The power of values in coaching

If there's one thing that's consistently made my coachees sit forward, eyes lit up, radiating excitement, it's discovering their values. 

Values are a really important part of coaching. Here I explain what values are and why you need to know yours.

What are values?

Put simply, values are what drive you and make you who you are. Your core values are what your life needs to contain for you to feel fulfilled, happy and energised. Some examples of values are freedom, connection, challenge, fun, learning, kindness and achievement, to name just a few. 

When I first learnt what my core values were, I thought that was my one set of qualities that reflected all of me. But training as a coach taught me that we have other kinds of values too, like relationship values and career values. Sometimes our core values overlap with our other values, but often they're different.

Career values come up a lot in coaching as they give us such crucial self-knowledge, but it's something that lots of us have never really thought about. No-one teaches us this stuff. 

Why do I need to know my values?

Say you knew that your career must-haves were leadership, challenge, creativity and recognition. You'd be able to measure your current role against them to see which are being met and which are being neglected. If there are gaps, this could explain why you're not happy where you are and it may well be a sign it's time to start making some changes.

You can also use your career values as a compass to navigate through the rest of your career. It's especially useful to be able to assess career decisions against these values. If you're offered a new job and it ticks all the boxes, you can feel confident it's going to be a great move for you. My decision to train as an executive coach was made much easier by knowing that my career values are freedom, financial security, connection, challenge and fun. I could clearly see that coaching aligns with these and it was unbelievably reassuring to look at the decision through this lens.

Some of my coachees have taken their knowledge of their career values and translated it into tangible and practical actions to take, like designing a list of questions to ask prospective new employers to make sure they're a good fit. They've fed back that they feel much more confident about which jobs to apply for and accept in future, armed with this new self-awareness.

I've seen in others and experienced myself that excited, intuitive feeling that comes with values work. Suddenly you understand why you feel, think and behave in certain ways. You come away knowing yourself better and connected to a deep part of yourself for the first time.

If you'd like to discover your values and use this learning to build a happier career, please do get in touch.