Help employees align with their values
We all live by a value system. I am not talking about the values passed down generations in the family. I am talking about the values of you as an individual. I am here to make a case for values to be an essential part of recruiting, task allocation and employee development.
To dive deeper and understand your value system, look back at two instances in your life. We will call them direct and indirect –
A. Direct: one where you were extremely happy, free and in the flow. You did not need time management tools or focus apps to concentrate. Concentration and creativity came naturally to you. Your spirit felt light.
B. Indirect: Another where you dragged your feet to get something done. You knew you needed to push yourself it took a lot of force to get it done.
Both directly and indirectly reflect certain values you hold. Let me share a personal example for this to make more sense
A. Direct: I recently took up a Data Analytics course at General Assembly. Data Analytics is not my direct area of work and I am still figuring out how to use the skill directly in my day to day. Still, I wanted to learn, and I went for it.
During the course, I delivered three projects that I worked on as I stayed up till wee hours of the morning. I did not need caffeine. I did not need to push myself. I did not need an internal motivation talk. All of that came directly from within. I felt alive, motivated, committed and extremely excited.
The situation provides a clue into a direct value which I have come to identify as ‘Learning’. I need regular stimulation into analytical and logical fields of subjects with practical applications. The more hands on (read: projects) the application, the more engaged I get.
B. Indirect: Recently I decided to do a pro-bono project in a relatively new area. In the middle of the project, we realized that the deliverables being created by the team will just be shelved somewhere by the client and will not be executed and implemented.
I saw the need to daily uptalk myself as if I was preparing for war. Everything in the fiber of my being wanted to NOT do the project. However, pro-bono or not, it was a commitment that I was determined to meet, and I did.
The situation provided me a glimpse into another key value. Tangible outcome of my efforts is important for me to stay motivated and aligned with a project. Lack of direct outcome or a way to measure improvement, leads me to question the work I am doing, and I see a decline in natural reserve of motivation.
Values are not given sufficient emphasis in recruitment and job profiles. The reason I bring up values is because we as a nation are seeing a trend in job dissatisfaction. As reported by this Forbes article, more than half the U.S. workers are dissatisfied with their jobs.
No, these workers are not lazy or entitled or procrastinators. What a lot of workers are facing is burn-out due to lack of alignment between their values and the work they do.
Do not presume that values to be same as comfort zone. In my personal example, I took up a course in an uncharted territory and completed three demanding projects — none of this was in my comfort zone, yet all of this was in my value system.
This is critical to drill into our minds.
An ask to align employees with their values is not the same as asking employees to stay in their comfort zone, rather it is an ask to encourage employees to push boundaries in directions that naturally fuel their soul and mind, encouraging them to bring their most productive self to work.
Having to muster external motivation and pep talk daily to deliver on commitments that they do not intrinsically feel passionate about leads to burn-out over time. Simple tweaks in values (in my example, learning constantly and choosing projects with tangible outcomes) helps maintain an internal reserve of motivation that acts as a motivation charger.
If we dared to look at workers beyond “workers” and “bodies” to humans, we might be inclined to consider values as a part of the framework by which the team operates. While meeting every value of each and every worker is a herculean and potentially impossible task, it is certainly possible to change the outlook towards employees to start a conversation.
If today employees are given 9 out of 10 tasks that are misaligned to their values, maybe we can aim to move the needle slightly to reduce that to 7 out of 10 tasks.
It is furthermore important to not punish employees for imbibing a value system that might look different from yours.
Either way,
unless we recognize that not all aspects of a job are well suited to every unique individual and their value system;
unless we recognize this as normal and not career ending;
unless we start to help employees create opportunities aligned with their values
we need to be prepared to see a further decline in the job satisfaction and productivity of employees.
