I’m a sucker for self-assessments. The Enneagram. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator. The StrengthFinder/CliftonStrengths Test. I’ve taken them all. And I love talking about them to anyone who will listen. In fact, I have a sign in my kitchen with a quote from the Sleeping At Last Enneagram album which says,
“To know and love ourselves and others well is the most difficult and meaningful work we’ll ever do.”
For the most part, personality tests like the ones I mentioned help to identify our motivations and strengths and weaknesses. They help to answer great existential questions like: “who am I?” or “why am I here?” So it’s no surprise that I was taking yet another inventory this past weekend. But this one surprised me when it asked about whether I had identified my core values. Which got me thinking about how important they truly are, particularly for those of us who are speakers.
If you haven’t taken the time to identify your own core values, or to think about how they relate to your role as a presenter, I’ll get you started by offering a few methods to develop them and by pointing to a few resources that can help.
Core Values: Why Are They So Important?
Following the wake of ethical disasters like Enron, we’ve seen a huge trend towards companies who not only identify their core values, but who actually communicate them outright and then follow and enforce them both externally and internally. According to a large scale study, around 90 percent of the companies researched now use clearly outlined core values to build and guide their organizational culture, employee actions, and business relationships. It’s easy to see how values could help give companies with lots of employees clear direction and focus in both large and small decisions as well as in daily practices. But what about individuals? How can you begin to develop your own?
Setting Personal Core Values: Method 1
Author and Inc. 500 entrepreneur Kevin Daum says, “Most smart people consciously or unconsciously use personal core values to select friendships, relationships and business partnerships.” But he goes on to say that you don’t really know your core values “until you have articulated them clearly in writing [and have] tested them through daily decision-making.” He suggests using 5 steps to get started which I’ve summarized below:
- Write down your 3 greatest accomplishments, 3 times you were especially efficient, and any common rules or themes pertaining to these.
- Next, write down your 3 biggest failures, 3 times you were especially inefficient, and any common rules or themes pertaining to these.
- Then, jot down a few sentences of advice for yourself based on the lists you made in steps 1 and 2.
- Reduce those sentences to just a few words. These become your list of core values.
- Test your values by thinking of situations in which you would use them.
When it comes to step 5, Baum says, “If you can’t identify a legitimate case where the value steers you wrong, you probably have a good core value.” Once you have your list, continue to measure it. And don’t be afraid to adapt it. It’s not a bad idea to examine your list every so often to see if it is still accurate and serving you well.
Setting Personal Core Values: Method 2
If sitting down to create a core values list out of thin air seems a bit intimidating, you might try this approach.
- Find a list of core values published online. For example, Taproot has a great example list here.
- Print out a copy of the list and grab a pen or pencil, or find a way to edit it electronically.
- Take a moment to think about what matters most to you in your current stage of life with your short-term and long-term goals in mind.
- Cross off 3 values at a time until you are left with the top 5 that matter most.
- Examine the 5 values that are left and expand them into direct action statements if you’d like.
Make sure that you don’t just read through the list and pick 5. Go through the process of removing things that don’t matter as much as others. It’s the best way to get to your authentic values.
Understanding Who You Are as a Speaker
Its one thing to know who you are as a person. It’s another to know who you are as a speaker. You can use the two methods above to develop core values for your speaking career. Just complete the exercises thinking about who you want to become as a presenter.
For example, “establishing connections wherever and whenever possible” is one of my personal goals. This goal helps me in several ways as a speaker and teacher. It reminds me to always explain how the information I’m sharing relates to my listeners’ lives—to connect the dots between my content and why it matters. It also keeps me focused on relating personally to those I encounter by establishing small points of connection. And if I can’t answer something for one of my audience members or students, it reminds me not to leave them hanging with questions, but to take time to connect them with someone else who might be able to help them. It sounds a lot like good customer service, but it falls under my personal core value of connection. This core value and the others I’ve set help me to decide how I spend my time and energy so that I’m always moving toward becoming the presenter and person I want to be.
Two More Resources to Help
Maybe you need to examine your own strengths and weaknesses as a speaker before diving into writing your core values. If so, you may want to check out a few of our resources. Our Ethos3 CEO, Scott Schwertly, has written a book called What’s Your Presentation Persona. He also developed a skill assessment tool called Badge that can help you determine which of 16 different presentation personas you are. You can find out more about those resources here. Once you’ve explored and learned more about who you are as a speaker, you’ll be able to challenge yourself with specific personal core values.
One of the assessments that doesn’t get as much attention as the big ones is Brené Brown’s Wholehearted Inventory. It’s the one that actually got me thinking more about core values. I particularly like that the qualities measured on this self-assessment are worded as things you are either “letting go of” or “cultivating.” It reminds users that growth and change is part of a longer process. For example, it showed me that I’m still working to let go of my natural inclination to use “exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth.” Ugh. But I’m thankful for the reminder to keep “letting go” of this. And to keep daily cultivating the things I’m doing well on.
Why Self-Assessment Matters
Self-assessments are important for speakers because we are part of the public speaking triad. Presentations are made up of a speaker, a message, and an audience. From the time of Aristotle to today, these three main components have not changed. And we don’t imagine they’ll be changing anytime soon. But often we talk more about knowing your audience and developing your message than we talk about knowing yourself as a speaker.
But whenever you learn more about yourself, whether it’s taking the Enneagram or writing out your core values, you are investing in 1/3 of the overall presentation process. Yourself. The speaker. Don’t put self-development on the backburner just because you’ve been doing this a while or because it seems unimportant to the process. It’s not. It is the foundation from which you can relate to your audience better. It is the fountain from which great content can flow.
Ready to learn more about yourself as a speaker and the resources we offer?
