6 Personal Values: How to Identify Your Personal Values

Personal values, also known as core values, are ideas or convictions a person strongly believes. A personal value is a worthwhile idea or behavior that guides short-term decisions and long-term goals. Personal values may include integrity, compassion, stewardship, and authenticity. Applying personal values to business practices can benefit teamwork and help guide projects and decision-making.

Finding your personal set of values for life and work is an ongoing, open-ended process. Follow these simple steps:

1. 1. Brainstorm: Identifying your own values should begin with brainstorming. Think about how you approach life decisions. With careful reflection and observation, you can begin to draw up a list of personal values that you hold and those you want to hold.
2. 2. Observe: Identify the common values of your family members, coworkers, and society and think about which values resonante with you. Observing family values and company values can help you create a list of your own personal values.
3. 3. Introspect: Ask yourself questions about what you believe, what you care about most deeply, and what you find most meaningful and emotionally moving to discover your personal core values.
4. 4. Revise: Life experiences can prompt shifts in your personal values. Open-mindedness is crucial to personal values—you should be open to changing and reordering your personal values over time.

Identifying and practicing personal values can help you build self-awareness. Consider the following list of core values that can help you grow in the workplace:

1. 1. Authenticity: Being authentic at work can help build trust among colleagues. Practicing authenticity can help you develop self-respect and live a more fulfilling life, in and out of the workplace.
2. 2. Compassion: Caring deeply for others’ feelings, and showing this care in practice, is a time-honored core value. People who are compassionate in a business setting can help support team members’ well-being and improve customer relations.
3. 3. Dependability: People who value dependability prioritize timeliness with correspondence and appointments. Being dependable is an excellent way to gain trust in the workplace.
4. 4. Integrity: You can exemplify integrity by being honest and trustworthy. This is a crucial value for business as it helps strengthen relationships with clients, customers, and colleagues.
5. 5. Leadership: In a business setting, leadership is critical for effective decision-making and team motivation.
6. 6. Self-improvement: In life and work, holding a value of self-improvement can help you set goals and develop your professional skills.

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