Your fundamental beliefs are your values. Values are also known as principles, ideals, convictions, or purposes. Your beliefs are important to you, and will motivate you. The following exercise will help you set your life's priorities.
Values are the basis for the laws that govern society. Murder, theft, and assault, for example, violate society's common values. Society's values, and by extension its laws, provide us with the structure that helps us organize our lives.
By clarifying your values, you create a structure upon which you can build your personal and business life. You must understand your values before you can master the rest of the disciplines in this book.
The following table lists many of the things that motivate people. Rate each motivator according to how much you value it as always, often, sometimes, seldom, or never. Then go back and rank your "Always valued" checks in order of their importance to you. It is these values that will help you find your passion and motivate you and ultimately motivate your team.
|
Motivator |
Always valued |
Often valued |
Sometimes valued |
Seldom valued |
Never valued |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Advancement | |||||
|
Adventure | |||||
|
Aesthetics | |||||
|
Authority/power | |||||
|
Challenge | |||||
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Change/variety | |||||
|
Community | |||||
|
Competence | |||||
|
Competition | |||||
|
Creativity | |||||
|
Decision-making | |||||
|
Excitement | |||||
|
Family | |||||
|
Freedom | |||||
|
Friendships | |||||
|
Group affiliations | |||||
|
Helping others | |||||
|
Helping society | |||||
|
Independence | |||||
|
Influencing people | |||||
|
Intelligence | |||||
|
Job security | |||||
|
Knowledge | |||||
|
Location of home | |||||
|
Location of work | |||||
|
Money | |||||
|
Moral standards | |||||
|
New ideas/things | |||||
|
Personal contact | |||||
|
Personal security | |||||
|
Physical challenge | |||||
|
Public contact | |||||
|
Recognition | |||||
|
Religious beliefs | |||||
|
Salary level | |||||
|
Stability | |||||
|
Status | |||||
|
Supervision | |||||
|
Tranquility | |||||
|
Working alone | |||||
|
Working under pressure | |||||
|
Working with people | |||||
|
Other |
Now that you have ranked the motivators that you always value, you can answer the following two questions in your notebook:
What is important to me now, in the short term?
What is important to me in my life, in the long term?
Another exercise to get to know yourself better is to identify your strengths and weaknesses. It is important for you to take the time to do this, as it is an exercise that will be repeated later with your team where everyone on the team will contribute to each others' list. For now, list your strengths and weaknesses:
|
STRENGTHS |
WEAKNESSES |
|---|---|
|
I am good at: |
I need improvement in: |
|
1.___________________________ 2. ___________________________ 3. ___________________________ 4. ___________________________ 5. ___________________________ 6. ___________________________ 7. ___________________________ 8. ___________________________ 9. ___________________________ 10. __________________________ |
1.___________________________ 2. ___________________________ 3. ___________________________ 4. ___________________________ 5. ___________________________ 6. ___________________________ 7. ___________________________ 8. ___________________________ 9. ___________________________ 10. __________________________ |