get on with it.

Jimmy:

So Jackie a lot of us come across values in, in organizations and, organizations talk about, they all have, a value set, interested in your take a on, the importance of those sort of corporate values. And then as a, a middle manager in an organization who's leading a team of people, how can I. Think about values, my values, my team's values, my organization's values to e effectively improve my performance or my team's performance, or, enjoyment of of what they're doing.

Jackie:

Sure. So as a middle manager or a frontline manager, your personal values will be actively shaping how you show up in that role.

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

If

James:

Yeah.

Jackie:

know what they are, you can put some words to them. You can start to use that in your explanation. About why you are doing what you are doing in the way that you are doing it, that helps them understand you better. One of the things that the values based leadership literature suggests is that it's that. Authenticity that really helps build those relationships, productive, effective relationships inside teams. If the manager is able to say, I have this really high priority value around workmanship craft I derive. A great deal of satisfaction from knowing I've done a quality job. So I know that when we get to the quarterly report planning, it could well feel like to everybody that I'm second guessing you or I'm asking you questions that I ought to know the answers to. It's not scrutiny. It's me wanting to be sure that when I report our work in our quarterly report, I have done it justice that's why I ask questions of clarification of, that's why I ask for the source material. not scrutiny there'cause they may all be sat around the room going, well, don't see why. Keep going. Ask this

Jimmy:

Yeah. And trust me.

Jackie:

and feeling mistrusted.

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

not what's going on. And if the manager, as a middle manager, if you've got a bit of a language to go, here is my drive that, I feel helps us in this way. More often than not, the team will go, oh, is that what it was? Oh, all then. Yeah. Fair enough.

Jimmy:

Well, I think the difference is there you, in that beha in that example, if you were in that team, you think this person doesn't trust me. They don't trust what I'm doing. They don't value the quality of my work. And it's human nature, isn't it? We make stuff about ourselves. Whereas actually,, if you're the manager of that team and you say, look, the reason why I'm doing this is X, Y, Z, and you make it explicit, then all of a sudden it becomes. Not just about them. Not, so it depersonalizes that if you like. So I can see that the yeah. Explaining yourself a bit.

Jackie:

Then to your question about the organizational values, all organizations do value certain things over certain other things. It might or might not match the list of words that's on the

Jimmy:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jackie:

That's a completely different conversation, But inside an organization, there will be certain things that matter more than other things. And if you are able to talk with your team about what matters to the organization and what matters to me as your manager here, and how those two things connect, that can help the whole thing feel a lot more coherent. One of the organizations I work with. They're they're a social care organization, so they provide independent living support and their number one value is kind hearts and kind hearts is about the fact that we go into every interaction, interested in the best outcomes for all the people involved. we will move mountains if we can to make it happen. It's clear that in that every interaction is approached appreciatively. So if I'm that manager and I've got this workmanship craft on you I need to say to my people. I like this data. This data helps me that this helps me. That helps me. That helps because I want us to remain as trusted as we are because being trusted in the way that we are gives us the opportunity to operate in that kind way. We can make decisions, we can take the initiative, we can step forward when we can see it's the right thing to do, and by then actually helping the higher up. Us even further imagine what we can do in the future. so it's those connections.

James:

so, what you've just said, I think is first of all, be explicit about what your values are, because even if people don't share those values, it will help'em understand you and you will get better interactions.

Jackie:

Absolutely.

James:

then the other thing I've got from that is. A, an organization might say it it values innovation, but actions speak louder to words. And actually what it really values is hitting its bottom line. And if that means you've got a Saxon people, well so be it. And so the stated value and the actual value of an organization may be two totally different things.

Jackie:

They often are, yes.

Jimmy:

In my experience, organizational values that are put on a plaque in the foyer tend to be what they think they should have as values or what they would like to have, rather than what they actually have, which is what you can observe by interactions, by behavior, by how things get done around it. And I think it's important if you're leading a team and you've got this set of on, on the wall, and then you've got this difference to understand that. Because that, it is the disconnect between all of those that will cause people angst.

