Insights
Personal Values at Work: Why Knowing What Matters Makes Everything Clearer
Why do some workplace decisions and reactions feel so personal? Jason Piper explores how understanding your values can bring greater clarity to choices, leadership and communication.
By Jason Piper
There was a point in my career when I had to decide whether to stay in a role or leave it.
On paper, it should have been a fairly straightforward decision. I could list the practical advantages and disadvantages. I understood the professional implications. I had no shortage of people willing to offer advice.
And yet, my reaction to the situation felt far stronger and far more complicated than the facts alone seemed to justify.
It was only when I stopped asking, “What is the sensible decision?” and started asking, “What matters to me here?” that the real difficulty became clear.
Two of my values were in conflict: security and purpose.
Security was pulling me towards staying. The steady pay cheque, the safety blanket of building on existing relationships, staying in the ‘known zone’. Stability over adventure, safety over risk – and tell myself I’m doing it for family (my top value).
Purpose was pulling in another direction. The need to feel useful and make a contribution.
Neither value was wrong. That was precisely why the decision felt so difficult. It is possible to have two right answers. But adjusting things to live a life more aligned with my values, means the version that comes home to my family (that top value), is happier and more fulfilled and able to be there for them.
Recognising this did not magically make the choice painless, but it did make my reaction understandable. More importantly, it helped me explain my position more clearly to the people I cared about and to bring them with me. Instead of sounding indecisive, frustrated or unusually emotional, I could communicate what was actually at stake for me.
That experience reinforced something I have seen repeatedly working in Human Performance as a Business Psychologist: when people understand their values, they understand their behaviour (good and bad), their needs and other people far better. This helps them commit to life-changing decision with clarity and confidence.
What are personal values?
Personal values are the things we experience as deeply important. They influence what we prioritise, what motivates us, what earns our trust and what can provoke a strong reaction when it appears to be threatened.
Values might include: achievement, autonomy, fairness, family, security, creativity, recognition, loyalty, wellbeing, influence, learning or making a difference. They are not simply qualities that sound admirable. They are personal drivers and different people will rank them very differently.
For one person, adventure may matter more than security. For another, stability may be the foundation that allows them to do their best work. One colleague may be strongly motivated by recognition, while another values contribution but dislikes being placed in the spotlight (modesty).
This is why a generic list of “good values” tells us very little. The useful questions is not whether a value sounds positive. It is how important it is to you, why it’s important to you and what happens when two important values compete?
Why are values important at work?
We often talk about organisational values, but personal values at work can have an equally powerful effect. They influence how people make decisions, interpret events, respond to leadership and relate to colleagues.
When values are understood, they can bring greater clarity to four important areas.
1. Values make difficult decisions easier to understand
Most significant career decisions are not a simple contest between a good option and a bad one. They are often a choice between two things we value.
You might be weighing ambition against wellbeing, security against freedom, honesty against harmony, or loyalty against fairness.
Naming the competing values changes the quality of the decision. Instead of endlessly comparing surface-level pros and cons, you can identify the deeper trade-off you are being asked to make.
Values-based decision-making does not mean ignoring evidence or practical consequences. It means adding a missing piece of evidence: an honest understanding of what matters most to you in this situation.
2. Values explain strong emotional reactions
Have you ever been surprised by how strongly you reacted to a relatively small incident at work?
Perhaps someone changed a plan without consulting you. Your contribution went unacknowledged. A decision was made behind closed doors. A colleague challenged a long-standing process. The event itself may have been manageable, yet your reaction felt immediate and intense.
Often, the strength of the reaction is a clue that a value has been activated. An emotional response rather than a considered strategic one, is a dangerous thing in the workplace.
If you value autonomy, being excluded from a decision may feel controlling. If you value recognition, silence after a major contribution may feel dismissive. If you value order, repeated last-minute changes may feel more destabilising than they would to a colleague who prizes spontaneity.
Understanding the value beneath the reaction creates space between feeling and response. You can move from “This is completely unacceptable” to “I am reacting strongly because this affects something important to me.” That small shift can make a considerable difference to how constructively you communicate.
3. Values improve leadership and team relationships
Leaders sometimes assume that other people are motivated by the same things they are (values projection) . A leader who values achievement may set increasingly stretching targets. A team member who values mastery may want more time to improve the quality of the work. Someone motivated by belonging may need involvement and connection, while a colleague who values independence may perform best with greater space.
None of these preferences automatically makes one person more committed than another. They reflect different internal priorities.
Knowing the values within a team can help leaders:
- Frame change in ways that connect with different motivations
- Understand why colleagues respond differently to the same message
- Recognise the source of recurring tensions
- Give feedback in a way that is more likely to be heard
- Create roles and responsibilities that make better use of what energises people
- Avoid mistaking a values difference for a personality flaw
This does not mean tailoring every decision to everyone’s preferences. Leadership still requires judgement, boundaries and sometimes difficult choices. But people are more likely to trust a decision when they feel that what matters to them has at least been understood.
