How To Find Out What People's Values
Really Are

Values tell us how people are likely to behave

When I am working with clients on objectives, it often helps to clarify the difference between Values, Behaviours and Objectives:

• Objectives are what you need to achieve
• Behaviours are how you do it
• Values are why you do it that way

Know what their values are

When we are recruiting or dealing with new people it can be very helpful to find out what their values are. The key is to ask the right questions.

Just ask

Most people will happily tell you if you just ask. This is because we all tend to think that our values are right and are shared by everyone else.

How to ask

Get the individual talking about something they have done, preferably in a difficult situation. Then ask them why they did it that way. It's a very useful interview technique.

An example

I once observed a candidate, a woman called, Esme, doing a role-play, a task that formed part of an interview process. She wore a bright red suit and matching stilettos. She was playing the role of an administration manager dealing with a surgeon, Dr Kildare, her task was to persuade him to meet the new targets.

Within a few moments she was shouting and screaming at a surprised Dr Kildare. Then she lifted him up by his lapels. His feet were dangling in the air.

After the task the director and I interviewed her. Up till this point she had been the leading candidate. I asked her why she had handled the meeting with Dr Kildare as she had.

She would have got the job

Had she responded that she was very sorry for the way she had behaved, she was just nervous and it had not gone as she had planned, she probably would have got the job. However, that was not what she said.

'You can't negotiate when you only have 25 minutes with someone.' She told us authoritatively,

This told us all we needed to know about her values. She didn't get the job.

Another example

More recently I was interviewing candidates for a client and we asked one of them why they had lied to a client. 'Well, they'll never know.' She said with a shrug. The candidate who got the job, when asked about her behaviour in a rather difficult situation had quite a different response: 'One you've promised something to someone, that's it. You must keep your promise.'

To find out more about behaviours and dealing with difficult ones, book a place on my workshop on Dealing With Difficult Behaviours and improving Performance

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