Jackie:

Did.

James:

really

Jackie:

Yeah.

James:

cause I've worked for a number of organizations and there's only one I can think of where it's stated values actually felt like it was what they were doing. They were congruent. If you have value, if you state something and it's not congruent, then that you just destroy trust because people say, oh Yeah, we go again. Sorry. Penny

Jackie:

Yeah.

James:

That's really

Jackie:

And so that organization that you worked in that actually was congruent, do you feel differently about having worked there compared to other places?

James:

Oh yeah, much. It was a much better organization to work with because I suppose you just knew what was gonna happen and you knew why it was gonna happen, and you could make sense of it.

Jackie:

And that's it. That's it. We don't like uncertainty. We don't like ambiguity. We are beautifully wired for it. Evolution has set us up marvelously to handle change and handle ambiguity because we're so long lived, but we don't like it. The brain is a pattern seeking machine. It wants to know what's coming up. It wants to be able to anticipate, and this is where values be they, your individual values or the team's shared values or the organization's values really come into their own as a navigational aid in uncertainty. So we dunno we're gonna be asked to do next, but we do know what's going to matter most is. Kindheartedness or what is going to matter most is innovation or what is going to matter most is the bottom line, as long as we know, and then what happens next is consistent with that, we can handle all kinds of hiatus in the interim.

Jimmy:

Yeah, the difficulty is that, and I, this is why I have some sympathy for organizations is that. There's a way of thing, way things are done around here, so that are the unstated values. But if you are ambitious and you want things to change, one of the ways you think about changing them is make some statements that are ambitious, that are aspirational, that you're aiming for. I guess in, in that instance I think, because you put them on the wall and you say, this is what our values are. It's about maybe that's what your values should be or you are aspiring them to be, and rather than stating them as fact, I think there's a nuance there that, we'll help people go with you because they know that's what you're aiming for, rather than stating it like, this is how we do things around here and it's not'cause the incongruence there will cause an issue.

Jackie:

Yeah, I mean I have a lot of sympathy for organizations if they're trying to do values work.'cause it's not easy.

Jimmy:

None.

Jackie:

trying to take these abstract, emotionally rich energy led ideas that sit in the unconscious where there is no vocabulary centers. All the vocabulary centers are forward here. They're not deep down there. So these feelings about things exist as feeling as emotion, not as words. So to try and wrap

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

them is hard to

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

with. So I've got a lot of sympathy with that. The thing is. You can. You can like go for it. You can shoot for the moon and go, let's value this and this and this. But then you have to plan how you're gonna do it. There will inevitably, at the start of the values program, be a big gap between where we're at and what we understand right now and what we've just put on the wall. So come up with a plan,

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

people to get there steadily. And that requires a lot of reflection,,

James:

So if I are running a team of a hundred team people, whatever the hell it might be. Do I need to worry about values? As a team, so I get, I need to be explicit about my values as a manager so people can understand me, do I need values for my team? Does that add anything or not? What is already just all so much corporate wallpaper?

Jackie:

It will, but only if you have the opportunity to do it properly. If you don't have the opportunity to do it properly, it'll do more harm than good if you open Panda's box. leave values in the unconscious doing whatever they're doing, unless you as a manager have got the autonomy. Something through or your organization is seriously committed to moving to consciously values based work. If it is, or if you have got the autonomy, then good things will come from this. But if you are going to be compromised or undermined in any way, then save your sanity. Work on your own values, be present. Be your authentic, best self. Do, but don't shoulder the.

Jimmy:

So Jackie's a slightly different angle on that example though. So I get that If you are, you've got, James as example, you've got a team of a hundred people, trying to lay out the values for this team. Could be a fool errand in that example. But out of that a hundred people, just for argument's sake, James, six of them report to you as an individual. Is there some value in not defining their values, but understanding the values that of the individuals that work for you so you can understand them a bit better?

Jackie:

Not really because just'cause you think you know what somebody's values are doesn't mean that you know very much about them

Jimmy:

No.

