Core values

Core values are personal ethics and ideals that guide you in making decisions, building relationships and solving problems. Identifying the main values can help you to develop and achieve personal and professional goals and also can help you to find jobs and companies that align with your ideals. Core values describe how people interact (humility, respect, etc.), the individual responsibilities one will hold (quality, reliability, etc.) and the focus that a person has on a business and a work (ingenuity, creativity, etc.).

Common career core values

Choose the core values is an individual decision but we can mention five common career core values:

1. Collaborative: as an employee, you may want to feel empowered to make opinions and take action. While autonomy is an important core value, collaboration is also important to your career success. Being a strong platoon player will help you to grow within your company and your career.
2. Integrity: valuing the integrity of your workplace shows you that you are trying to do the right thing, even if no one is looking at you. To do what’s the best for your clients, customers, teammates and company you can also value honesty, transparency and commitment.
3. Innovation: finding new methods to solve problems can help the company to move forward. You are a work in progress, trying to improve yourself and do always better, thinking about creating different ways to solve problems and acting to find and calculate risks. This is a way to challenge yourself to see what’s possible to better meet the needs of your team, customers and company
4. Growth: valuing the growth means that you have to drive to improve both yourself and your company because, often, the growth of a company follows the professional growth of its employees. If you are working to value your workplace you have to look for a company that develops its staff and provides an environment that promotes personal and professional development.
5. Service: valuing a service means that you aim to provide a wonderful and important experience to the people you serve and support. Being service-minded or customer-oriented shows that you care about providing a quality experience to the clients you serve and this value can also include supporting the community and your team.

There are different types of core values that you can use as inspiration when you are looking to decide on your own core values. These values also help you when you are planning some answers to interview questions or understand the core values of others. Below i will mention some of these values:

• Acceptance, authenticity, autonomy
• Balance
• Challenge, collaboration, communication, creativity, curiosity
• Determination
• Empathy, enthusiasm
• Fairness, flexibility
• Growth
• Humility, honesty
• Improvement, innovation
• Knowledge
• Leadership, loyalty
• Optimism
• Participation, patience
• Quality
• Reliability, reputation, respect, responsibility, results
• Security, stability, success
• Teamwork, transparency, tenacity
• Work ethic

How to recognise your core values

Another important process is the one to recognise our core values. If we are unsure what our core values are we may consider some of these questions:

• Do you want to work for what kind of culture?
• To do your best work what are the environments, settings and resources that you need?
• To improve your relationships what qualities do you need to make them stronger?
• For your models what qualities do you admire the most?
• What are your motivations?
• What qualities do you wish to develop in yourself?

How to include core values in your resume

It can be helpful to list your core values as they relate to the open position in case you are preparing your resume for submission. Especially if you are new to the world of the job market, identifying how you like to work can be helpful for employers. If you already had work experience, you can weave core values into examples of specific accomplishments from your prior roles.

How to align your core values when you are searching for a job with companies

When you are searching for a job it’s important to identify what are the companies that align with the type of work you are looking for, the culture you want to be in and the mission you want to work for. To follow this step it can be helpful to make a careful review of the job description for ways your core values would be relevant and helpful in the role. It can also help you make a little research about the company to ensure what is the company’s mission and core values align with your own.

How to discuss your core values during interviews

It’s important to know that many interviewers will ask questions specifically about the qualities that are important to you. These questions can be:

• What motivates you?
• What kind of employee are you?
• Why did you choose us to apply for a job?

In this kind of situation, it can be important to use your core values as an answer and also to provide context for your most important accomplishments. For example, if you helped your previous company to increase the sales of products by 10 % you can explain the value of your responsibilities for it, time management and teamwork.

Core values — recommended articles

Cross-cultural leadership — Theory X and Y — Achievement oriented leadership — Levels of leadership — Professional values — Non financial motivation — Action learning — Role of employees — Leadership competencies

References

• Schelske, M. (2012). Discovering Your Authentic Core Values. Live210 Media.
• Taylor, L. (2010). The Core Values Handbook. Elliott Bay Publishing.
• Whiteley, A., Whiteley, J. (2006). Core Values And Organizational Change. World Scientific Publishing Co.

Author: Nicholas Acquaviva