Are Your Values in Alignment?

Are Your Values in Alignment?

When I meet new clients, one of the things I initially discuss with them is job search is a 5-step process. The first of those 5 steps is assessing what it is you may want to do or pursue. Some may say, shouldn’t you know what it is you want to do, even without an assessment? After all, you may have worked a prior job where you had tasks you performed. Or perhaps you went to school and received a certain degree or certification.

There are a number of factors that come into play that may impact a person’s ability to say, “I’ll just do the type of work I did before. I’ll just find another company at which to do it at.” First of all, perhaps the job you have been doing is not needed as much as when you first started doing it. That may be why your work with your previous company ended in the first place. A task you did is now mechanized? Or it is done differently than the way you learned, and your skill sets have not kept up with the new way of doing it. Perhaps you no longer enjoy doing the type of work you have done in the past, or don’t like the industry in which you worked. Perhaps life circumstances have required you to move to a new location, or the companies you worked for have moved to a new location, and you choose not to follow them.

The point is there are dozens of reasons which may impact what it is that you are meant to do next, if you find yourself either out of a job, or not happy in the job you are currently doing. As I indicated earlier in a well-planned out job search process, a diligent job searcher starts with “assessment” of themselves and what they may want to focus on next in their career. But, how do they assess themselves? And, just what assessments should they be doing? In fact, a more fundamental mindset needs to be that “an assessment is NOT A TEST, but instead an opportunity to openly determine what your preferences are, and how those preferences may help guide you on your journey forward.”

Even the art of assessment has evolved over the course of time. Many of the classic assessments that have been in existence for job search have often been “personality” based. One will be asked to answer a series of choice statements, and the output from the assessment look to guide individuals towards career roles that tend to take in their personality traits. They are based on the mindset that those with certain personality types, tend to enjoy certain types of work better, and as such provide a list of suggested job titles and industries they may want to pursue.

Recently, I was introduced to a new assessment tool that was built with the help of a behavioral scientist working with a coach that is focused on getting to the core of one’s values. One of the assessments I have often asked my clients to complete is to rank their values, AT THIS POINT IN THEIR CAREER, on a set of values from 1 through 4, with one meaning the value has little to no meaning to them at this time, and 4 meaning it had a great deal of value. While the assessment certainly has its merits, it is at the mercy of the one completing it being completely open and honest in their assessment of themselves at this time of their life. In addition, while it gives them feedback on what they value, it gives them little sense on where and the type of work environment where they may find it.

The newer assessment tool which was introduced to me by Tracy Kawa, of Kawa Community Partners, and for which I have become a distributor under my own Absolute Transitions, LLC brand provides a host of information with which I can use with clients. (In fact, I took the assessment myself, and was extremely pleased with how well it captured my values and ways of working). The assessment provides to the individual the top seven values important to them in terms of their work life. It shows not only the top seven, but if there is any conflict or “out of alignment” situations with any of the values. It stresses the work-style, (there are 4 possible styles), that work best for you. It gives you an understanding of the type of work culture which may best for you, (Entrepreneurial, Partnership, Corporate, hybrid of these). But, most of all, it provides a springboard to help move one forward into their next work opportunity.