Jackie:

there's so many different ways in which a value can play out. So you might, for example look at a little group of people and go, what we really need is we need high trust. have a trust value, but then all of a sudden it doesn't get you what you were looking for because you can get. The same behavior from different routes. So you can get trustworthy behavior from somebody who values loyalty. You can get trustworthy behavior from somebody who values efficiency because actually keeping your promises and getting it right first time is the easiest way to be trusted. Or you may, they may have a trust value. So it's not a set of straight lines.

Jimmy:

No, I was.

Jackie:

is for the manager. Is if you've got a relatively tight core team, so anything between three and eight folk who have to work together closely on a regular basis, it could be really interesting to have a conversation about does our best work look like? When are

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

cooking on gas? When do we feel like we are on the same page? We've got one another's backs. We absolutely have faith in one another. What characterizes those interactions and those decisions and then turn that into a, so what matters most to us is that we

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

promises. We we ask for help when we need it. We are. Congratulated for doing a good job. We are to do a better job, don't know, something like that, and turn that into a little kind of team charter that this is how we are gonna guide our behavior, where we are together and when we are separate from one another, but working on things that impact the group. So that can be really powerful as a touchstone.

Jimmy:

Got you. I think what I was thinking was more I don't know, in, in the earlier example, if James works for me and I keep asking him to post these videos and he never post the videos, is there benefit in me understanding why? What is it? Why James doesn't do that. So what's in, what's his individual values so that I can understand a bit more about him, and therefore our relationship can develop and evolve as a result of me understanding James as well as me telling him what my values are. That's

Jackie:

Absolutely understanding that better. Absolutely doesn't need to get down to the level of values though, to understand

Jimmy:

no.

Jackie:

can just sit with James and go, so I see that, video posting task is one that is challenging for some reason to get done on time each month. Can we have a chat about that? I under, I'd like to understand better what's in the way and what might be done to get those things out of the way or to make it a little bit easier. Could we just have a chat about it? What it what's the blocker? not a sort of pejorative, I don't see why you can't do this on time for pity's sake. It only takes

Jimmy:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jackie:

Not that. I'm seeing a pattern here. Can we talk about this pattern? Because a different pattern would be more helpful both to you and to me. So can we talk about how we might make that happen?

Jimmy:

But equally not doing what I was suggesting to a degree, which is we've got to get into a deep and meaningful about everything.

Jackie:

No, because James May well know. Because

Jimmy:

yeah,

Jackie:

just had this conversation about it's I don't like the self ag grand feeling of this, but a feeling

Jimmy:

yeah.

Jackie:

would be better. So if he doesn't have that awareness,

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

there's no reason why he should, to put him on the spot will make the situation worse, because

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

bad when we can't answer questions like that.

Jimmy:

And it feel really awkward'cause I'm trying to go all deeper, meaningful about the fact that he won't post some videos and he's oh, I dunno what you're going on about. And it's like, my, my kids always take the piss outta me.'cause they was like, every time we talk to dad, it's a deeper, meaningful chat with him. We don't wanna always have a deeper meaningful, it's the same, similar sort of thing, isn't it really?

Jackie:

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Jimmy:

That's really good advice because you start talking about it and you think, yeah, I can't get the value, the importance of this, therefore I've got to do lots of stuff with it. When actually the reality is, there are some things that you have said that are really useful that you would do in terms of understanding your own values and maybe articulating some of that there might be some value in. A team charter and for the sake of a purpose, but actually trying to dive into it too much individually or trying to make out like this is, the values for this team is probably two grand you're reaching and you probably won't do it well and you end up in a worse position.

