As business owners, effective time management and prioritisation are crucial for achieving our goals. While we’re typically steered towards time-saving tactics and technology to streamline operational inefficiencies, there’s growing exploration of the power of the subconscious mind, specifically, its influence on decision-making.
For deeper insights into this psychological domain, we turn to the expertise of Dr. Marli Watt, a Leadership Mindset coach driven by a passion for unravelling the mysteries of the human mind and applying neuroscientific principles to her coaching practice.
Dr. Watt emphasises the significance of self-awareness regarding our values—both core values developed unconsciously over a lifetime and contextual values specific to areas like health, family, work, spirituality, and relationships. Understanding these values is crucial because they wield a substantial impact on our behaviours, actions, and instinctive motivations, shaping how we allocate our time both professionally and personally.
Consider the most significant task on your to-do list. If accomplishing this task aligns with your deeply held values, you’ll naturally allocate the necessary resources to make it happen. However, when business goals, sub-tasks, clients, or potential hires don’t align with our values, and we’re not consciously aware of it, a sense of dissatisfaction, conflict, and diminished morale can permeate our endeavours.
They influence how we process and interpret information in both our professional and personal lives. This filtering process is unique to each individual, shaped by various factors from early childhood, contributing to diverse perspectives even within a single team. That’s why, for instance, you might have just wrapped up a team meeting and every individual who attended that meeting will recall, interpret, or get excited about what was discussed, differently!
Our values operate within an intuitive hierarchy, each holding a varying level of importance. For your business, if making money is high in your values hierarchy (say because it ultimately means you can send your kids to private school), then you’re likely to unconsciously say ‘yes’ to the lucrative client walking through your door, even if they lack respect.
Conflicts can arise when these values clash, such as the common dilemma between valuing “money” and “freedom.” Dr. Watt assists clients in resolving such conflicts by delving deep into the motivations behind each value, making the unconscious conscious and enabling clients to reevaluate their priorities.
Importantly, values are not static; they evolve as individuals and their environments change. What was once valued in a professional role may shift with the transition to business ownership.
With a genuine set of business values:
And because you’ll have clarity on what’s important to you, you’ll have a clear response to common considerations, such as:
So, what’s the process of unearthing genuine business values?
Step #1 – Think about your business, and ask yourself what’s important to you? Tip: think in statements, not single words.
For example, for you it might be important to:
Step #2 – Try and identify the motivation behind each statement:
Our subconscious drives us to either move away from or move towards something, like pain avoidance or pleasure seeking.
For example, you value ‘make enough money.’ Maybe your family didn’t have much money when you were growing up, so you’re now motivated to avoid the pain of poverty. Or perhaps making money means you can finally donate to a charity that you deeply care about.
Step #3 – List your values in order of importance.
Whatever you value most will always take priority over what comes after.
Step #4 – Focus on your top 4 values and elaborate on what each represents.
Because individuals interpret information differently – one person’s perspective on the definition of ‘trust’ or ‘quality’ may differ from another. So, describe them as vividly as possible to paint a clear picture of their significance.
Taking ‘trust’ as an example:
Gaining awareness of our biases and internal train of thought, understanding the reasons behind our feelings, thoughts, and actions, is a powerful piece of knowledge that you should explore. This understanding will not only help you prioritise your time more effectively but also contribute to building a better, more harmonious business.