4. Values help us communicate disagreement more clearly
When we cannot name what matters, we tend to communicate the symptoms: irritation, resistance, withdrawal, defensiveness or repeated objections. These are actually indicators of emotional instability but that’s another article!
When we can name the value, the conversation becomes more precise.
Compare “I just don’t think this is right” with “I’m concerned that the process conflicts with fairness because the same criteria have not been applied to everyone.”
Or compare “You’re micromanaging me” with “Autonomy is important to me. Could we agree the outcome and checkpoints, then give me more freedom over how I deliver it?”
The second version does not guarantee agreement, but it gives the other person something useful to respond to. It turns an emotional position into a clearer conversation about needs, expectations and choices.
What happens when your values conflict?
One of the biggest misconceptions about values is that once you know yours, every decision becomes obvious.
In reality, values frequently compete. You may value both career progression and time with your family. You may care about honesty and kindness, yet find that the truthful message could cause discomfort. You may want security and adventure, collaboration and independence, achievement and balance.
A values conflict is not evidence that you are inconsistent. It is evidence that more than one important human need is present.
The aim is not to select one value that must win forever. It is to decide which value needs greater priority in this particular context, while considering how you might still honour the other.
In my own career decision, identifying security and purpose allowed me to stop treating my discomfort as confusion. I could see the choice more accurately and communicate it with greater honesty and care.
A simple way to uncover the value behind a reaction
The next time something at work produces a strong response, try asking yourself:
- What happened, without interpretation? Describe the observable facts.
- What did I feel or want to do? Notice the reaction before judging it.
- What felt threatened, ignored or denied? Look beneath the immediate complaint.
- Which value might this represent? Try words such as fairness, respect, autonomy, security, recognition, belonging or achievement.
- What other value is present? Difficult situations often contain a conflict, not a single value.
- Which value needs priority here, and why? Make the trade-off conscious.
- How can I explain this without blaming someone else? Turn insight into a constructive request or decision.
This is not about using values to justify every reaction. “It goes against my values” should not become a conversation-stopper. The point is to understand your response well enough to examine it, take responsibility for it and communicate it clearly.
How do you identify your core values?
Most people can select a few appealing words from a list. The more revealing task is ranking them.
If both freedom and security matter, which would you protect when you cannot fully have both? If recognition and contribution are important, which matters more when excellent work is useful but unseen? If loyalty and fairness pull in different directions, which should guide the decision in front of you?
These forced choices help distinguish values we genuinely prioritise from values we simply admire.
The Communication Quarter’s Discover Your Values experience is a guided Values Elicitation Tool designed to help you move beyond choosing attractive words. Through workplace-led scenarios, reflection and careful comparisons, it helps you identify and rank your ten most important values, with particular clarity around your top three to five.
You will receive a personalised interpretation exploring what may motivate you, how your values might influence your behaviour at work, and where tensions between important values could arise.
Knowing your values is useful. Living them is the real work.
Understanding your values will not remove complexity from working life. It will not ensure that every colleague agrees with you or that every decision feels comfortable.
What it can provide is a clearer internal compass.
It can help you recognise why some situations energise you and others drain you. It can reveal what sits beneath recurring frustration. It can make career choices more deliberate, leadership more responsive and difficult conversations more honest.
Sometimes the most useful question is not, “Why am I reacting like this?”
It is, “What matters to me here, and what is it asking me to do?”
Discover your personal values and receive your ranked profile.
Frequently asked questions about personal values at work
What are examples of personal values at work?
Examples include achievement, autonomy, collaboration, fairness, integrity, learning, loyalty, recognition, security, service and wellbeing. The significance of a value depends on the individual and how highly they prioritise it relative to other values.
Why are personal values important in the workplace?
Personal values influence motivation, decision-making, communication and responses to change. Understanding them can help individuals explain their reactions more clearly and help leaders manage people without assuming everyone is motivated in the same way.
Can two important values conflict?
Yes. Values commonly compete. Examples include loyalty and fairness, ambition and wellbeing, or freedom and security. The task is not to eliminate one value, but to decide which deserves priority in a particular situation and how the other can still be respected.
How can I discover my core values?
Start by reflecting on moments of strong motivation, pride, frustration or disappointment. Then identify the values present and compare them through difficult choices. A structured values elicitation process can help you move from a long list of attractive words to a genuinely ranked personal profile.
Author biography
Jason Piper is Co-Founder of The Communication Quarter, a Consultant Occupational and Business Psychologist, BPS-certified Psychometrician and Associate Professor. He helps individuals, leaders and teams translate psychological insight into practical changes in communication, decision-making, collaboration and performance.