Jackie:

Yeah, absolutely. There's a nice study that, I read where there was a, an organization and Tepa researchers approached them and said, oh, we want to do a study on values and individual values. And you seem to be an interesting organization and you seem to be doing quite well and you've got your values on the wall. And so we'd like to do this. And the organization went, yeah, that's fine. That's fine. And. So the researchers did some individual values work with all of the people inside the organization. and their hypothesis was, if we help all the people connect with their personal values, they will then the organizational values even more. And performance will go up. It will be, fantastic. So they did this work and what happened was that the kind of 20% of the workforce that were already doing quite well. Suddenly like they were turbocharged, they were flying, they were going, oh my God, I pretty much everybody else who were all just like vaguely dissatisfied about

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Jackie:

or another went well, that's pants, isn't it? See that, see this, see the other, and their performance went through the floor. So you can actively disengage people if you stir up their values, but then give them no means to honor them in how they do their work.

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james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

I'm really interested then Jackie, so, but what's the data say? So it's interesting to talk about values, But is the data that supports this or not?

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

There is, so values have been a topic of study in psychology for about 120 years. So it's a relatively young science. But what we are increasingly seeing is with the advent of neuroimagings. Studies that the things that have been observed in behavioral studies and experimental design are now showing up in terms of neuroimaging studies. So for example, I say to you, values are emotionally rich, energy laden ideas. and what Brain scans show is that when people are talking about thinking about values, conflicts, and values challenges, that it is the emotional centers of the brain that light up more so than the prefrontal cor kind of rational stuff. So those things that the early studies were suggesting about values are now being borne out by the neuroimaging studies. We also have seen in clinical studies that when people are connected to their values, they do some kind of values affirmation, exercise. So it might be, I'm this sort of a person, these things matter to me. I really, I stand for this. This is the flag that I fly. people reconnect consciously with who they feel they are, if you then put them through a bunch of stress tests, like counting backwards from 293, 4 20 thirteens in front of a hostile panel, that they produce less cortisol and less normal adrenaline, which are stress chemicals, then people who did not do the values exercise. So this is interesting because something that is just an exercise. A physiological effect. So conscious connection to values buffers us against physiological stress. Another thing that came outta my studies was that. We looked at people's reported wellbeing. So how much do they feel that things in their life are worthwhile? How much are they satisfied with the way in which they live their life? And what we found was that there is a strong monotonic relationship between. Level of values, connection and wellbeing. What that means is the stronger the values connection, the higher the wellbeing and the values connection actually accounted for 28% of the difference in wellbeing. So people with high values connection were 28% higher in their reported wellbeing. And that's interesting because that's, there's not a drug or a therapist in sight. That's an internal process that is taking place there.

jimmy-_2_01-13-2026_163359:

It's interesting'cause when you talked about I was thinking about the tactical benefits of values, just as in this interaction or this understanding of this particular thing, whereas what you're talking about in some of the data is more, it has just by being in connection with my values, it has some general impacts, not just the practical impacts.

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Can I just go on that a wee bit more? So what you're saying though is you can see, so you can see activity in the brain, can link that to hormonal response and people's ability to count backwards in thirteens, how much stress is there? So you can actually link it to individual performance. You can see it in wellbeing as well. Have there been any studies which actually demonstrate an improvement in organizational performance off the back of it or not? Because I suppose it gets progressively more and more difficult to prove the relationship.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

I would say I am not aware of any good quality studies. Which is not surprising when you think about the number of variables that would be involved, it's not just my individual values and our collective values, it's also my perception of the operating environment. It's the external conditions that we might be laboring under when we're trying to do that thing. So there's so many confounding variables in something like that. I think we'd be on very dodgy

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Yeah.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

to

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Okay.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

and claim that. So my framing of it would be if we wanna try and do something to support the humans in our system to flourish and to be able to be the best human they can be, that supporting them to come get in contact with their values and express those values in their work is. wellbeing promoting and a performance promoting thing to do. this is one of the things that came out, the PhD connection to values is not just knowing what they are. Just knowing what they are is not enough. You have to know what they are. You have to feel able to hold onto them to honor them, especially in difficult times and put them into practice. No hold and live. If you can't do those three things, then it's not conscious connection to values. It's just values awareness, and that's not the thing that brings the benefit.

