One of the ways I encourage women to find their values is to build a Career Compass. The idea behind a career compass is that you gain a clearer idea of your values, goals and development needs so that you can consciously build your career. Based on the ‘character diamond’ model developed by the screenwriter, David Freeman, to give characters more depth and interest; a character diamond loosely means the combination of three, four or five traits that govern a character’s personality. This transfers well to our careers by helping us to identify how we can communicate with more clarity and definition. It is one of the many ways that you will stand out from the crowd. Thinking of your career like a journey, you can see where you have come from. A compass will help you define how you will continue the journey and navigate using your own values and priorities as a guide. The four compass points resonate with a specific area of your life.
North Star
Look at how you are often described by others. The qualities that others see in you reflect the values that you hold, even if you are not entirely conscious of them. You can also look at what has been driving your career to date. When you look back at your career map, what were the reasons that you changed roles? What was it you wanted to achieve? What did you see as your skills and talents that would be a good fit for each of the roles you tried?
South Star
What are some of your actions, priorities, and ways of working that, on first impression, would perhaps be incompatible with your North Star? Think of all the ways you have been able to work in difficult, pressurised, or challenging environments. What was your strength to keep you going? What did you focus on to help you through it? What was it that really motivated you and gave you a sense of achievement?
East Point
What has been the guiding principle that has always guided your behaviour? When you think of times when you have felt pushed into a corner, what was the one thing that you held on to as your most important value? This is something that comes up when we are asked to work in an opposite way, and we feel a strong sense of resistance.
West Point
This is the area that you may have viewed as a weakness. It might trigger a stress response when you are under pressure (which is usually triggering a fear response). Your vulnerability can also be your superpower, so look at it as something that has helped to fine-tune the rest of your compass points rather than something that you should be ashamed of.
Once you have defined your four points, you can then use your words and descriptions to craft a personal statement, create an elevator pitch or update your LinkedIn profile. So, if you want more clarity on your values, I highly recommend building out your career compass
I’ll be sharing the EDGE model and more insights into the unique challenges that female leaders face in the coming weeks. The Female Edge will be out in September 2021. If you would like access to exclusive pre-launch content and be notified of the Female Edge Webinar register your interest here.