Dose of Dignity: Core Values - Why & How

In this episode, Jennifer discusses the importance of core values and how they provide direction in decision-making and shaping one's life. She provides strategies for identifying core values, such as telling stories of peak experiences and thinking about people you admire. Jennifer also emphasizes the need to choose a limited number of core values and to nurture and revisit them regularly. She highlights the obstacles to living out core values, including a lack of clarity, lack of alignment with others, and external pressures. Jennifer concludes by encouraging listeners to reflect on their own values and consider revisiting them regularly.

Episode Resources

• Byrtek, G. J., & Dickerson, M. (2013). Actualizing organizational core values: Putting theory into practice. Business Management Dynamics, 3(2), 7-25.
• Lencioni, P. M. (2002). Make your values mean something. Harvard Business Review, 80(7), 113-117.
• Longenecker, P. D. (2013). The Positive Impact of Individual Core Values. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(3), 429-434.

Key Takeaways

• Core values are guiding principles that reflect what is most important to you and provide direction in decision-making.
• Strategies for identifying core values include telling stories of peak experiences and thinking about people you admire.
• Choose a limited number of core values and nurture and revisit them regularly.
• Obstacles to living out core values include a lack of clarity, alignment with others, and external pressures.

Exploring what it means to live and lead with dignity at work, in our families, in our communities, and in the world. What is dignity? How can we honor the dignity of others? And how can we repair and reclaim our dignity after harm? Tune in to hear stories about violations of dignity and ways in which we heal, forgive, and make choices about how we show up in a chaotic and fractured world. Hosted by physician and coach Jennifer Griggs.

For more information on the podcast, please visit www.thedignitylab.com.
For more information on podcast host Dr. Jennifer Griggs, please visit https://jennifergriggs.com/.
For additional free resources, including the periodic table of dignity elements, please visit https://jennifergriggs.com/resources/.

The Dignity Lab is an affiliate of Bookshop.org and will receive 10% of the purchase price when you click through and make a purchase. This supports our production and hosting costs. Bookshop.org doesn’t earn money off bookstore sales, all profits go to independent bookstores. We encourage our listeners to purchase books through Bookshop.org for this reason.

Transcript

Intro

Welcome to the Dignity Lab. Today's episode is a dose of dignity about your core values. I'll start by explaining what core values are and what they're good for. I'll give you some strategies to identify your core values and willl end with some things to think about as you bring those values to life. Your core values are your North Star.

They are guiding principles, ideas that reflect what is most important to you. When push comes to shove, and it will, what do you stand for? Values are ideas that have actions attached to them. Examples of core values are authenticity, compassion, growth, honesty, kindness, meaningful work, respect, and wisdom. You get the idea.

Along with your purpose, your core values provide direction to your life, helping in decision making, whether it's in your own life, in your family, in your intimate relationships, in your interactions with people at work or in your organization as a whole. 

Decisions about how to spend your time, your energy, your attention and your money. Decisions about which projects to pursue and which projects to let go of. Your values will help you hire the right people, shape the culture you envision, give clear feedback to others, help in your own self-evaluation, and direct your strategic planning. They will help you as you prepare for and take part in difficult conversations, finding common ground, and help you in talking about the work you do. 

How do you go about identifying your core values, whether it's for yourself, your partnership, your friendships, or at work? One way to start, and how we did this on my team, is by telling stories of peak experiences, stories of you at your best. Ask the people you work with for these stories. Don't forget to include stories about your interactions with a broad range of people. Then harvest these stories by asking, what do these stories, what do these peak experiences say about us? What do they say about what is important to us? What values are we living out? For your personal values, you can try thinking about people you admire. Pick four people whom you admire, those people who have had a positive impact on you. 

My piano teacher is always on my list of role models. She made me feel safe and accepted. My whole life, I've wanted to create the same safety and acceptance for everyone with whom I interact. The core value I identified from my piano teacher is compassion. When I have to decide how to proceed when faced with the choice, I try to live out compassion. In case you're curious, my other core values are integrity, abundance, and courage. 

Here are a few things to be aware of as you choose and live out your core values. The first thing is to avoid choosing values that describe how you think you should be, aspirational values over ones that are true to you, true to your authentic self.

This is why telling stories of you at your best is a way to get clear on your values. You're looking at your behaviors and then naming what you're actually living out. Another thing to be aware of is having too many core values. In general, it's ideal to choose no more than five values. Think of your core values like an apple core. They're at the center of everything and other things can be built around them. The resources page on our website, thedignitylab .com, has a tool you can download for free to help you identify your core values and then to help narrow down your list of values to the top three to five. 

Another thing to remember is to nurture your core values, keeping them top of mind on a daily or near daily basis. 

I have the honor of serving as the program director for a team of about 20 people. We work with nearly all the oncology practices in the state of Michigan to improve the quality of cancer care for patients and for those who love them. The agenda for our weekly team meeting has one or more core value next to each topic of discussion. Our hiring questions ask our candidates to tell us stories that illustrate the way in which they might align with our core values. My favorite question addresses our team's value of growth mindset: Tell us about a time you made a mistake, how you handled it, and what happened as a result. We celebrate the people and practices in our collaborative that live out our core values of compassion, trust and integrity, collaboration, and growth mindset. 

We celebrate them in our newsletter and at our meetings. 

It's important to revisit and update your values. Just as with your purpose, your values will be shaped by your experiences, by the challenges you face, and by the way life unfolds around you. I recommend that you revisit your purpose and your core values at least once a year. For example, at the beginning of the new year or on your birthday.

And if you and your partner have stated core values, you can revisit those values around your anniversary or an important holiday. 

A special note, failing to align your actions with your stated values means you'll likely be living a diminished life. We see this in organizations, don't we? Where one of the stated values vaunted on the website might be trust, but the organization repeatedly violates trust without taking accountability and making amends.

The organization and the people in the organization will suffer when core values are not lived out. I have no doubt you can think of such a situation. 

So what are some obstacles to living out your core values? The first is a lack of clarity about what living those values looks like. As I mentioned, core values are ideas, but they need to be ideas with flesh and blood. If there are no corresponding behaviors, the values remain only ideas. 

Another obstacle is a lack of alignment of your values with those of the other people in your life, whether at work or home or in your place of worship. You may be afraid to make a change to get those values back in alignment. I would offer that it's not truly sustainable to live in such a way. External pressures and societal expectations can push and pull you away from your North Star like storm winds. 

Other obstacles are temptations such as short -term gains, fear of change or lack of self-awareness. 

Does selecting and living our core values come easy? Not at the beginning, but as you practice and reflect on what matters most, you will find that your core values are indeed your North Star, and without them, you can feel lost. 

What about you? How have your values played out for you? Is it time to revisit them, freshen them up?

What obstacles have you faced in living out your values? 

We love hearing from you. You can contact us through our website, thedignitylab.com. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.

Outtro