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

And so. That comes back to quite almost like a good, bad, ugly, but are organizations that you've seen that do this, well, do this averagely and do it t dreadfully, what does that look like?

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

So doing it well means that the values that the organization claims. Prioritize other things. It genuinely does, so it really uses them. It might not get it right every time, but it's genuinely trying to do it. But to do that, the values need to be richly described. Having a single list of words sitting there going, integrity, trust, teamwork, innovation, and customer that ain't gonna cut it. That is so generic. It's not part of identity. Values are closely interwoven with identity. So the values need to be richly described as a great paper in the European Journal of Management looking at values and is there any value in articulating them? And they came out with this beautiful phrase where they said, Maverick is good. more distinctive your values in their name and their description. The better they are. A description of who you actually are as an organization and the more practically people will be able to put them into practice. I need to know what it means, the rich idea. Don't just say integrity and then leave me to look it up in a dictionary that's not gonna cut it. it needs, so it's when it's good, it's richly described it can be put into practice. That means giving people time and space to reflect on what those ideas mean in practice in their particular part of the work. So it's not prescribing. This is not another to-do list. This is about providing a framework to guide how we do it doesn't tell us what to do. Tells us how to go about the doing of it so that we've got agency in how we do it, but we do it within that framework. So that's what good

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Yeah. most organizations are just a bit mundane, bland, bad about it because it's just a list of words and it's a bit mother of the hood and apple pie. It doesn't mean anything and you're not getting anything.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

and the motivation for having those values on the wall in the first place can be very mixed. It might be that we need to have a set of values because our competitors got set. That's a really bad reason. We need to have a set of values because the chairman's been on a golf course and he's come in and said he wants these to be the values. That's another bad thing to do. a host of bad things to do. Unfortunately, there's a lot of very bad advice on the internet, so be very careful. you believe when you're reading about values out there. The other reason strangely enough not to do it is to try and correct poor behavior. So if there is a perception that, for example. People are not being very helpful inside the organization. There's a lot of silo mentality. People aren't very cooperative. We want to change that. We'll have cooperation as our number one value. It doesn't work like that. You need to go to the root causes of why folk are not able to cooperate and are not able to play nicely. You have to do something about those. You can't just put a value on the top like a sticking plaster. That's a very bad thing to do as well.

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james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

And Oakley. Is there anything organizations really do dreadfully where it just becomes counterproductive or destructive?

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

It is where the organizations actively dishonor the values and then are, and refuse to be held to account to it. One of the famous ones of course is Enron by the

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Right. Yeah.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

broke there. And the fact that their number one value was integrity, and yet they were busy records and deceiving people left out and center. But then if you stand back from the idea of integrity, if their version of integrity was, do whatever it takes to protect ourselves. our integrity in terms of our function, just everybody at.

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Yeah, so the one I would pick up at the moment, if you look at what's going on in the States I imagine if you're working in the Department of Justice, you go into a job like that. you think it's all about in and following the law, and Dan Dans, when you see a whole host of dubious things going on, I imagine that working in that environment must really conflict with people's values and they will just want the hell out. They must feel sick going into work in the morning.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Absolutely people, it, it will be making people ill in there for sure. And what tends to happen if we're put in a situation where it's really compromising one of our high priority core values, we will generally. Do one of a number of things either become too ill to function and so that gets us out of it or we fight it. whistle blowing, standing up to people, and that's hard, but we will do it if it matters that much. Or, and this one's really sad, I think sometimes people park themselves up, they go, well, I clearly can't have it. I need the salary and there's nowhere else for me to go. And as long as they don't make me break the law, I will tow the line, but as slowly as I possibly can.

