Did you ever think about why your values and beliefs are so important to you?
- Beliefs – the things you hold to be true
- Values — beliefs that you consider worthwhile and should guide your actions
There’s a reason that we choose our friends, join certain organizations, and hopefully, choose our place of work.
When you find a workplace where your personal and professional values align, you are able to live they way you prefer. As a result, you are not only happier and more productive, but you help those around you become happier and more productive too.
When everyone in your group shares the same values and beliefs, you create a strong and vibrant culture that will attract and retain like-minded people to your organization.
This creates a win-win scenario. With businesses and organizations, this translates into achieving that elusive idea of employee engagement; simply put, greater success.
Why Culture is So Important
Culture – the set of values and beliefs that define a community; inherited from predecessors, lived today, and passed on to those who will follow
Imagine that you are a gifted athlete, capable of playing any professional sport and you decide upon baseball.
By making this choice, you enter into a culture where you believe you’ll be happy. This culture attracted you to baseball, which is why you chose it over other sports.
Just like our athlete, you could work in various industries, and when you made your decision, you signed on because you thought it was a good fit. You mutually agreed to honor these traditions.
If values alignment served as a prerequisite for employment:
- Would you be working where you are right now?
- Would your employer hire you again today?
Aligning Values and Beliefs
Your organization decides its values; you help create the culture
Upon completing college and ROTC, I entered the Army as an officer. After a particularly grueling week at the Infantry Basic Course, I was trying to relax, reading Dale Carnegie’s classic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
When my roommate walked in, he questioned why I was reading “that book.” He didn’t believe we should be in the business of making friends in our role as future leaders. I was astonished. If he was correct, I wondered whether I made the right career choice.
Fortunately, during my first assignment I had a battalion commander (executive VP) who was an ideal role model and showed me how to treat others when leading. Mike Pulliam confirmed that I had chosen the right culture.
Achieve Your Goals, The Easy Way
The Army encouraged us to be responsible for our own career development, and of course, have an action plan to achieve our performance goals as well.
Because I was in a place where I felt that my personal and professional values aligned, I wanted to be a part of the Army culture.
I was happy. If nothing else, this made it easier and more enjoyable to pursue the career goals I had identified for myself.
Employee Engagement – when business values the employee and the employee values the business.
— MacLeod & Clarke
When you find the right workplace, where everyone in your group shares the same values and beliefs, you’ll find everyone around you happier, and more productive too.