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Yeah.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

That's soul destroying literally.

jimmy-_2_01-13-2026_163359:

But back to on, on a slightly more cheery note. Your view seems to be

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Okay.

jimmy-_2_01-13-2026_163359:

that organizationally have the right motivation for defining your values. Define them in the right way and richly describe them, not just single words.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Yeah.

jimmy-_2_01-13-2026_163359:

Then have a back to what you were saying earlier, have a plan for, if that's not how you are all behaving now, don't let that misalignment, bubble away. Be clear about the aspiration. Have a plan to help move the organization in that direction. If you can't do it well, I think you might as well not do it. It could almost be more destructive to do it badly. Then, don't think of it a tick box, either do it well or don't do it.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Absolutely. Some work by LERs and Posner ago now showed that where organizations do work that enables people to connect their personal values and live their personal values out through work increases discretionary effort by 17%. they said, and then if the organization has meaningful values and people can connect their personal values to the organizational values. That lifts it by another 2% goes up by 19%. If, however, what the organization does is have a set of values which it pushes at people

jimmy-_2_01-13-2026_163359:

Yeah.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

and doesn't provide the opportunity for people to connect themselves through their values to the organization, then discretionary effort goes down by 0.2%. 0.2% is not a big down, but the point is it does

jimmy-_2_01-13-2026_163359:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

disengages.

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

So Jackie, what would be your advice to an individual manager?

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

If you're an individual manager and you're listening to us and you're thinking, so what? What do I do? Here's the first thing that you do. First thing is give yourself a pat on the back. Because you've got a cracking set of values, whether you can name them or not. You've got a cracking set of values which have done a great job of getting you to where you're, been behind the decisions that you've made and the problems that you've solved and the relationships you've created. So, good job you fantastic. You don't have to do anything else if you don't wanna, your values will just keep putting in good service. All of your values are there to help. So this is great. If you think though, well this is quite interesting, could be interested in taking this a bit further. Start with yourself get in touch with what matters most to you. So you might try journaling, you might try a reflexive exercise. There are values profiling tools out there on the internet. Some are not particularly great, some are better than others. There's some information about them on my website if you wanted to look at that. Magma effect com, but there's a number of things out there that you could try and having done a little bit of work to surface your own values. Then just see how you go with it, see if it helps.'cause it might be that actually it's all ticky boo for you anyway which would be great. But you also might find that you start going, okay, that's why that kind of problem I find more draining than this kind of a problem. Or that's why that relationship feels just like a knife through butter. That's just glorious doing that work with those people. But this hasn't been felt the same. So maybe I can bring some of what I can see over there through my values this other situation and see if that can actually generate more of the kind of vibe that's good for me and good for the people that I'm working with. So. Work on yourself first. If that feels good works for you, then think about having that conversation with your direct reports. Or if you are a member of a peer group of managers, maybe with your peers, talking with your peers about values, but keep it really simple. What matters most? What are the big ideas that really make our heart sing? What's inside our best work? What do we want more of? How to have more what makes our heart sing in the work that.

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Super. Thank you very much. I have to admit, this is a bit like the presentation you gave to me. I feel like I'm drinking from the fire hose as they say, but I will go back and I will re-listen to it. That was great. Thank you very much,

jimmy-_2_01-13-2026_163359:

Yeah, no, fantastic advice. And I love the fact that, often people just say, you've got to do more and more of this. Whereas actually you saying like, do it well or don't do it. I think that's a really, interesting insight. Thank you for. Sharing your expertise, doctor values.

jackie-le-fevre--she-her-_2_01-13-2026_163358:

You are very welcome. It has been.

james_2_01-13-2026_163358:

Thank you very much.

Speaker 3:

We cover a whole host of topics on this podcast

Speaker 4:

from purpose to corporate jargon,

Speaker 3:

but always focused on one thing, getting the job done well,

Speaker 4:

easier said than done. So if you've got. Unhappy customers or employees, bosses or regulators breathing down your neck.

Speaker 3:

If your backlogs are outta control and your costs are spiraling and that big IT transformation project that you've been promised, just keeps failing to deliver,

Speaker 4:

we can help. If you need to improve your performance, your team's performance, or your organizations, get in touch at Jimmy at@jobdonewell.com orJames@jobdonewell.com.

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James Lawther

Co-host
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Jimmy Barber

Co-host
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Jackie Le Fèvre

Guest